Great design isn’t just about looking pretty – it’s about helping to solve the challenges we encounter on a daily basis. For the IKEA Southeast Asia Young Designer Awards (YDA) 2021, the challenge issued to the participants this year centred on the topic of food waste and sustainability.
The competition saw over a hundred submissions, from which the top 15 finalists were selected. The various teams addressed the topic with ideas such as recycled food packaging, gamifying meal planning, and compact compost bins – most aiming to avoid food waste by reducing consumption or recycling it.
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The top three entries stood to win cash prizes, admission to the Reactor Alumni Network for a three-month entrepreneurial development programme, and direct admission to the upcoming season of the Youth Action Challenge organised by the National Youth Council.
But all the finalists deserved merit, says Corrina Schuler, Director of Sustainability at IKEA. “There were a lot of ideas that we loved, and we hope you will continue to explore the ideas,” she said, as she addressed all the teams at the award ceremony held over Zoom.
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There’s another category you can personally vote for: The People’s Choice Award. As the teams’ projects will be on display in a two-week physical exhibition held at One Tampines Hub from 17 to 25 July, you’ll be able to view them in person and cast your vote.
Check out the winning entries below.
U-Life (Winner)
The winning prize went to Darren Lim, Ho Min Kent, and Mitchell Chan from the National University of Singapore for their innovative circular UV light, designed to keep food fresher in the refrigerator by killing off bacteria.
“Our design is centered around modularity and simplicity. The circular node design ensures that our UV light can reach all surrounding food produce. By using recycled PLA, we are not only able to reduce food waste, but also plastic waste as well.”
HaveAlr (First Runner-Up)
Those who do their grocery shopping online will benefit from HaveAlr – short for the colloquialism “have already” – created by Lim Jia Wei, Kong Qi Herng, Varden Toh, a team from National University of Singapore. It’s a grocery tracker which automatically updates your food inventory from the various e-commerce platforms, so you can track which groceries you already have and their expiration dates without having to lift a finger.
“HaveAlr goes a step further by learning your purchase history and consumption habits to develop insights and optimise your next purchase. When you make conscientious decisions and minimise food wastage, you will be rewarded with vouchers from our partners!”
Terreau (Second Runner-Up)
Min, Celeste and Celine from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts came up with Terreau, an educational kit that teaches both children and adults about food waste habits. The kit includes a manual compost bin, palette, terracotta pot, soil, and soil bag, as well as a charcoal filter to reduce odour.
“We came up with Terreau for educational and lifestyle purposes, hoping to raise awareness as well as guide and touch on methods to reduce food waste.”
For more information and the rest of the teams’ projects, visit the website here.