The Index Project, formerly INDEX: Design to Improve Life, is a Danish
nonprofit organisation
A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...
that promotes designs aimed at the improvement of life worldwide, both in developed and
developing countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a lesser developed Industrial sector, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to other countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is al ...
. The organisation is behind the biennial Index Award, the world's biggest design award.
History
Established in 2002, The Index Project was initially proposed by designer
Johan Adam Linneballe and then
Permanent Secretary
A permanent secretary (also known as a principal secretary) is the most senior civil servant of a department or ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are the non-political civil s ...
of the
Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs as a world design event in order to promote Denmark on a global scale,
as well as attract tourism and investments.
However, it soon acquired a global perspective, and its mission has become expressed in its motto: ''"Design to Improve Life"''.
["INDEX: Design to Improve Life"]
by Rod Bradbury, 2009
The organisation is under the patronage of the
Crown Princess of Denmark. The Index Project is promoted by means of a design award, The Index Award, education programmes, an investment entity, conferences, and publications.
As of 2018, the organisation is headed by Liza Chong. It was previously led by founding CEO Kigge Hvid, former CEO of
Øksnehallen Entrance to Øksnehallen
Øksnehallen is an exhibition space located on Halmtorvet in the Vesterbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark. The building is a former market hall, part of the Brown Meat District.
History
The Cattle Market opened on 28 ...
.
The Index Award
The biennial Index Award was initiated in 2005, and originally financed by the state of Denmark with a total prize sum worth . In 2005, it was the world's largest monetary award in its area,
and today is widely recognised as the most influential in inspiring life-improving design, and has often been dubbed the "
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfre ...
of design". British design critic
Alice Rawsthorn
Alice Rawsthorn OBE (born 1958 in Manchester) is a British design critic and author. Her books include ''Design as an Attitude'' (2018) and ''Hello World: Where Design Meets Life'' (2013). She is chair of the board of trustees at the Chisenhale ...
in 2011, wrote for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', "Not only is INDEX: the world's most generous design prize in financial terms, it is one of the few awards to have made a meaningful contribution to design discourse."
Projects from around the world are entered into competition for the award with finalists and winners determined by an international jury. In addition to choosing the successful designs, The Index Award Jury plays a key role in developing and advocating for strategies to expand the borders and impact of design in the world.
[
]
2005 winners
The first Index Award was announced in September 2004, and the competition received 538 entries representing 50 countries, of which The Index Award Jury chaired by Arnold Wasserman selected 118 finalists to participate in The Index Award Exhibition.Copenhagen City Hall
Copenhagen City Hall ( da, Københavns Rådhus) is the headquarters of the Copenhagen City Council as well as the Lord mayor of the Copenhagen Municipality, Denmark. The building is situated on City Hall Square in central Copenhagen.
Archit ...
on 22 September, were:
*Body Torben Vestergaard Frandsen, Rob Fleuren and Moshe Frommer - "LifeStraw
LifeStraw is a brand of water filtration and purification devices. The original LifeStraw was designed as a portable water filter "straw". It filters a maximum of 4000 litres of water, enough for one person for three years. It removes almost a ...
", a plastic straw that cleans contaminated water to prevent diseases such as diphtheria, cholera, typhoid and diarrhea from spreading through drinking water.
*Home Stephanie Forsythe & Todd MacAllen of molo - " Softwall", a 100% recyclable wall to generate personal space in larger roomsiPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
, a revolution within the music industry and digital rights management
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted work ...
*Community Architecture for Humanity
Architecture for Humanity was a US-based charitable organization that sought architectural solutions to humanitarian crises and brought professional design services to clients (often communities in need). Founded in 1999, it laid off its staff and ...
- "Siyathemba – The field of hope", a competition for designers and architects to incorporate football into HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment via a combined football field and health-care facility
2007 winners
In 2007, The Index Award received 337 entries, of which the Jury chaired by Nille Juul-Sørensen selected 112 for nomination, and 110 were exhibited on Kongens Nytorv
Kongens Nytorv ( lit. "The King's New Square") is a public square in Copenhagen, Denmark, centrally located at the end of the pedestrian street Strøget. The largest square of the city, it was laid out by Christian V in 1670 in connection wi ...
