Avant-Garde Eco Design | Bundespreis Ecodesign Winners 2019

Best Eco Designs in the category “Young Talent”: Award Winners 2019

Baker’s Butchery, by Lukas Keller, offers a long-term vision of resource-efficient protein production. The concept envisages the integration of mealworm farms into bakeries, which would allow the waste heat and nutrient overproduction that goes hand-in-hand with this sector to be put to use for mealworm cultivation. The ‘Bakerchips’ developed in the course of the project are made from old bread, mealworm flour and beetroot, and serve as a tangible means of communicating the concept. The overarching objective is to encourage the critical scrutiny of our food culture and food production, and to reduce prejudices.

SOAPBOTTLE, by Jonna Breitenhuber, is a soap-based packaging for liquid hygiene products. While contents are used up from within, the container slowly dissolves from the outside. The leftovers serve as hand soap or can be turned into detergent through the addition of bicarbonate of soda and baking soda. The soap is made from natural raw materials and is biodegradable, meaning that SOAPBOTTLE creates no waste whatsoever.

urban:eden, by Paulina Grebenstein, combines a variety of approaches for managing extreme weather events in urban areas. The concept encompasses various methods, including rainwater management through the use of back-up troughs, alongside the construction of urban wetlands, permeable pavements and floodwater cycle paths. This serves to take the pressure off wastewater systems and protects urban water bodies from flooding. In addition, filter systems process rainwater, cooling the city through evaporation, while air treatment and solar reflection improve climate resilience and help safeguard quality of life in the city.

Best Eco Designs in the category Product: Award Winners 2019

The Wikkelhouse Concept, by Wikkelhouse B.V., is based around three different types of modules that can be individually configured into various types of buildings. The key building material is corrugated cardboard, which is wrapped and glued around a mold in 24 layers. The resulting sandwich structure ensures good insulation and structural rigidity, while a water-repellent, vapour-permeable film protects against moisture. The entire lifecycle of the Wikkelhouse is designed with sustainability in mind, from initial production to the reusability of the modules and the recyclability of the removable lightweight components.

WormUp_Home, made up by Erich Fässler and Luiz Schumacher, is designed for urban apartments. The elegant, multi-layer worm composter is produced in Germany in a traditional clay manufactory. The vessel provides ideal living conditions for the worms, which recycle organic waste into a high-quality plant fertiliser – efficiently, odourlessly and cleanly. Moreover, this takes place at the point of waste creation, namely at home, in the office or at school.

Bananatex, by QWSTION, is a technical textile made from the fibres of the Abacá banana plant. The plant is grown in the Philippines using sustainable forestry practices and is so robust that it does away with the need for pesticides, fertilisers or artificial irrigation. The raw fibres are processed into a functional fabric, coated with natural beeswax for water-repellency and stitched into bags with a restrained design.

VELLO Bike+, designed by Valentin Vodev, is a lightweight electric folding bike for urban use. A straightforward folding mechanism makes it easy to combine journeys with local public transport, thus facilitating environmentally friendly multimodal mobility. Thanks to intelligent energy recovery by the electric drive, the bike has a long range, despite its small size. Throughout, the design language is clear and reduced. VELLO bikes are manufactured locally in Vienna in compliance with European environmental standards.

Weber-Therm Circle, by Saint-Gobain Weber GmbH is a full-mineral thermal insulation systems that offers numerous advantages, including fire, heat and sound insulation characteristics, a vapour-permeable structure, algae protection without biocides, and versatility in the surface design. In conventional systems, the components are permanently bonded, making recycling practically impossible. The unique aspect of the solution from Saint-Gobain Weber is the ability to sort and return all components to the raw material cycle following deconstruction or demolition.

Eve Thermo, by Eve Systems GmbH, is an intelligent radiator thermostat that synchronises the room temperature to your individual daily routine. If nobody is at home, the temperature is lowered automatically. The system can be controlled via Siri, Eve App, Apple Home or manually via the integrated and clearly designed touch screen. Eve Thermo can connect wirelessly to iPhones or iPads – no starter pack, bridge or fixed-term contract required. This helps to reduce power consumption and safeguards security and privacy.

Best Eco Designs in the category Service: Award Winners 2019

Cologne-based Donk-EE, by Green Moves Rheinland GmbH & Co. KG, is a straightforward and app-based sharing system for electric cargo bikes. Whether you’re doing your big weekly shop, moving house or going on a family trip, the practical transporter can carry up to 100-kg loads with a range of 75 km, and is quiet and emission-free throughout. 60 high-quality cargo bikes can be picked up from 50 locations around the clock, making Donk-EE Europe’s largest intra-urban sharing system for e-cargo bikes.

Best Eco Designs in the category Concept: Award Winners 2019

SeeElefant, by One Earth – One Ocean e.V. The multi-purpose vessel SeeElefant is one part of the “marine litter clean-up” concept from environmental organisation One Earth – One Ocean. It takes plastic waste that has been gathered from the oceans by collecting vessels, and then treats, sorts and processes this with its on-board system technology. High-quality plastics such as PET are pressed into unmixed bales and stored in containers on the ship before being returned to the material cycle. In addition, the organisation’s medium-term plans envisage the extraction of oil from plastic waste.

WOODSCRAPER, designed by Jörg Finkbeiner, Klaus Günter, Jeroen Meissners, is a resource-positive multi-storey building based on the principle of the circular economy. The modular elements consist primarily of renewable raw materials such as wood and straw. This pioneering project consolidates the currently attainable solutions for ecological and circular building in the form of two timber high-rise buildings in Germany. The project demonstrates that architecture and design can provide answers to resource scarcity, climate change and population growth issues in the Northern European region.