A team of students from the Royal College of Art, University of the Arts London and Brunel, Manchester and Birmingham universities has won the latest hackathon organised by the Materials and Design Exchange (MaDE).
Student teams drawn from UK design, materials and engineering university courses were challenged to create an innovative ‘blueprint’ for the house of the future, designed to mitigate the effects of adverse weather and their impact on family life.
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The teams were inspired by new construction materials and products shown at the recent ‘Futurebuild’ exhibition in ExCeL London, and given just 24 hours to develop and present their concepts to a panel of expert judges.
The winning team’s ‘Resilient Oasis’ solution was aimed at futureproofing against climate change while also using regenerative materials. ‘The challenge equipped me with tons of new knowledge about innovative materials, alternative energy solutions and much more – all valuable tools for my design practice,” said a member of the team.
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The event was one of a series of three 2024 hackathons developed by MaDE and supported by the UKRI Innovate UK Transforming Foundation Industries challenge fund.
Further Hackathon events are planned to coincide with London’s New Designers exhibition in July, and the Advanced Engineering Show at Birmingham NEC in October 2024. More information can be found here.