. The winners, announced at the award ceremony at the Copenhagen City Hall on 24 August, were:
*Body Sebastien Dubois - "Mobility for Each One", an energy-return prosthetic foot that can be produced for $8 in a local workshop versus the standard $1,300 to $4,000.
*Home Alberto Meda
Alberto Meda is an engineer focusing on design, born in Tremezzina, in the Italian province of Como in 1945. He graduated with a laurea in mechanical engineering at the Politecnico di Milano in 1969. From 1973 he was the technical manager of K ...
and Francisco Gomez Paz - "Solar Bottle", a low cost water purification bottle
*Work Philip Greer, Lisa Stroux, Graeme Davies and Chris Huntley - "Tongue Sucker", a simple device, easy to use in an emergency to draw out the tongue of an unconscious person, make the airway unobstructed and hence assist CPR in time-critical situations.Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The ...
, Martin Eberhard
Martin Eberhard (born ) is an American inventor, engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in 2003. Eberhard served as Tesla's original chairman, and its CEO until late 2007. In 2015, he was i ...
and Barney Hatt - " Tesla Roadster" a 100% electrical powered sports car with zero emissions and power cost approximately 2 cents per mile
*Community Rebecca Allen, Christopher Blizzard
Christopher Blizzard is a Developer Relations lead at Facebook. Formerly, he worked as an Open Source Evangelist at the Mozilla Corporation and has contributed to other open source projects, including Red Hat and One Laptop Per Child.
Prior t ...
, V. Michael Bove, Yves Behar
Yves may refer to:
* Yves, Charente-Maritime, a commune of the Charente-Maritime department in France
* Yves (given name), including a list of people with the name
* ''Yves'' (single album), a single album by Loona
* ''Yves'' (film), a 2019 Fren ...
, Sergio Romero de Azevedo, Walter Bender
Walter Bender is a technologist and researcher who works in the field of electronic publishing, media and technology for learning. From the MIT Media Lab's founding 1985 through 2006, Bender directed the lab's Electronic Publishing Group. Previou ...
, Michail Bletsas, Mark Foster, Jacques Gagne, Mary Lou Jepson, Nicholas Negroponte
Nicholas Negroponte (born December 1, 1943) is a Greek American architect. He is the founder and chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, and also founded the One Laptop per Child Association (OLPC). Negroponte ...
and Lisa Strausfeld
Lisa Strausfeld (born 1964 or 1965) is an American design professional and information architect.
Education
Strausfeld studied art history and computer science and earned a Bachelor of Arts at Brown University. She went on to study at Harvard ...
- the affordable " XO laptop"hypodermic needle
A hypodermic needle (from Greek ὑπο- (''hypo-'' = under), and δέρμα (''derma'' = skin)), one of a category of medical tools which enter the skin, called sharps, is a very thin, hollow tube with one sharp tip. It is commonly used w ...
s in low income countries, where these needles are commonly found in trash and thus increase the rates of transmission of diseases and needle injuries.
2009 winners
In 2009, The Index Award received 720 entries from 54 countries, of which the Jury chaired by Designit
Designit (imperative mood, meaning 'design it' and pronounced 'dɪˈzʌɪn ɪt') is an international strategic design firm founded in Aarhus, Denmark, in 1991 by Anders Geert Jensen and Mikal Hallstrup. In 1994, David Fellah joined the company as e ...
co-founder Mikal Hallstrup selected 72 for nomination and exhibition on Kongens Nytorv as part of the first Copenhagen Design Week. The winners, announced at the award ceremony at Koncerthuset
DR Koncerthuset (; previously Copenhagen Concert Hall in English) by Jean Nouvel is a part of the new DR Byen (DR Town), that houses the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, DR. The concert hall and the DR Town are located in the northern part of Ø ...
on 28 August, were:
*Body Philip Goodwin, Stefan Zwahlen and John Hutchinson - "Freeplay Fetal Heart Rate Monitor", a heart rate monitor to safeguard childbirth for mothers and infants in remote areas of the developing world where expert care and electrical power are in short supply
*Home Philips Design - " Chulha", a stove designed to limit the dangerous health issues caused by traditions of indoor cooking in many rural areas of the developing worldShai Agassi
Shai Agassi ( he, שי אגסי, born April 19, 1968) is an Israeli entrepreneur. He is the founder and former CEO of Better Place, which had developed a model and infrastructure for employing electric cars as an alternative to fossil fuel tech ...
