-After a four-year hiatus, the World Design Impact Prize(TM) initiated by World 
Design Organization (WDO) was once again held in 2021, a year the world 
struggled, and Taiwanese firm Miniwiz won the First Prize with sustainable and 
innovative design, TRASHPRESSO. 

With countries in the world growingly concerned with issues of climate and 
environmental changes, uneven distribution of resources, and sustainability, 
global designers have also started to proactively shift their attention onto 
social issues. Unlike traditional designs that focused on "product" and 
"function," designers have turned to "people" and "environment" as the focus of 
their works, and more and more of them begin to propose different observations 
and solutions for social issues of sustainable industrial development, wealth 
gap, and ageing population, changing life through design, and the concept of 
building better environment through the power of design is becoming more 
prominent across the world. 

WDC launched the biennial World Design Impact Prize(TM)(WDIP) in 2011, 
encouraging designers to apply design to solve the social, economic, cultural, 
and environmental problems the world will face in real urban development, in 
order to enhance world citizens' quality of life and create a better 
environment. 

Since the award ceremony at World Design Capital Taipei in 2016, the Fourth 
WDIP finally called for submissions again after a four-year hiatus. This 
edition of WDIP focused on the theme of SDGs, and applicants were recommended 
by WDO members. Taiwan Design Research Institute, a WDO member in Taiwan, 
recommended TRASHPRESSO by Taiwanese firm Miniwiz to represent Taiwan at this 
year's WDIP.

This year's WDIP jury consisted of five experts in different disciplines, 
including Chetan Choudhury, an advisor with the Prime Minister's Office of the 
UAE in Dubai, Teresa Franqueira, associate professor at Aveiro University, and 
Wenny Kusuma, former UN Women Country Representative in Cambodia. The jurors 
selected 10 most iconic real cases from a pool of 129 global submissions as 
finalists, and 170 WDO member organizations around the globe voted for the 
winners. Miniwiz's TRASHPRESSO won the First Prize of the 2021 WDIP, marking 
Taiwan's first win at the global design award, a testament to the universal 
recognition of Taiwan design. 

"Turning wastes into gold" is the belief and motive Arthur Huang has continued 
developing since founding Miniwiz. The WDIP-winning TRASHPRESSO is the world's 
first portable industrial-grade plastic waste recycling platform with a size of 
merely two industrial refrigerators. It makes the collection, classification, 
and conversion of garbage more democratic, and consumes only 7,000W of power, 
leaving minimal air/water footprints. The machine is capable of converting 
industrial and domestic wastes into valuable materials such as sustainable 
building supplies, special textiles, and furniture, through 3-minute cycles, 
and can process up to 500 kg of plastic waste daily for a community of 10,000 
people. 

Now, Miniwiz is bringing TRASHPRESSO to cooperate with global organizations, 
such as using local wastes to build schools in Tibet, and turning ocean 
plastics collected through beach cleaning activities into the floor tiles of 
Sardinia Community Center. Through innovative design thinking, Miniwiz 
facilitates real changes to the seemingly complicated and irreversible social 
issues. "Design for a better tomorrow" has become a global trend, and Taiwan 
design is also exerting its influences in all corners of the world. 

SOURCE: Taiwan Design Research Institute


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   Link: https://iop.asianetnews.net/view-attachment?attach-id=409308

   Caption: TRASHPRESSO by Miniwiz wins 2021 WDIP, they brings TRASHPRESSO to 
Tibet and builds a school using local wastes/Photo credit: Miniwiz