Design Sense award for Rohner Textil Green fabric

Swiss manufacturing company Rohner Textil has won the Design Sense 2000 award, beating off competition from big names in global manufacturing and architecture, including BMW, IBM and Foster and Partners.

The prize of £40 000 was presented at the Design Museum in London last week for Climatex Lifecycle, the company’s bio-degradable and compostable upholstery fabric that is manufactured with a waste-minimising process.

A corporate prize was awarded to the Building Council of the Elders of the German Parliament for the Reichstag Parliament in Berlin, designed by Foster and Partners. The Reichstag is heated by fuel from a renewable source, has natural ventilation, and its transparency reduces the need for artificial illumination.

The Climatex Lifecycle was one of 12 entries from 13 different countries to make the shortlist, which is made up equally of products and buildings. According to Paul Thompson, director of the Design Museum, it is Rohner Textil’s total response to sustainability, “influencing every facet of the company’s business”, that impressed the judging panel. “This company stands out as an absolute beacon of best practice in an industry that has had a pretty bad reputation over hundreds of years,” he says.

Design Sense serves to educate designers and the public about the possibilities of sustainable thinking and to promote sustainable design. The Design Museum is to conduct research next year, which will look at the extent to which designers and architects are aware of the issues of sustainability.

“We feel that sustainability is the most pressing issue facing designers and architects in the 21st century. We want to encourage awareness of that both in colleges and within the design community,” says Thompson.

Other shortlisted entries for the Design Sense award included The Web of Life at London Zoo, with a heating and cooling system with replicates the workings of a termite mound, and BMW’s C1, a scooter made from recyclable materials and fitted with a three-way catalytic convertor to keep fuel consumption low.