press release: the Henry van de Velde Awards 17: the winners! (under embargo until 30/01 at 6 pm)

The Henry van de Velde Awards are distributed since 1994 by the Flemish authorities to honor good design and to put spotlight on. After all, the Henry van de Velde Awards aspire to be a sample of the broad spectrum that design cover today.

2 designers, 1 design company and 7 design products, services and projects are receiving a Henry van de Velde Award 2017 on 30 January. The ceremony will be held in BOZAR. That night, the free exhibition opens in the Foyers at BOZAR. An overview of the Awards follows:

(click "Lees meer" to see the names of the winners)

The Henry van de Velde Awards: the winners  

(under embargo until 30/01 at 6 PM)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD          

The Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement Award honours a designer or design studio that is active for at least 35 years and that has had a considerable impact with his design activities on various levels: economical, socially and/or (inter)national. The Henry van de Velde Lifetime Achievement Award goes to Bart Lens.

The jury: Through his architecture, Bart Lens hopes to have an impact on our living environment. Besides buildings, he designs the kinds of objects with which we surround ourselves.

Bart Lens transforms things which already exist. As a part of the creative process, he observes how people experience their environment and how they occupy space. He is drawn ever closer to the materials, with the traditional ways of working them becoming ever more important. With this emphasis, Bart Lens brings sensitivity and atmosphere to a substantial part of the overall living environment.

The jury was appreciative of this vision and logical approach and concluded that he had developed a particularly well balanced body of work. That is not all, however. In his assignment for Bokrijk he became an ambassador for traditional crafts heritage through the Bokrijk brandmerkt project. In this project he unites the present, past and future of craftsmanship in a single narrative, by bringing together the tradespeople and designers of today and tomorrow. For the jury, this was the deciding factor.

 

COMPANY AWARD          

The Henry van de Velde Company Award is dedicated to companies, organisations and governments that use design(ers) strategically for their enterprise or institution. The award rewards good clientship in relation to design. Important criteria are professionalism in working with design(ers), strategy, sustainability and innovation. The Henry van de Velde Company Award goes to Verilin. 

The jury: Verilin produces luxury collections of table, bed and home linen. 
To create these pure, authentic products, the family business from Kortrijk combines 60 years of craftsmanship with a strong urge for innovation. Verilin is also a 100% local, Belgian story. 
The third generation, Ilse and Anne-Sophie Dedeken, have gone on to specialise in made-to-order products, and they receive regular orders from Michelin-starred chefs, artists and designers. These cooperation partnerships often generate more new ideas for innovation. 
The jury was won over by Verilin’s significant investments in ground breaking, innovative research. The new looms have opened up new possibilities, giving them a unique position in the market.

 

YOUNG TALENT AWARD    

The award is a stimulation for a young talent or a young design office. Young is defined as being active for a maximum of 10 years within the design sector. During judging, the focus is on the designer or the design office. The quality of the complete portfolio is considered. The Henry van de Velde Young Talent Award goes to Sep Verboom.

The jury: Industrial designer Sep Verboom (1990) is a child of his generation: idealistic, but grounded, not just local, but also global, collectivist rather than individualist, and communication-savvy. The (distant) future is what occupies him most. And the jury was very impressed with this. Sustainability, the broadest sense of the word, is the common thread in his approach, design objects and stance as a sustainable entrepreneur. Sep Verboom wants to show people sustainable alternatives to traditional industrial production and to unite people and get them working together to find openings in the system. At present he works for industry and NGOs alike. 
The jury sees Sep Verboom as a textbook example of what today’s designers should be: not just producers and innovators, but people who inspire and connect, and, of course, people who make the world a better place.

 

ECODESIGN AWARD BY OVAM                                          

Post-Couture Antwerp

The Post-Couture Collective, designed by Martijn Van Strien, offers an alternative to the current overproducing fashion system by developing a new method for producing sustainable, affordable and personalised clothing. The Post-Couture Antwerp models were developed by 5 Antwerp fashion designers.

 

PUBLIC AWARD

The wider public did indicate online their favourite product or service. The one with the most votes wins the Henry van de Velde Public Award. Theomatik wins the Henry van de Velde Public Award 2017. 

