FESTO, biomimicrySA & FLOW Design Challenge

As part of World Design Capital 2014 (held in Cape Town), cutting edge automation company FESTO, biomimicrySA and FLOW funded a student design challenge for universities in Cape Town.

THE CHALLENGE?

Water!

THE BRIEF?

Design and prototype an innovation that can capture water from air using bionic principles. The design had to draw from the field of biomimicry – the science of learning from and imitating Nature’s genius to solve design challenges.

THE RESULTS?

The challenge involved over 80 student entries from a range of Western Cape Universities.

Teams of students worked together to solve the design challenge – receiving biomimicry training and mentoring support along the way. The shortlisted teams built prototypes in a prototype-workshop run for them by BiomimicrySA.

6 exceptional finalists we announced.

The finalists impressed both the South African and German judges with their prototypes and all 6 prototypes were shipped to FESTO Germany for further review and possible development.

Team Hydrators were the winners, presenting what judges felt was the most sustainable solution. Their simple yet effective design, based on key Biomimicry principles, improves on existing fog collection.

A big thank you to all the student entries, the volunteer judges, FESTO South Africa and FESTO Germany, Kirstenbosch Learning Centre and the UCT Department of Life Sciences  for making this challenge a reality.