The University of Huddersfield 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. We are 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 our lecturers Dr David Swann.
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.
The series of dramatic pods on campus exhibiting these ultra-innovative designs can be seen until 29 September 2012, Queensgate Campus, Huddersfield
Dr David Swann 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. 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.
Other exhibits at Huddersfield 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. Huddersfield is the first British institution ever to host the INDEX: Award exhibition and the sole UK stop on the current tour.