Art Center Students Compete in WantedDesign's International Water Challenge

Can designers help solve the planet’s water crisis in just three days? That’s the question WantedDesign Challenge: Water Cycle aims to answer May 17–20 during New York Design Week.

The three-day challenge requires student designers to envision new solutions addressing water supply, usage and management through a product. Art Center students–Tony Chiu and Evan Liao in Environmental Design, with Kristina Marrero and Wen Han in Product Design–will compete on teams with design school students from Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art (ENSAAMA) and ENSCI in Paris, CENTRO Mexico in Mexico City and Parsons the New School for Design in New York.

Students will consider the needs of population explosions, diversity of cultures and ecological issues. Concepts may include scenarios, animations, videos and models, but products developed must represent prototypes that can be seen, tested and evaluated. At the end of the three days, each team will present its project to the jury during a public presentation on Monday, May 20 at 3 p.m. at the Conversation Lounge in the Terminal Stores building on 11th Avenue between 27th and 28th Streets.

“Design truly has the ability to change people’s lives, but only when designers can get past their own creative egos and listen to the needs of the world,” said Art Center Environmental Design Chair David Mocarski. “It’s critical that educational programs provide this type of valuable experience to expand our students’ abilities to address these pressing global issues.”

Han heard about the WantedDesign opportunity last year. She looks forward to “the people and the vibe,” but anticipates that the biggest hurdle will be actually creating the project. “The challenge will be fabrication and source of material.”

Chiu, a recent graduate, looks forward to the experience. “This will be a great opportunity to work, learn and collaborate with other students from other schools,” said Chiu. “I think the key to winning this competition is creating something exceptional with a strong story. I’m confident that with my engineering experience combined with all the knowledge gained from Art Center, I will be able to create a functional and elegant piece of art.”

WantedDesign is an experiential exposition that showcases innovative design offerings in furnishings and products. The 2013 events feature insider conversations with some of the biggest names from the international design community, hands-on workshops and presentations on creativity, education, environmental and social issues. For more information, visit wanteddesignnyc.com.

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