Theomatik is a table tool to allow people with only one functional arm to eat independently, not only at home but also when visiting others. The idea came from Theo Willen, and Frédéric Boonen turned it for Jessa Ziekenhuis into a convenient design.

        

COMMUNICATION AWARD          

Communication regarding the reopening of the Plantin-Moretus Museum

Kastaar conceived an original plan for promoting the reopening of the Plantin-Moretus Museum: it ventured out onto the streets of Antwerp with two mobile printing presses and designed its own museum shop collection based on 16th-century illustrations from the archive.

 

DESIGN-LED CRAFTS AWARD                          

Tableskin

Tableskin is a tactile tablecloth and napkins. The design is a linen translation of a hairy animal hide. Tableskin is 100% Belgian, designed by Lore Langendries and made by Verilin.

 

EFFICIENCY AWARD                                                               

Dubio

Dubio is a brick with shadow lines that create an illusion of two or three thin stacked bricks. This is an aesthetic and cost-cutting idea that benefits both bricklayers and architects. Roel Vandebeek designed this brick for Nelissen Steenfabrieken.

 

EVERYDAY LIFE AWARD                                                                                          

Stubs

With Stubs, Frank Ternier has developed four colourful and stackable stools for Labt that together form a whole. The stools owe their pure look to the creased legs, an inconspicuous detail that you don’t immediately notice.

 

HEALTHCARE AWARD                                                           

Colli-Pee

Colli-Pee is a smart device for a guaranteed and standardised collection of first-void urine, i.e. the first 20 ml of the urine flow. This highly concentrated urine is used for the improved detection of infectious diseases and cancer. Voxdale designed Colli-Pee for Novosanis.

 

What are the Henry van de Velde Awards?

The Henry van de Velde Awards are the biggest design awards in Belgium. They were first presented in 1994 by Design Flanders, which merged with Flanders DC in 2016. These prestigious design awards are presented every year in BOZAR at huge public interest.

The Henry van de Velde Awards showcase and applaud Flemish designers, enterprises, products, projects and services which, as a result of their solution of a given problem through design, have a positive impact on the economy and society. They are widely supported thanks to the shared vision of a professional jury with considerable expertise in the sector. As such, they are a true platform for Flemish design with the official award ceremony, exhibition and accompanying publication.

The Henry van de Velde Awards have changed over the years along with the evolutions in the design field. Precisely because design is so broad, there are awards in ten different categories.

With their recent products, services or projects, designers, organisations, clients and design companies can register for six of these categories (Design Solution Awards): Communication, Design-led Crafts, Ecodesign by OVAM, Efficiency, Everyday Life & Healthcare. The 18 nominated entries are selected based on the “good design” criteria and (for the first time) an international jury finally appointed the six winners.

The jury nominates the candidates for the Henry van de Velde Special Awards and indicates the winners from the names on this list for: Lifetime Achievement, Young Talent and Company.

The public’s favourite product receives the Henry van de Velde Award via an online vote. The 18 Design Solution PUBLIC nominees are eligible for this award.

 

The exhibition

Discover the Henry van de Velde Awards winners and nominees from 31 January until 15 April 2018 inthe free exhibition in the foyers at BOZAR.
 

31/01 - 15/04/2018

Foyers BOZAR
Ravensteinstraat 23
1000 Brussels, Belgium

Tuesday — Sunday: 10 AM — 6 PM
Thursday: 10 AM — 9 PM

The catalogue Henry van de Velde Awards 17 is for sale in the book shop for 14 euros. 

 

Who were nominated for Henry van de Velde Award 17?

An overview.

 

The Henry van de Velde Awards is team work

The Henry van de Velde Awards are organised by Flanders DC. They are produced in cooperation with the Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen, the OVAM and BOZAR.

 

Niet voor publicatie:

Heb je graag extra beeldmateriaal, vraag je je af van welke regio één van de winnaars of genomineerden is, wil je een interview? Eén adres: Bie Luyssaert, 0497 59 33 17 of mail Bie.