Architects including Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and John Pawson, and designers Tracey Neuls, BarberOsgerby and Konstantin Grcic have made the 2014 shortlist for the London Design Museum’s ‘Design of the Year’ competition.
Designs such as a floating school in a Nigerian lagoon, a table that weighs just nine kilograms and a mobile phone made of detachable blocks were included in the 76 nominations that came from the categories of architecture, product, furniture, fashion, graphic, digital and transport were revealed.
In architecture, French practice Lacaton & Vassal are featured on the list for the second year running, this time with a contemporary art centre in Dunkerque - a steel and glass doppelganger form of the old concrete boat warehouse, which encases it.
Facade for Paul Smith, London by 6a Architects
It is equally matched in craftsmanship by 6a Architects' smart cast-iron facade for Paul Smith in Mayfair - a repetitive ironwork pattern of embossed circles, punctured by the delicate curved windows of the eighteenth century shop front.
Hadid and Chipperfield are both represented by their immense capital city arts centres – the undulating Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, and the geometric concrete Jumex Museum in Mexico City.
Heydar Aliyev Center, Baku, Azerbaijan - designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher
The nominated designs will be on display at the Design Museum from 26 March to 25 August, and a winner from each category and one overall winner will be announced later in the year.
For the first time, a social vote will also see two designs battle it out each day on Twitter and Facebook.
The complete shortlist of nominations can be viewed here.
Courtesy Dezeen
