Founded in 2008 by architect Clifford Curry and archeologist Delight Stone , The Curry Stone Design Prize was created in the belief that designers can be an instrumental force for improving people's lives and the state of the world. The prize aspires to make the talents of leading designers available to broader segments of society, and to inspire the next generation of designers to harness their ingenuity and craft for social good.
Nominees for the Curry Stone Design Prize are selected by an anonymous, rotating group of leaders representing broad fields of design and humanitarian advocates from other disciplines. A jury reviews the nominations to choose the Grand Prize Winner (awarded 79,000 euros) and two Winners (awarded 7,900 euros each). Emphasis is placed on emerging projects and ideas that may not have yet been taken to scale.
The 2011 Grand Prize winner was Taiwanese architect Hsieh Ying-Chun, who for over a decade has deployed his talents in rural areas that have been decimated by natural disaster. Hsieh works throughout Asia, training villagers to build locally appropriate dwellings in response to the devastation of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the 1999 Nantou earthquake and the 2009 Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. Through Hsieh's hands-on education process, villagers literally reconstruct their own community foundation, knowing they will live in buildings with greater safety, structural integrity, and sustainability.
Curry Stone Design Prize
Founded in 2008 by architect Clifford Curry and archeologist Delight Stone, The Curry Stone Design Prize was created in the belief that designers can be an instrumental force for improving people's lives and the state of the world.
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- 28 August 2012
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Other 2011 Winners include Paris-based Atelier d'Architecture Autogérée (AAA), a collective of architects, designers and social scientists who transform urban spaces through collaborative, localized endeavors. Founded by Franco-Romanian architects Constantin Petcou and Doina Petrescu in 2001, the AAA has become an engine for engaging citizens in shaping their own cities through building, farming and artistic intervention, acting as a creative instigator, and empowering local communities to carry out and sustain their own ideas for urban regeneration.
The second 2011 winner was communication hub FrontlineSMS. Founded in 2005 by Ken Banks, the project seeks to enable effective communications channels for communities in the developing world, leveraging the ubiquity of mobile phones and familiarity of text messaging to turn an offline laptop into a communication hub. The simple innovation empowers villagers, aid agencies, and news services to exchange information among groups easily.
The 2012 edition of the prize features as jury members architect Teddy Cruz, Tate Modern's Curator of International Art Elvira Dyangani Ose, and Domus editor in chief Joseph Grima, in collaboration with Curry Stone Design Prize Executive Secretary Emiliano Gandolfi and Curry Stone Design Prize Curator Chee Pearlman.