BE OPEN congratulates the winners of Public Vote and Founder's Choice Prizes in the Better Energy by Design competition focused on SDG#7

LONDON, Aug. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Better Energy by Design is the latest of design competitions developed by philanthropic initiative BE OPEN and dedicated to the aims set by SDG#7: Affordable and Clean Energy. These competitions are open to students, graduates and young professionals in the fields of art, design, architecture and media. The programme aims to encourage creation of innovative solutions by younger creatives, for a more prosperous and sustainable future.

The competition awards two prizes outside those decided on by the international jury - the Public Vote prize, allocated as a result of a month-long online vote, and the Founder's Choice prize awarded by the Founder of BE OPEN Elena Baturina, international philanthropist and businessperson.

The Public Vote prize of €2,000 goes to the team from Politecnico di Milano, Italy, namely to Iwana Sampaio Raydan, Zhiben Zheng, Yanqianfang Sun, Mirjam Höchst, Lorenzo Longieri, and Ece Nur Temel for Brease, a modular system designed to be adapted to the facades of buildings. It creates a vertical garden that works as insulation and shading panel, helping households save energy.

The Founder's Choice prize of €3,000 has been awarded to Kevin Sulca, an architect and graduate from Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Peru. His project Intergenerational Urban Furniture proposes a "versatile modular furniture that combines reading and play spaces with hydroponic gardening to generate economic and food sustenance in communities with a shortage of green area" so that different generations within a community could interact and learn from each other.

BE OPEN strongly believes that creativity is integral in the shift to sustainable existence. Design has a crucial role to play as an instrument or vehicle for the implementation of the SDGs. Therefore students and graduates of creative disciplines were asked to reflect on "What can be done to prompt breakthrough of clean energy technologies into our lives?" Whether to make those more affordable, more efficient or more appealing to energy users – that was the call.

The project received over 200 submissions from students and graduates of universities all over the world. The winners of the First, Second and Third Prizes were selected by the BE OPEN international jury out of all submissions over the categories of Powered by Renewables, Save More Energy, Reducing Energy Gap.