The German Design Council's German Design Award is one of the most important awards in the international design industry. This year, awards went to projects from 55 nations in 68 categories. In addition to "Winner" and "Special Mention", the highest honour "Gold" was awarded a total of 65 times across all disciplines.
We present some of this year's favourites:
Getting out of the city and into nature
We are delighted with the "Habiton" show car by Bürstner. For its prototype, the company has transformed an ordinary Renault Kangoo into an adventure vehicle. A roof tent is cleverly integrated into the silhouette of the car so that you can easily drive into any multi-storey car park with this camper van and not stand out in normal city traffic. The vehicle only transforms when required - at the touch of a button. The roof tent then extends, inflates automatically and we find a spacious sleeping area on the roof of our car. Bürstner is currently developing the model further, with a market launch planned for 2025.
Photo credit: Bürstner / Uros Podlogar
For more bright spots
As spring approaches, we are already redecorating our balconies, patios and gardens. Firmly on our wish list are the dreamy cherry bubbls fairy lights by IP44.DE.
cherry bubbls has little in common with an ordinary string of lights: it can be flexibly attached to balcony railings or trees, it is dimmable and its elegant round smoked glass gives it a premium look.
The clean, simple design makes cherry bubbls one of our favourites. Best of all, there is no need for an electrical outlet on the tree - cherry bubbls can be powered by a power bank or solar panel.
Grand design for micro-mobility
A "Gold" project from the field of bikes and e-bikes was also one of our favourites this year: The GDA jury wrote of the CS cargo bike by Ca Go that it "impressively embodies the transition to micromobility". "At a time when space in cities is scarce and conventional vehicles take up a lot of space, this mini cargo bike offers an elegant solution with an extremely small footprint." We like the smart solution that allows loads to be distributed across three different loading areas. This makes CS surprisingly compact and manoeuvrable. It's the design that also makes CS really cool.
All winners can be found in the Online Gallery.