May 2009 • Features
Next Generation Runners-Up
This year’s competition asked designers to fix our energy addiction, and they responded with an impressive range of ideas that take on one of the most pressing issues of our time.
By Susan S. Szenasy
With all the talk about our need to convert to clean energy sources and invent new delivery systems, we set out to bring designers into the public dialogue. We asked those vying for this year’s Next Generation prize to “fix our energy addiction”—at all scales and specialties in which designers and their consultants work. The 197 en-tries from all over the world show a generation with a sophisticated understanding of the issues of the day, an ease with technology, and an ethical drive toward social and environmental sustainability. They grasp the need to rethink the outdated systems that continue to shape everything from development patterns to objects—each with its own energy addiction. The winning team and the runners-up show what great design has always strived for. Their ideas are expressed beautifully, clearly, with a sense of poetry and appropriateness for the purpose. Each proposal confirms the considerable power of design thinking. All this gives us confidence that these concepts will capture the public’s imagination and their creators will make significant contributions to the world-shaping discourse of our times.
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