In May, Logitech and the Royal College of Art (RCA) joined together in a multi-year partnership to support master’s students at RCA’s School of Design in their exploration of innovative design to shape the products and experiences of the future.
As part of that partnership, this Fall we kicked off the Grand Challenge titled, Enhancing the human: capability and performance, where students from across the RCA’s School of Design were asked to project today’s design and science trends 180 years into the future to envision humanity in 2200.
In January, four teams were awarded for their design excellence. The four winning projects are below, spanning topics from sound pollution to underwater farming.
Finalists considered possible futures relating to climate change, overpopulation and complex ethical challenges, and found optimistic solutions drawn from human ingenuity and nature. By casting their vision thinking decades into the future, students were unencumbered by the restrictions of today and could invest in true creativity and free thinking.
A total of 79 interdisciplinary teams participated, with more than 400 postgraduate students from programs including Design Products, Fashion, Global Innovation Design, Innovation Design Engineering, Service Design and Textiles. These teams were supported by a wider training program, involving a lecture series hosted by guest speakers and one-to-one mentoring sessions with senior members of Logitech’s design team and the RCA. Our CEO, Bracken Darrell, and Chief Design Officer, Alastair Curtis, were joined by senior staff from Logitech, the RCA and CERN to judge the projects.
The partnership between Logitech and RCA is part of our wider commitment to integrating design thinking across all functions of the company and encouraging innovation in the industry. We were inspired by the next generation of designers and loved learning how the next generation is thinking about how to tackle the biggest issues facing humanity.
WINNERS:
#1 Sound Connection
A project to bring back the meaning of sound in a far future where, to combat sound pollution, making noise would be restricted by law.
The students were:
HeJing Fang (MA Fashion); Ksenia Germanovich (MA Textiles); Li Ning (MA Service Design); Malika Khurana (MA Design Products); Taewoong Yun
#2 Homo Melius
The project investigates the next stage of human evolution where DNA could be updated based on needs for medical, functional or survival purposes.
The students were:
Hye Hyun Song (MA Design Products); Leon Grillet (MA Innovation Design Engineering); Liner Shen (MA Fashion); Livia Papiernik (MA Textiles); Shang Wu (MA Service Design)
#3 Schyphoponics
An underwater farming system for 2200, operated with genetically modified Jellyfish.
The students were:
Bhavana Uppaluri (MA Global Innovation Design); Elyse Blackshaw (MA Textiles); Hongyu Wang (MA Service Design); Sizhe Yan (MA Design Products); Suh Woo Park (MA Fashion)
#4 Body Fluids
What if your DNA was infectious and it infected and merged with every sexual partner? You could experience multiple incarnations of your body in your lifetime.
The students were:
Jinglun Zhou (MA Textiles); Kamila Izykowicz (MA Design Products); Melanie Glöckler (MA Service Design); Peini Yu (MA Fashion); Sandeep Hoonjan (MA Innovation Design Engineering)
