Especially under the influence of the pandemic, this year’s Design Educates Awards exhibit a wealth of inspiring and pioneering ideas, which pay tribute to relationships as the “human factor” between the designer and the user in a way that is unique and perhaps even empathetic, and demonstrates high sensitivity. The extraordinary designs of the submitted projects make them extremely valuable as social and sustainable components: a contribution to education and qualification that is not just theoretical – but can be experienced, touched and made concrete. Before the Design Educates Awards ceremony, award winners and jury members will give short presentations on how architecture and design can arouse curiosity: How multi-layered, concrete and even immaterial relationships can be, and what sets the resulting “places of encounter” apart.

Internationally successful architects – including winners of the Design Educates Awards – provide insights into how places of encounter are formed: especially, spaces based on human interaction in the form of discourse and controversy. The design context can be all-encompassing, but the tools of the trade are almost always: traditional “handicrafts” paired with cutting-edge digital methods (Snøhetta). Dietrich Untertriffaler values “respectful use of resources, the development of socially balanced spaces and an appreciation of the cultural and local context.” They too demonstrate the value of a dialogue-based relationship with everyone who is productively involved in the building project.

Programme Transparency
Ever since it was founded almost 40 years ago, Solarlux has devoted itself to the design and functional interpretation of the area that serves as a transition between the inside of a building and the great outdoors. From an architectural perspective, this passion has taken the form of cultivating how we work with natural light, or transparency, as a design element in our architecture. And when it comes to solutions, we also focus on the functional development of a building using “building components” and meticulous attention to detail when designing our products.

Solarlux’s product portfolio for applications in property and high-end flat construction ranges from bi-folding door and horizontal sliding door systems to glass canopies, wintergardens, balcony glazing, and even large-format “cero” sliding elements with panel sizes of up to 15 m². During the planning process and implementation, Solarlux’s various in-house Service departments and installation teams are on-hand to assist our partners, builder-owners, investors and architects. Solarlux systems can be found in sophisticated architecture the world over.