Michelin Announced 2020 Challenge Design Global Winners

The 2020 Michelin Challenge Design Global Competition winners have been announced and is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Challenge design is a program of the Movin'On summit which is the world's premier gathering for sustainable mobility.

The theme 'Upcycle' challenged the artists, engineers, architects and creatives worldwide to take inspiration or elements from the previous honoured Challenge Design entries and create a design that includes environmental, economical and social value.

The teams were from Brazil, South Korea, India and China which took up the challenge and won. The Upcycle judge's award winners were from China, South Korea, Colombia, India , France, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Italy and the United states.

Nick Mailhiot, chairman of the 2020 Challenge Design stated that "the Challenge Design's continued success is only because of the support from the jurors who spent two days in virtual meetings to review the entries and select the winners. They have done a great job considering the fact that current pandemic situation has not stopped them from supporting the program.

The Jury for the 20^th Challenge Design was comprised of the following:

•    Chris Chapman, Senior Chief Designer, Hyundai North America
•  Dave Marek, Acura Executive Creative Director, Honda R&D
• Craig Metros, Design Director, North American Truck/SUV, Ford Motor Company
• Louise Pelletier, Director, Center of Design, University of Quebec at Montreal
•  Stewart Reed, Head of Transportation Design, Art Center College of Design
• Frank Saucedo, Design Director, General Motors
• Thomas Sycha, Head of MINI Exterior Design, BMW Group
• Freeman Thomas, Global Strategic Design Director, Ford Motor Company (retired)

Also See: Michelin Voted “Tyre Manufacture Of The Year” For Second Time

The 2020 Michelin Challenge Design Upcycle Winners:

First Place: Dayvid Almeida of Brazil for his entry, “Volkswagen MUT.E”

“It is really important to think about mobility as a complex organism that we could design for our future. The first thought about Upcyclewas the idea to make something great and add the value of the solutions that nature has developed,” said Almeida.

“I am very grateful for this kind of challenge, for the importance that you give us designers to imagine the future of the mobility. I think for me and for a lot of people in the auto industry, they say Michelin Challenge Design is the most important in the world. It is very important because it brings innovative solutions,” said Almeida.

Second Place: Young Jae Kim of South Korea and Dinesh Raman of India for “Fargo”

“One of the challenges in 2020 was to understand what Upcycle meant,” said Young Jae Kim.

“Part of what made this Challenge Design different was that it focused on functionality more than aesthetics. You are going to solve greater problems,” said his teammate, Dinesh Raman. The two are graduate students at the Royal College of Art in London.

“We basically felt like jurors. We switched on the projector in our classroom and went through almost all the prior entries. We thought sustainability only made sense if it had massive impact both socially and economically,” said Raman.

“The whole process was really fun. We also took a great amount of inspiration from our memories of the “Top Gear” show in which Jeremy Clarkson had to drive through Vietnam,” said Young Jae Kim. 

Third Place: Chen Mango, from China, for his entry: “Michelin Moving Space”

“In the near future, due to high population density and limited land resources, the concept of high-density vertical cities will come true in metropolises like New York, Shanghai and other cities,” said Mango.

“Parking fees will be very high. If the private space module can be part of our house, we will never pay for parking. When we want a trip, we just need to book a sharing power module with our phone.”

Also See: Michelin To Scale Up Tyre Production In Indonesia After Acquiring Local Tyre Firm

Judge’s Awards:

In addition to the three winners, the jurors selected the following to receive Upcycle Judge’s awards.

Through its first 20 years, the Challenge Design competition has received more than 14,000 entries from 134 countries. The theme for the 2021 Challenge Design will be announced in early August.