Winners announced in the Corus/Design Wales Eco Design Awards

19 May 2008

Run jointly by Corus and Design Wales, the competition invited entries from second year product design students from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (UWIC), Glamorgan University and the Swansea Metropolitan University.

The competition brief called for a consumer heating or cooling appliance that uses pre-finished steel and incorporated environmentally sound principles into its development. Students had to consider the product’s life cycle and its resulting impact on the environment, as well as energy consumption, alternative energy sources and raw materials.

At the Cardiff finals, Chris Kinder won the Most Innovative Design Award for his two-and-a-half metre high solar-powered patio heater. In the Most Marketable Design category, first place went to Nick Haimes’ hand-warming device, the Handy Heat.

Describing his Handy Heat, Haimes said that the idea for designing a product to warm up people’s hands had come to him while surfing in Wales over the winter. He decided to use “a kinetic shake charger after studying a torch that had already utilised the technology,” he said. Shaking the carrot-shaped metal Handy Heat while pressing a button on the top would “release heat there and then,” he said, “or the unit can be charged before use by shaking without holding the button—this would then release heat when the button is pressed.”

Winner Most Marketable Design - Handy Heat

On the concept for his solar-powered patio heater, Kinder comments: “I started to think about current heaters that could be improved upon. This led me to remember gas patio heaters and how garden centres are stopping selling them due to their negative effects on the environment. I looked into patio heaters and noticed that the base was within its own heat footprint, causing it to lower the efficiency. This was the start of my original design as I moved the base of the unit out of the heat footprint, which gave me my shape.”

Solar panels on the back of the heater’s curved metal body generate electricity during the day. On cool evenings, the device can be switched on and ceramic plates radiate heat from the underside of the overhanging ‘arm’.

Winner Most Innovative Design - Solar Powered Patio Heater

Philip Harfield, Design Wales’ Ecodesign Advisor and awards panel member, believes both students and industry benefit from the competition: “One of the most valuable tools in a design graduates box is having industry relevant experience, and the winners of the competition are able to validate their portfolios through this recognition. From the industry perspective, working directly with the next generation of creative talent has to bring fresh insight into products, and more importantly, future consumers.”

“It was a tight competition and the overall standard was high,” said Corus Colors’ Consumer Products Marketing Project Manager Mark Owens. “Eco-design is becoming increasingly important,” he added, “and Corus is committed to supporting excellence in design and working with designers to meet, exceed and pre-empt eco-design legislation.”