Brit Insurance Design Awards Winner 2010, Buildings, Projects, News, Design, Image

Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010

International Architecture Awards – Folding Plug design wins

17 Mar 2010

British student’s elegant reinterpretation of the UK plug wins coveted international design award

Brit Insurance Design Awards Winner 2010

Brit Insurance Award 2010 Winner : Folding Plug

London 16 March 2010: British student, Min-Kyu Choi from London, has won the Brit Insurance Design of the Year 2010, for his elegant reinterpretation of the humble plug, beating over 90 international nominees in the process. Jury Chair, Antony Gormley, presented him with the award at a gala dinner held at the Design Museum.

The Folding Plug was chosen from the seven category winners as the most compelling and progressive design of the last 12 months. The jury panel consisted of artist Antony Gormley, designer Tom Dixon, Editor of Icon magazine Justin McGuirk, designer Morag Myerscough, Style Director of Grazia magazine Paula Reed, editor of Wired magazine David Rowan and writer and broadcaster Janet Street-Porter.

Antony Gormley comments ‘Thought-through, responsive and modest, the folding plug shows how intelligent, elegant and inventive design can make a difference to everyone’s life.’Min-Kyu Choi’s inspiration came from having to carry around the world’s largest plug (UK pin plug) with the MacBook Air, the world’s thinnest laptop. In creating a plug which could fold flat for easy transportation, Choi received much praise on showcasing the plug at the Royal College of Art’s graduate show in 2009, with a brilliant and seemingly obvious improvement to a product that had changed little since its inception in 1946.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum comments ‘It’s great to see such a practical but elegant demonstration of what design can do to make everyday life so much better. Min-Kyu Choi is a designer just setting out on his career and he clearly has a great future ahead of him.’

The folding plug and all of this year’s shortlisted designs are on show at the Design Museum, due to the overwhelming demand the exhibition has been extended and will now run through to 31 October.
5 Mar 2010

Brit Insurance Architecture Award 2010 : Monterrey Housing

Monterrey housing, Mexico
Design: elemental s.a., Chile

pictures from BIDA
Architect Alejandro Aravena of ELEMENTAL

Overall winner (ie incl other categories like fashion) to be announced at the Design Museum on 16 March

Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 Shortlist

Architecture

Brandhorst Museum, Munich, Germany
Sauerbruch Hutton

picture from architects
Brandhorst Museum Building

British Embassy, Warsaw, Poland
Tony Fretton Architects

image © Hayes Davidson
British Embassy Warsaw

High Line Park, New York, USA
Diller Scofidio + Renfro & James Corner Field Operations

Hutong Bubble 32, Beijing, China
MAD architects

photo : Shu He
Hutong Bubble 32

MAXXI, National Museum of the XXI Century Arts, Rome, Italy
Zaha Hadid Architects

photo : Roland Halbe
MAXXI Rome

Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre Project, Melbourne, Australia
Ashton Raggatt McDougall

picture from architects

Monterrey housing, Mexico
elemental s.a., Chile

pictures from BIDA

Neues Museum, Berlin, Germany
David Chipperfield Architects and Julian Harrap Architects

picture : David Chipperfield Architects
Neues Museum

Ningbo Historic Museum, Ningbo, China
amateur architecture studio

Porchdog House Prototype, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA
Marlon Blackwell Architects

picture from architects

Raven Row, London, UK
6A architects

Tea, Tenerife espacio de las Artes, Canary Islands, Spain
Herzog & de Meuron

Youl Hwa Dang Book Hall, Paju Book City, South Korea
Architecture Research Unit (ARU)
London Metropolitan University with Network in Architecture (NiA), Seoul

More Brit Insurance Design Awards information online soon

Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010 News

Antony Gormley to chair the Brit Insurance Design Awards in 2010 Gormley to chair jury for Brit Insurance Design Awards across seven diverse categories

London, 7 January 2010: Acclaimed British sculptor, Antony Gormley, has been announced as Chair of Judges for the Brit Insurance Design Awards 2010, which celebrate the most forward-thinking designs of the past 12 months.

Industry experts have nominated important international designs across seven categories, making this one of the most comprehensive design awards in the world. The diverse range of disciplines are; Transport, Fashion, Product, Graphics, Furniture, Interactive and Architecture.

Antony Gormley, Chair of Judges, comments, “‘The Brit Insurance Design Awards produce such an exciting array of entries every year, I am truly looking forward to deliberating the shortlist with my fellow jurors and to seeing creative solutions for evolving human needs across a broad range of categories.”

photo : Shu He

Antony Gormley is the Turner prize winning British sculptor whose most celebrated works include Angel of the North in Gateshead, One & Other in London and Another Place, sited on Crosby Beach in Liverpool. His works concentrate on the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of body as a place of memory and transformation.

Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum said, “It’s great to have such a distinguished artist chairing the jury this year. Design in every sense is an essential part of the cultural agenda now, and we look forward to Antony’s very distinctive take on the subject”.

Brit Insurance Chief Executive Dane Douetil added, “We are delighted that Antony Gormley is Chair of Judges in 2010, his public profile will help to promote the important role good design can play in our everyday lives. We will be following the judging process with great interest.”

The Brit Insurance Design Awards exhibition of all shortlisted entries takes place from 17 Feb – 6 Jun 2010. The winner will be announced at the Brit Insurance Design Awards dinner on 16 Mar 2010.

Brit Insurance Design Awards in 2010 – Chair / Venue / Sponsor

Anthony Gormley
Over the last 25 years Antony Gormley has revitalised the human image in sculpture through a radical investigation of the body as a place of memory and transformation, using his own body as subject, tool and material. He has created some of the most ambitious and iconic works of contemporary British sculpture, including Field, Angel of the North at Gateshead, Quantum Cloud on the Thames in London, and Another Place, now permanently sited on Crosby Beach near Liverpool.

Design Museum
The Design Museum is the world’s leading museum devoted to contemporary design in every form from furniture to graphics, and architecture to industrial design.

Brit Insurance
Brit Insurance is an international general insurance and reinsurance group specialising in commercial insurance.

Brit Insurance Design Awards Winners – main page with images