Lebanon-based designer Elias Soueidi has been announced as the winner of the third edition of the Audi Innovation Award. His ‘Ruin to Reality’ project, an app that aims to allow access to virtual 3D models of ruined historical buildings, was selected from over 65 submission from across the Middle East.
The award, the first of its kind in the region, was presented by Carsten Bender, Brand Director of Audi Middle East who said: “We hope to inspire artists and designers in the Middle East to create ideas that will become icons of the future”.
The theme for this year’s award, ‘connectivity’ challenged designers to respond to technology’s increasing ability to provide a means through which users and the products and services they interact with are able to identify preferences and behaviour.
The idea behind the winning project is to enhance the relationship between people and their immediate surroundings. The interactive experience will help people reconnect with their environment and re-establish lost connections, providing both an architectural and social purpose.
In second place was Andrea Sensoli with ‘CyRCLE’, a 360-degree communal display space for meetings, gatherings or entertainment. Abdhul Hazeeb and his project ‘Connect to Thrive’ an enclosed interior space to provide a place of solitude and calm was awarded third place.
The prize for winner Elias Soueidi was a trophy and a trip to the Audi factory in Ingolstadt, Germany to experience the automotive design journey. In addition to this, Audi Middle East awards $25,000 worth of consultancy to cover items such as IP registration, legal counselling and business development.
Models of each of the shortlisted projects can be seen within the Audi Innovation Hub – an innovative space at d3 that is also hosting a series of Audi Innovation Talks throughout Dubai Design Week.