Water filtration kits and concepts for a new sport among student design award winners

A sustainable water filtration kit and a workshop to help primary schoolchildren invent a new sport are among the winners in this year’s Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards.

The SDAs are in their 91^st year and this edition has attracted entries from students in 30 countries, including Australia, Brazil, Finland and Hong Kong.

Students are challenged to create solutions for social, environmental and economic issues across a series of categories. This year 20 winning projects were named and prizes of more than £12,000 in cash support and a range of paid internships were handed out.

The winners include:

SPART: a workshop for primary school students to invent a new sport using innovative thinking. By Ellie Lanham and Trystan Thompson, BA Graphic Design at University of the West of England.

Joint winners of the Royal Bank of Scotland Award for Best Design Project in the Creative Conditions category – to design and develop a vision and business case for an environment or situation that prompts and fosters creative thinking.

Sustainable Filtration Kit: a water purification solution utilising local resources. By Christopher Rothera, MEng Product Design and Manufacture at University of Nottingham. The kit is a 5 litre, robust container with a two-lid system that produces high quality carbon from scrap wood which is then used to filter contaminated water.

Joint winner of the Unilever Award in the Water for All category – to lighten the burden of water collection for women in the developing world.

Guardians of Water: a service design solution using water sensors to provide live data on available water sources to enhance local knowledge around water management. By Karina Jensen and Selim Ozadar, Media Lab Aalto University Helsinki.

Joint winners of Unilever Award in the Water for All category.

Squiggle: a gender neutral playhouse made from chalkboard that allows children to bring their imagination to life and transform the toy by drawing on it. By Lisa Hornsey, BA Design for Industry at Northumbria University. Squiggle is ecologically produced, designed for a longer product life, and the packaging is made from 100% recycled and biodegradable elements.

Winner of the paid internship at Springetts Brand Consultants in the Fair Play category – to design or re-design a consumer toy and its product packaging to minimise waste and environmental impact.

Walkies – an innovative digital heritage mapping and storytelling project made for children, by children. By Kazz Morohashi, MA Communications Design, Norwich University of the Arts. Walkies explores new ways of engaging with heritage and empowers children to think, articulate and define their own notion of heritage.

Winner of the Patricia Tindale Legacy Award in the Heritage by Design category – to design a way for people and communities to better connect to and celebrate heritage.

You can see all the winners of the 2015 RSA Student Design Awards at sda.thersa.org.