DAE announces winners of Melkweg, René Smeets and Gijs Bakker Awards 2023

Design Academy Eindhoven has announced the winners for its annual awards, which recognise exceptional talent and professionalism among graduating students.

The winners of the Academy awards: Tin, Lotte Wigman, and Ralf Gloudemans, photo by Angeline Swinkels.

The jury was impressed by the quality of all nominated projects and selected the following winners:

Tin (Geo-Design) as the winner of the Gijs Bakker Award 2023
Ralf Gloudemans as the winner of the Melkweg Award 2023
Lotte Wigman as the winner of the René Smeets Award 2023

The René Smeets Award for professionalism, Melkweg Award for exceptional talent at BA level and Gijs Bakker Award for exceptional talent at MA level were announced at the DAE Graduation Show during Dutch Design Week. Each award recipient received a €2000 prize and a trophy designed by DAE alumnus Olga Flór in cooperation with EE Labels.

Tin and Gijs Bakker, photo by Angeline Swinkels

Winner of the Gijs Bakker Award 2023:

Tin, CHOLONIZACIÓN

The Andean territory endured three centuries of Spanish colonisation, which led to the oppression and exploitation of indigenous cultures and civilisations. The legacy of this colonial past is evident in the persistence of racial classifications that marginalise those who are racially identified as being in-between, as being ‘Cholo’. However, through collaborative field research in Bolivia, Perú and Ecuador involving an economist, anthropologist, and architect, Tin proposes the concept of Cholonización. Cholonización is presented as a social and creative process that celebrates cultural mixing and challenges colonial hierarchies. Through a participatory multimedia installation and performances, Cholonización seeks to promote radical creative hybrids that disrupt and reshape dominant cultural norms.

“Tin’s project demonstrates a methodology on how to work on decolonial practices; every layer has been well-designed and can be applied without his presence. He brings a unique interpretation of a social subject, and he points out that subjectivity is design innovation. For the outstanding entirety of the project, the propositional aspect of it, and the immersive experience, we unanimously announced Tin as the winner of the Gijs Bakker Award 2023.”

Jury of the Gijs Bakker Award 2023

Nominees
A total of ten projects were nominated from the five Masters Departments. The other nominees were Miguel Teodoro with Chemical Affinities, Shai Ben-Ami & Charles Weinberg with A Superyacht encounter, Clara Sika Helbo with Uncovering an iceberg, Sara Levarato with +1 Day Streak, Ana Robles Perez with El perro poblador, Ishani Chatterjee with Kranti (revolution) - The spatial theatrics of counter propaganda, Lea Wurthmann with Staring at empty spaces, Giulia Braglia with In a grain of sand I see a town, and Yasmin Knüsel with Looking at Agricultural Mutants.

Lotte Wigman and Daniel Arosemena, photo by Angeline Swinkels.

Winner of the René Smeets Award 2023:

Lotte Wigman, Negotiating Boundaries: Designing for the Symbiocene

Our ideas about nature and our relationship with non-human beings have influenced the way we build things. Unfortunately, many man-made structures have harmed the environment and its inhabitants. Negotiating Boundaries aims to heal these relationships and ecosystems by designing for the symbiocene. It proposes a building style that embraces erosion and succession as design processes, stepping away from rigid borders and embracing sea-level rise and degradation as gradual habitat facilitation. As sea levels rise, we will need to consider marine organisms in our construction decisions as they will be the future inhabitants of our homes. By designing for the symbiocene, we can create multi-species, ecologically friendly habitats that promote a balance between humans and non-humans, and celebrate co-dependence.

“Lotte’s concept of cohabitation captivated our interest. We got struck by the clarity of her proposal and the accuracy of the research, technical and pragmatic, yet social and planetary. We also want to praise Lotte for providing a realistic and refreshing solution. For these qualities, along with the potential she inspires, we named Lotte the winner of the René Smeets Award 2023.”

Jury of the René Smeets Award 2023

Nominees
The eight other nominees for the René Smeets Award were Sophie Bohlmann with Permutation, Lucien Nicou with LLL_01, Sakshi Jain with The Social Classroom, Matteo Proietti with Gain Access: Bottom-Up participation, Yufei Gao with Gaia, how are you today?, Alizée Gavory with To Fail/ To Succeed, Nadine Rauterberg with Foodcare, Daisy Dawson with Inclusive Club Collective Kit, and Charlene Dosso with Burnout, The Game.

Ralf Gloudemans and Evelien Reich, photo by Angeline Swinkels.

Winner of the Melkweg Award 2023

Ralf Gloudemans, Transcending: Mesh to Matter

Transcending: Mesh to Matter explores the intersection of digital technology and physical craft from a maker‘s perspective. The project takes research into references gathered in the physical realm into a fully digital environment. Using virtual reality, 3D mesh models are sculpted and carefully refined manually to achieve a distinctive aesthetic. The resulting vessels bear the markings of artisanally crafted ceramics with digital influences, transcending the boundaries between both virtual and physically tangible realms. Transcending: Mesh to Matter is a thoughtful exploration of digital and traditional art and design. It pays tribute to the importance of handcrafted items of cultural exchange, while offering a glimpse into what is possible when the physical and digital realms collide.

“We admired Ralf’s experimental work and his prominent findings. We appreciated his intuitive process and the accurate design of his project at all levels. For the evolutionary approach to the digital realm, the impressive ceramic skills, and the beautiful sculptural objects delivered, we unanimously named Ralf a unique talent and the winner of the Melkweg Award 2023.”

Jury of the Melkweg Award 2023

Nominees
The eight other nominees for the Melkweg Award were Bela Bezold with The Mandarin In The Room, Thibaud Hénique with Dosed, Lizzy van Gelder with Power off, Thaïs Busnel with Metamorphic Dreams, Kyran Knauf with Crickorama, Martha Nash with MarthaMarthaMarthaCoin, Willem Zwiers with Willem’s Ceramics Atelier, and Sijmen Vellekoop with Prince Polo III, Love of my life.

The jury

The jury for the Gijs Bakker Award 2023 consisted of Adinda van Geystelen (General and Artistic director, Z33, House for Contemprary Art, Design & Architecture), Flavia Dzodan (Tutor at Design Department and head of the research group on algorithmic cultures at Sandberg Instituut), Robert Thiemann (Founder and director, Frame Publishers) and Shay Raviv (Design researcher, social designer, and creative leader Embassy of Inclusive Society).

The jury for the René Smeets Award and Melkweg Award 2023 consisted of Daniel Arosemena (Creative Lead of Vlisco), Lian van Wanrooij (Industrial Designer at Royal Mosa), Tim Vermeulen (Director at Stichting NDSM), Evelien Reich (Editor in Chief at ELLE Decoration, chair at DDA Young Designer committee and scout at Hearstlab) and Arief Hühn (Senior Researcher & Head at Freedomlab Thinkthank and Advisor Digital Strategy at Dasym).