A world of ideas
Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:09:00 BST
University is the very first UK venue for a globally famous display of designs that improve life
One of the INDEX: Award 2011 displays now on show on the plaza outside the University of Huddersfield's Creative Arts Building. This one contains lecturer Dr David Swann's design for an all-new nursing bag.
A GLOBALLY-renowned travelling exhibition featuring ultra-innovative designs that impressed judges in one of the world’s most prestigious competitions has come to the University of Huddersfield.
It is the first university in the world and the first venue in the UK to host the event. And one of the exhibits is a potentially life-saving invention by one of its own lecturers.
Established in the year 2000, INDEX: Design to Improve Life® is a Danish non-profit making organisation with a global reach. Its goal is to inspire, educate and engage people so that they use design skills to develop sustainable solutions to global and local challenges. Every two years the organisation offers the most valuable and prestigious design awards in the world, with prizes of €100,000 each for the winners of its five categories - Body, Home, Work, Play and Community.
A show featuring the 2011 event’s winners and finalists has been touring since November, visiting Singapore and venues such as Bauhaus in Germany and Luxembourg’s Mudam Museum and it is scheduled to visit Hong Kong. From Friday, August 31 the INDEX: Award 2011 exhibition opens at the University of Huddersfield, in a series of dramatic pods erected in the plaza outside the Creative Arts Building, home to the School of Art, Design and Architecture.
The exhibition remains at the University until September 29 and the public are invited, free of charge, to examine the pods, all of which contain boxes displaying a huge and fascinating diversity of innovative solutions to global issues.
One designer whose work is on display is University of Huddersfield lecturer Dr David Swann (pictured helping to erect a display unit). He earned his nomination for INDEX: Award 2011 by creating a nursing bag for the 21st century after discovering the iconic design that has prevailed for around 150 years could endanger patients’ lives.
Dr Swann attended the INDEX: Award 2011 ceremony in Copenhagen and although he was pipped at the post in the “Body” category, as a nominee he was able to hold discussions with organisers that led to the University of Huddersfield being added to the itinerary for the travelling exhibition.
His research for a new nursing bag revealed that one third of a sample of traditional “Gladstone” bags used by community nurses contained the MRSA bug and 55 per cent were never cleaned.
Only six per cent were cleaned just once a week, despite diary analysis suggesting these bags are often used almost 20 times a day – usually for treating wounds.
Dr Swann said: “We clearly showed the traditional bag used throughout the world is unsafe. It’s an unfortunate case of 21st-century professionals using 19th-century kit.”
His radical update is made of non-permeable white plastic and is free from the pockets and folds that previously allowed harmful bacteria to accumulate.
It has easy-to-clean drawers and a hard surface that can be turned into a hygienic treatment area, sparing medics from having to work off tables, chairs or even floors.
Dr Swann, whose design will be commercially produced next year, said: “Taking part in the INDEX exhibition has really helped the process of disseminating the bag to a global audience.
“It’s obvious the university shares the same values as INDEX and recognises the power of design to deliver social and economic change for people and communities.”
Other exhibits at Huddersfield will include the Swedish-designed Hövding, described as the world’s first airbag for cyclists, which claimed first prize in the “play” category.
The airbag explodes from a custom-made collar whose inbuilt sensors constantly monitor movement for the telltale signs that an accident is about to happen.
Also on display will be a glow-in-the-dark chador – the dress worn by Iranian women – designed to save unseen female pedestrians in Iran from being hit by cars at night.
Huddersfield is the first British institution ever to host the INDEX: Award exhibition and the sole UK stop on the current tour.
Emma Hunt (pictured), who is Dean of the School of Art, Design and Architecture, said: “Our belief is that creativity is the currency of our time and that it has no boundaries.
“It’s about promoting a different way of looking at social problems. As we’ve shown, different design disciplines working together can spawn new ideas and new solutions.
“This sort of approach is vital to innovation, enterprise and competitive advantage – and vital to the overall goal of enhancing social, economic and cultural welfare.”
- Below: See how the INDEX: Award 2011 display units were erected
