Audi Innovation Award submissions open for innovators

Some IFIA members in Middle East countries can take part in the competition.

The Audi Innovation Award is a competition for design research and the highlighting of innovative ideas. The competition, led by Audi Middle East, aims to empower regional designers while archiving intellectual progress in the region.

When designing objects that enhance our lifestyles, designers globally are being summoned to reduce, reuse, or recycle. Designing circularly means pushing ahead of the competition, by creating objects that combine all three to enhance our quality of life now, and in the future. From the brand that is consistently raising global benchmarks, the Audi Innovation Award invites designers living across the Middle East to submit design objects that are designed with circularity in mind, to lead the world into a sustainable industrial revolution.

A circular economy is a thoughtful and restorative process by which the materials and resources that make up a design are in use for as long as possible, whereby we extract the maximum value from them whilst in use, and recover and regenerate materials at the end of each product life, closing the circle. Submissions can be revisions of existing products in the market with improvements made to one or all aspects of its lifecycle, or an entirely new product considering circularity. No innovation in the design process is too small to make a large impact.

Judges For 2020

Led by Hani Asfour

Hani Asfour is the dean of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI). An MIT and Harvard-trained architect with over 22 years of experience, he was also the Founding President of the Beirut Creative Cluster and Founding Partner of Polypod, an award-winning multidisciplinary design studio in Beirut, Lebanon. He was recently named one of the 45 most influential architects in MENA by Middle East Architect Magazine. Hani plays a key role in leading the judging panel discussions during the voting process and steering the design debate with his valuable experience and input.

Carsten Bender

With over 18 years’ experience with Audi AG, Carsten joins Audi Middle East as the Managing Director in the Middle East region. His career with the Four Rings has included achievements in the field as Sales Manager for Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and as the Sales Director for both Eastern and Western European regions. He returns to the Middle East, where he held the position of Audi Middle East Sales Director from 2009-2011, to lead the Audi brand in the region where he will directly head the Audi business across 11 Middle East countries.

Dr. Carlos Montana

Dr. Carlos Montana is an award-winning designer and educator. He is currently a Founding Associate Professor of the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation DIDI, the first interdisciplinary design university in Dubai, established in collaboration with MIT and Parsons. As a professional designer, he has worked with numerous companies designing furniture, lighting, ceramic products, electric appliances, exhibitions, jewelry, and graphics, among others.

Mark Stobbs

Mark Stobbs is the Director of Programming and Outreach at the Dubai Design District. He has been instrumental in the development of d3 since its inception has been with the project almost since its launch. In his role, Mark has developed and overseen international projects which have seen designers from the region promoted on global design stages and are now principally directing industry-focused programming in the district. Prior to this, Mark led the Marketing and PR efforts for the inaugural Downtown Design in 2013, and before that held the title of Publisher at leading Arab culture magazine Brownbook. He spent 7 years at Wallpaper* magazine in London leading the creative solutions team on various international brand projects prior to coming to Dubai.

Application Criteria

Applicants of the Audi Innovation Award must satisfy the following criteria:

Applicants may be of any nationality but must reside in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE
Applicants may submit only one proposal
Applicants must be aged 18 or above
Applicants may submit as a group or company by selecting one point of contact. Please note only one person will be invited to travel to Dubai to represent the work if the group resides outside of the UAE.
Previous winners of the Award can not participate in two consecutive years.

Submit to the Audi Innovation Award by September 2020

Source:

https://audiinnovationaward.com/