[deadline: 31/12/2008]
The Cifial Design Award “Feel the Planet Earth” is organized with the aim of promoting design, both as a culture, and as a tool, capable of proposing innovative solutions to man’s approach to his social and natural environment. The object of this contest is to promote the exchange of ideas and spread the values of design, offering new approaches to tasks products and services, visualizing, interpreting technologies, etc. Its theme arises from the day-to-day concerns around the huge transformations that are presently taking place in our society economy culture and environment, and which the present paradigms seem to be unable to deal with. The goal of this award is to identify and disseminate design contributions to help build a path towards sustainability on issues that we all face, and must urgently discuss. It will be run on a two-phase selection based firstly on an Abstract submission and then a further development for those selected. The theme for the 2008 Award will be the over-dependence on non- renewable sources of energy in the current pattern of development. Any design work on this issue, whether a vehicle, a public transport service, a cooking device or a lighting system, a water pump or any other practical or theoretical contribution, as well as a synopsis from an MsC or PhD dissertation, can be proposed. English will be the only accepted language for the competition. Info: e-mail: cifial@cifial.pt; www.feeltheplanetearth.org