Design against war

Design against war now is over!

CALL FOR ENTRIES: The EMERGENCY and SOSDesign recently has been realized on the site Desall.com new idea contest invite you to design Spaces, Products and Services to meet lifestyle and medical needs in regions affected by war.

Design against war is a project by SOSDesign, devised for EMERGENCY and promoted and supported by Desall.com and Cumulus, under the patronage of ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale – Association for the Industrial Design).

EMERGENCY is an independent and neutral non-governmental organisation, founded in Italy in 1994 to provide free, high-quality medical and surgical treatment to victims of war, landmines, and poverty. EMERGENCY promotes a culture of peace, solidarity, and respect for human rights.

SOSDesign is a fundraising and brainstorming programme founded in 2001 by Biba Acquati, Lucio Lazzara and Massimo Bruto Randone, conceived in order to support non-profit organisations such as EMERGENCY. What they are looking for?

• Spaces
• Products
• Services

Competition of ideas for Spaces, Products, Services on the needs and desires of life and care in affected areas, devastated and conditioned by war.

Spaces, Products, and Services which would solve, contain, facilitate, sustain, and emphasise the practical, psychological, relational, or cultural aspects of contexts shaped by conflict – this can be severe and widespread conflict, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq, or more contained, insidious conflicts, like those that can be found in parts of Italy.

Submissions capable of informing a concept (abstract), a solution (practical), or a process (conceptual) that could aid treatment, protection, assistance, preservation, information, analysis, transportation, connection and payment (and so on) in contexts severely affected by war.

We have long sought to define "war", and how we might interpret it in terms of the wants and needs, both implicit and explicit, of those in living in war-torn areas. We have come to the conclusion that it would be more productive to leave the question of definition to the participants – case by case – to be answered through their projects. We hope that this will enable entrants to provide answers which reflect their research and/or areas of expertise. Spaces, Products, and Services - these can be small, medium or large; fixed, mobile or temporary; disassemblable, reusable, or convertible; promoting sustainability and self-sufficiency; physical, digital, or in ‘app’ form; and so on. Submissions can range from practical and functional to imaginative and thought-provoking.

Submission requirements:

Please upload all the images best representing your project – sketches, renderings, file descriptions, CAD files, etc. If necessary, you can also attach a Zip Archive file with additional material.

Participants can present one or more projects, but only the projects published on the www.desall.com web site, via the upload page related to “Design against war” will be accepted.

All texts provided with your uploads (abstract, description, tags, etc.) should be written in English.

Evaluation criteria:

• Social Impact
• Degree of Innovation
• Technical Feasibility
• Functionality
• Outlook

The jury is tasked with announcing the three category winners; a SpaceMouse Award will be presented to the winner of each of the three categories (Spaces, Products and Services). From these three submissions, the jury must also select an overall winner, who will be presented with the Experience Award. The jury will select, where possible, a winner in the Products category, who will be presented with the Prototyping Award. There will be also the honourable mentions. There is no entry fee to participate!

Who can participate? ⇣

Participation is open to designers and creative talents of any nationality aged 18 years or older (at the time of submission).

Tags ⇣

Official website ⇣