- "Better Place", electric vehicle infra-structure to make electric transport convenient and affordable
*People's Choice Award: Jean Madden - "Street Swags", a bed and a bag designed to provide more comfort, warmth and protection from weather for people living on the street
The INDEX: Award Exhibition subsequently went on tour to Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...
and Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
among others.
2011 winners
In 2011, The Index Award received 966 entries from 78 countries, of which the Jury chaired by Nille Juul-Sørensen selected 58 for nomination and participation in The Index Award Exhibition outside the Royal Danish Playhouse
The Royal Danish Playhouse ( da, Skuespilhuset) is a theatre building for the Royal Danish Theatre, situated on the harbour front in the Frederiksstaden neighbourhood of central Copenhagen, Denmark. It was created as a purpose-built venue for ...
on the harbor front in the Frederiksstaden
Frederiksstaden is a district in Copenhagen, Denmark. Constructed during the reign of Frederick V in the second half of the 18th century, it is considered to be one of the most important rococo complexes in Europe and was included in the 2006 Dan ...
neighbourhood of central
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
Copenhagen.Copenhagen Opera House
The Copenhagen Opera House (in Danish usually called Operaen, literally ''The opera'') is the national opera house of Denmark, and among the most modern opera houses in the world. It is also one of the most expensive opera houses ever built at a ...
on 1 September were:
*Body Yves Behar
Yves may refer to:
* Yves, Charente-Maritime, a commune of the Charente-Maritime department in France
* Yves (given name), including a list of people with the name
* ''Yves'' (single album), a single album by Loona
* ''Yves'' (film), a 2019 Fren ...
- "See Better to Learn Better (VerBien)", free eyeglasses for thousands of school children
*Home Alejandro Aravena
Alejandro Gastón Aravena Mori (born 22 June 1967) is a Chilean architect and executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. He won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2016, and was the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the 201 ...
, Fernando García-Huidobro and Gonzalo Arteaga - "ELEMENTAL Monterrey", social housing in a ground breaking new way
*Work Kiran Bir Sethi & Pranay Desai - " Design for Change", a global movement designed to give children the opportunity to express their own ideas for a better world and put them into action.Hövding
Hövding ("The Chieftain", in Swedish) is an airbag bicycle helmet, launched in November 2011.
Hövding was invented by Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin in Malmö, Sweden in 2005 as a master thesis for the founders' Master of Industrial Design at ...
", a bicycle helmet-airbag to wear as a collar
*Community Seoul Metropolitan Government
The Seoul Metropolitan Government is a local government of Seoul, South Korea. The mayor is elected to a four-year term by the citizens of Seoul and is responsible for the administration of the city government. The Seoul Metropolitan Government d ...
- "Design Seoul", the first ever coherent design based approach to improve life for citizens in a very large city
*People's Choice Award: Linus Liang, Naganand Murty, Rahul Panicker
Rahul Alex Panicker is a technology leader and entrepreneur, formerly Chief Innovation Officer at the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and best known as the President and Co-founder of Embrace Innovations and Embrace, a socia ...
, Razmig Hovaghimian
Razmig Hovaghimian is an American entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of the international online streaming video site Viki, and senior executive officer of global content, board observer and Entrepreneur in residence at Japanese ecommerce co ...
, and Jane Chen
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise startup that produces a low-cost infant warmer, that gives premature and low-birth-weight infants a better chance at survival.
She served as the first CEO of Embrace, the non-pr ...
- " Embrace Infant Warmer", thermal regulation infant warmer for premature and underweight born children
2013 winners
The 2013 Index Award broke all previous records by receiving 1,022 entries for the competition from 73 countries, of which the Jury chaired by Mikal Hallstrup selected 59 for nomination and participation in The Index Award Exhibition in Rosenborg Castle Gardens
Rosenborg Castle Gardens (Danish: Kongens Have literally The King's Garden) is the oldest and most visited park in central Copenhagen, Denmark. Established in the early 17th century as the private gardens of King Christian IV's Rosenborg Castle, t ...
