Michelin picks 2020 Challenge Design ‘Upcycle' winners

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Michelin North America Inc. has selected designers from Brazil, South Korea, India and China as the winners of the 2020 Michelin Challenge Design competition, which sought entries on the theme "Upcycling."

The theme challenged artists, designers, engineers, architects and creatives worldwide to take inspiration or elements from previously honored Michelin Challenge Design entries and create an upcycled design that added environmental, societal or economic value.

This was the 20th Challenge Design competition, Michelin said. During the past two decades the competition has received more than 14,000 entries from 134 countries.

The theme for the 2021 Challenge Design will be announced in early August.

The 2020 winners are:

• First Place: Dayvid Almeida of Brazil for his entry, "Volkswagen MUT.E";
• Second Place: Young Jae Kim of South Korea and Dinesh Raman of India for "FarGo"; and
• Third Place: Chen Mango, from China, for his entry: "Michelin Moving Space."

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

"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."

The members of the runner-up team are graduate students at the Royal College of Art in London.

"One of the challenges in 2020 was to understand what Upcycle meant," Mr. Kim said.

His teammate Mr. Raman noted: "Part of what made this Challenge Design different was that it focused on functionality more than aesthetics.

"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."

Mr. Kim added: "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.

Commenting on his third-place entry, Mr. Chen said: "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.

"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."

Additional Judge's Award winners came from China, South Korea, Colombia, India, France, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Italy and the U.S.

Entries were judged by a jury of eight designers from the auto industry and academia: Chris Chapman, Hyundai North America; Dave Marek, Honda North America; Craig Metros, Ford Motor Co.; Louise Pelletier, Center of Design, University of Quebec at Montreal; Stewart Reed, Art Center College of Design; Frank Saucedo, General Motors Co.; Thomas Sycha, BMW Group; and Freeman Thomas, Ford Motor Co. (retired).

The jurors devoted hours of time over two days in virtual meetings to review the entries, Michelin said.