The DDA2019 finalists were announced in an intimate and inspirational award ceremony at the We Make The City festival in Amsterdam. These life improving designs were selected amongst the 14 projects from the nomination pool of the prestigious INDEX: Awards and the winner of DDA2019 will be announced in a ceremony in Copenhagen this September. Take a look at the fascinating three finalists projects:

MOLE MAPPER: A small tool for skin-cancer prevention

By Ilaria Vitali, Patrizia Bolzan and Mila Stepanovic. Presented by Emanuele Belà.

Mole Mapper is a small tool for skin cancer prevention. It can be used to self-check all skin moles, looking for warning signs. Self-exams can help you identify potential skin cancers early, when they can still be almost always completely cured. For a successful self-exam you need to know what you are looking for and that is the aim of Mole Mapper. It is a small tool made from laser cut PMMA scraps, that summarizes what physicians call “the ABCDE of melanoma”; the warning signs to recognize changes in your moles. Such a small device with the big potential to save lives!

VIVIHOUSE: Enables everyone to design, build and adapt a healthy and vibrant urban environment 

By Nicholas Kichler, Milka Fürst and Paul Adrian Schulz

Rapid urbanisation has led to environmental risks and limited citizen participation. With Vivihouse it is possible for everyone to contribute to the creation of ecological and appealing urban living spaces. Vivihouse is a modular building system designed for inclusion: It’s DIY-friendly for makers and open source for designers. Residents will enjoy healthy and energy-efficient spaces while future generations can keep the resources in circular ecosystems. So far, the timber construction can reach up to six floors and can be adapted to local conditions, tastes, materials, climate and modes of production. 

Flexibility is ensured as all components are demountable, transportable and reusable. With Vivihouse enables everyone to create healthy and vibrant urban settlements for themselves and all of us. Would you like to build your own low-impact house too?

PAVAN: Open Designs aimed at transforming any Van into a mobile plastic treatment station and a classroom

By Plástico à Vista. Patrick Hubmann – Van Design; Mariela Gentille – Accessories and Furniture Modules; André Rocha, Nuno Monge, Ana Ferreira (Fab Lab Benfica) Precious Plastic Machines adaptation; EDA Association – Educators team and Graphic design.

PaVan – Plástico à Vista is developed over a collection of open source resources. The Project is aimed at forming a reproducible educational environment about the emergence of abolishing plastic waste and the importance of reducing it in nature through inventive strategies, such as Precious Plastic. Pavan is a mobile classroom and a plastic waste treatment station. All Pavan modules are open source and licensed under CC-by-nc 4.0. These include the adaptation of the Precious Plastic machines, activity guidelines, files, the furniture, van accessories and the structure design. The project is now at the prototype phase and being developed by a team of volunteers and managed by a non-profit association. A multi-purpose mobile station enabling wasteless futures!

Thank you for all the fantastic 14 finalists! See you in Copenhagen for the announcement of the winning project! Find more about the Distributed Design Award 2019.