. The winners, announced at the award ceremony on 29 August at Kulturværftet in Elsinore under the attendance of Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark
Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark, Countess of Monpezat, (born Mary Elizabeth Donaldson; 5 February 1972) is the wife of Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark. Frederik is the heir apparent to the throne, which means that should he succeed, Mary w ...
, were:
*Body Laerdal Global Health - "The Natalie Collection", a trio of birth simulating devices preventing child and maternal death
*Home Kavita Shukla - "FreshPaper", a simple sheet of paper keeping produce fresh 4 times longer
*Work The city of Copenhagen - "Copenhagen Climate Adaptation Plan", the Danish capital's pioneering plan of how to address the changing climate
*Play & Learning Eben Upton
Eben Christopher Upton (born 5 April 1978) is the Welsh CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd., which runs the engineering and trading activities of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. He is responsible for the overall software and hardware architectur ...
, University of Cambridge - "Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi () is a series of small single-board computers (SBCs) developed in the United Kingdom by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi project originally leaned towards the promotion of teaching basic ...
", a $25 computer aiming to digitalise the world
*Community Daan Roosegaarde - "Smart Highway", intelligent roads that communicate with its drivers promoting both traffic safety and traffic efficiency
*People's Choice Award: "Smart Highway" after a close vote on CNN.com
2015 winners
The 2015 Index Award were presented at Kulturværftet in Elsinore on 27 August, honouring five winners among the 46 shortlisted finalists chosen from a pool of 1123 entries from 72 countries. The winners were:
*Body Peek Vision - "Peek Retina", a portable eye examination kit that uses apps
*Home Elon Musk - "Tesla Powerwall
The Tesla Powerwall is a rechargeable lithium-ion battery stationary home energy storage product manufactured by Tesla Energy. The Powerwall stores electricity for solar self-consumption, time of use load shifting, and backup power. The Power ...
", a rechargeable battery that aims to revolutionise energy generation
*Work Sky Greens - "Sky Urban Vertical Farming System", a low-carbon, water-driven vertical farm that alleviates environmental impact
*Play & Learning Luis von Ahn
Luis von Ahn (; born 19 August 1978) is a German-Guatemalan entrepreneur and a consulting professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is known as one of the pioneers of crowdsourci ...
for Duolingo
Duolingo ( ) is an American educational technology company which produces learning apps and provides language certification.
On its main app, users can practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills using spaced repetition. ...
, free language-learning apps
*Community Boyan Slat
Boyan Slat (born 27 July 1994) is a Dutch inventor and entrepreneur. A former aerospace engineering student, he is the CEO of The Ocean Cleanup.
Initial interest in plastic pollution
In 2011, aged 16, Slat found more plastic than fish while d ...
- " The Ocean Cleanup Array", a system to sustainably clean up plastic pollution
Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...
from the world's oceans
*People's Choice Award: William Janssen - "Desolenator", a mobile, solar energy driven water purifier
2017 winners
The 2017 Index Award was presented at Kulturværftet in Elsinore on September 1, 2017, with Alice Tumler
Alice Tumler (born 11 November 1978) is an Austrian television presenter.
Early life and education
Tumler was born in Innsbruck and is the daughter of an Austrian father with Slovenian-Italian descent and a French mother from the island of Marti ...
as the hostess. Out of 1,401 nominations from 85 countries, 56 were selected as finalists and five of these won an Index Award. Each winner received €100,000 for further development of their design. The winners were:
*Body Zipline - "Zipline", a drone delivery system designed to get critical medical supplies, such as blood and vaccines, to remote placesGreenWave
GreenWave is a North American nonprofit focused on the development of regenerative farming techniques for aquaculture, called "3D ocean farming", to create blue carbon. Their focus is on developing polyculture practices for farming shellfish ...
