Stockholm Design Week 2012: DeisgNu

As with any design festival, there’s a lot of interest in who caries off the various prizes up-for-grabs, and over in Stockholm it’s the bi-annual DesigNu award that captured our imagination. There’s a winner selected in each category – fashion, decorative arts, industrial design, graphic design and furniture design – before an overall victor is crowned, with this year’s gong going to the lifesaving Solvatten clean water device. It uses the sun’s rays to heat and treat the water – a brilliant solution to a massive problem

The 11 litre container is filled with dirty water and left in the sun for between two and six hours, so that water can be used for cooking, washing and bathing – making designer Petra Wadstrom is a worthy winner.

Petra edged out Diana Orving’s elegant latest collection, Christian Larsen’s weird naked sculptures, Andreas Farkas’ eye-catching stools and friend of the site Kyu Hyung Cho’s fabulous, colourful graphic design.