At the Royal College of Art
The awards scheme encourages graduating Royal College of Art students to address the powerful social challenges that surround them, to translate these trends into design-rich briefs, and to validate their ideas with end users.
The Awards grew out of the DesignAge Competition, which ran from 1992 to 1998, addressing the needs and aspirations of older people. In 2004 it attracted nearly 100 students from all the College's design disciplines.
Students are given the brief to design an architecture, design or communication project that addresses a social issue or engages with a particular social group in order to improve: Independence, Mobility, Health or Working Life.
Shortlisted entrants compete for prize money and each project receives a small research bursary. Students also gain access to the Centre's knowledge network of experts and literature.
Preparation for the awards runs the length of the academic year starting with briefings and introductions to the Centre's work in the autumn term. Workshops in how to maximise benefit from user contact, and actual contact with user groups run throughout the spring term. The students are left to 'make and build' in the summer term with judging and the award ceremony taking place during the RCA Summer Show.
Also, the results of other parts of the Centre's work are fed back into the Awards programme ensuring that the message and practice of inclusive design is carried forward by the next generation of designers.
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
designage competition 1999
designage competition 1998