- "Greenwave", a revolutionary ocean farming system designed to restore ocean ecosystems, mitigate climate change, and create jobs for fishermen
*Play & Learning Paperfuge - "Paperfuge", a hand-powered centrifuge made from paper, string and plastic that can detect malaria, HIV and tuberculosis
*Community Ethereum Foundation - "Ethereum", a global, open-source platform to decentralize the distribution of money and information
*People's Choice Award: Labster - "Labster", a virtual reality lab providing high-quality immersive scientific lessons
2019 winners
The 2019 Index Award was presented at The Plant in Copenhagen on September 6, 2019, with journalist Peter Stanners as the host. It featured keynotes from past winners such as Mikkel Vestergaard, CEO of Vestergaard, Ryan Sims, VP of Design at Duolingo
Duolingo ( ) is an American educational technology company which produces learning apps and provides language certification.
On its main app, users can practice vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and listening skills using spaced repetition. ...
and Keenan Wyrobek, CEO of Zipline
A zip-line, zip line, zip-wire, flying fox, or death slide is a pulley suspended on a cable, usually made of stainless steel, mounted on a slope. It is designed to enable cargo or a person propelled by gravity to travel from the top to the b ...
. Out of more than 1,800 nominations, 42 finalists from 19 countries were presented and six of these won an Index Award. The five primary category winners each received €100,000 with their prize. The winners were:
*Body Faber Futures - "Project Coelicolor", a suite of textile dyeing and printing methods with the Streptomyces coelicolor
''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' is a bacterium species from the genus of ''Streptomyces'' which has been isolated from soil from Poland. ''Streptomyces albidoflavus'' produces dibutyl phthalate and streptothricins.
Small noncoding RNA
Bacter ...
bacteria
*Home AI SpaceFactory - "Marsha", 3D-printed vertical homes designed for life on Mars
*Work SafetyNet Technologies - "Pisces", LED-light emitting devices that attracts certain fish and repels non-targeted species to lower bycatch
*Play & Learning Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...
- "Xbox Adaptive Controller
The Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC) is a video game controller designed by Microsoft for Windows PCs and the Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S video game consoles. The controller was designed for people with disabilities to help make user input f ...
", a customisable version of the Xbox game controller made for those of limited mobility
*Community Solar Foods - "Solar Foods", the company behind the Solein protein made out of and electricity
*People's Choice Award: Thumy - "Thumy", temporary tattoos and child-friendly insulin pens made to empower Type 1 diabetic children
2021 winners
The Index Award 2021 was presented at Volume in Copenhagen on September 30, 2021, and streamed to a global audience. Senior Copywriter from AKQA Jean-Robert Saintil was the host and the show featured a keynote by co-founder of Airbnb
Airbnb, Inc. ( ), based in San Francisco, California, operates an online marketplace focused on short-term homestays and experiences. The company acts as a broker and charges a commission from each booking. The company was founded in 2008 by ...
Joe Gebbia
Joseph Gebbia Jr. (born August 21, 1981) is an American billionaire designer and Internet entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Airbnb and Samara, an accessory dwelling unit startup that was formerly Airbnb's design studio, and of Airbnb.org, the c ...
– his first public talk in Denmark. From 2,134 nominees, 46 finalists were presented and six of these won an Index Award. The five primary category winners each won a prize package worth more than worth over €250,000, including business development sessions with top-tier global consulting agency Boston Consulting Group
Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three (or MBB, the world’s three larges ...
, creative branding sparring from award-winning AKQA, a feature on the Google Arts and Culture platform, and bespoke design thinking and leadership workshops with The Index Project. The winners were:
*Body Cirqle Biomedical - "OUI", a non-hormonal contraceptive reinforcing women's natural pregnancy barrier.
*Home Flash Forest - "Flash Forest", a scalable and effective reforesting technology using aerial mapping, drone technology and ecological science.
*Work BIOHM - "BIOHM", environmentally regenerative and natural insulation grown from mycelium.
*Play & Learning Truepic - "Truepic Vision & Foresight', groundbreaking technology to authenticate images and videos and combat fake media.
*Community Algorithmic Justice League - "Algorithmic Justice League", an organisation combining art, research and education to show the social implications and harms of AI.
*People's Choice Award: SAGA Space Architects - "LUNARK", a moon habitat designed for humans to thrive in space.
References
External links
*{{Official website, http://designtoimprovelife.dk/
2002 establishments in Denmark
Awards established in 2005
Danish awards
Design awards
Exhibitions
Non-profit organizations based in Denmark