Strategic Initiative

Terra Carta Design Lab Winners

    Meet the winners of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales and Sir Jony Ive’s Terra Carta Design Lab

    To mark International Design Day on 27th April 2022, the SMI and the Royal College of Art (RCA) announced the winners of the Terra Carta Design Lab. 

    Out of 125 original submissions, four teams of RCA students and alumni were chosen as the winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab; an initiative which invited some of the world’s most talented design students to design high-impact, low-cost solutions for Nature, People and Planet.

    Read the press release here.

    The winners of the inaugural Terra Carta Design Lab

    AERSEEDS

    Aerodynamic nutrient and seed pods made from food waste, that work with nature to accelerate regeneration up to 10 times. Mimicking natural processes, Aerseeds are carried by the wind to cover large areas and reach difficult terrains where they deliver nutrients and seeds to soils depleted by human activity, for ecological restoration and reforestation.

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      AMPHITEX

      Current performance outdoor textiles are impossible to recycle and use many harmful chemicals. AMPHITEX is the first 100% recyclable and chemical-free outdoor performance textile. It will be made from a combination of recycled and plant-based feedstock, resulting in a world-first carbon negative performance textile.

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        The Tyre Collective

        Tyre wear is the second largest microplastic pollutant in our environment. The Tyre Collective are developing the first patent-pending device to capture tyre wear at the wheel, accelerating the shift to zero-emission mobility. As well as spearheading the capture and monitoring of tyre wear, the team are exploring upcycling it into various applications, creating a circular system.

          Zelp

          1.6 billion cattle, each exhaling 400 litres of methane per day, are one of the single leading causes of global warming. ZELP has designed a wearable device for cattle to neutralise methane emissions in real time.

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            The Judging Process...

            The winners were selected by the Terra Carta Design Lab Grand Jury, comprising of His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, Sir Jony Ive, Dr Paul Thompson (Vice-Chancellor of the RCA), and representatives of the Terra Carta Design Lab partners Octopus Energy, The Climate Pledge and Bank of America. They will receive £50k funding to help further develop their ideas, along with mentoring from RCA Chancellor, Founder of the creative collective LoveFrom and former Chief Design Officer at Apple Sir Jony Ive, and members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative global network.  

            Highly Commended Projects

            Alongside the winners, two further projects were voted highly commendable by the Terra Carta Design Lab Grand Jury and will receive £10k funding to help develop their ideas, as well as mentoring from InnovationRCA, the RCA’s centre for entrepreneurship and business support.  The two highly commended projects are:

            OR:BITAL BLOOM: A data-driven artwork which ‘blooms’ in response to corporate and organisational adherence to sustainability targets and carbon emission reductions.

            Shellworks: Creating a plastic-free future by working with bacteria to produce materials that are truly compostable, aesthetic, performant and cost competitive. When you throw away a product made from Vivomer, Shellworks’ first material, bacteria in the soil and ocean see it as food and eat it. The team is currently focused on delivering sustainable packaging solutions to the beauty and personal care industry where there are few alternatives to plastic.

            To find out more about the twenty finalists of the Terra Carta Design Lab, click here

            We can all have good ideas. I find it reassuring, particularly facing the overwhelming challenge of climate change, that we can all contribute ideas that could evolve into valuable solutions. I love not only the power of a good idea but how egalitarian and inclusive they can be. 

             All the Design Lab winners have ideas and designs that deserve to be developed. The ingenuity and determination of these designers has produced some extraordinarily creative responses, and they now embark on the journey to turn these great ideas into practical solutions.

            Sir Jony Ive
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            Sir Jony Ive