More than 120 of A&D professionals and manufacturers, as well as key global corporations, from 27 countries took home the “green” medal yesterday (June 30) in the 2011 Green Good Design™ Awards from The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies and The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design, the largest and oldest awards for contemporary design in the world. The annual program, which was founded in 1950 and initially led by Eero Saarinen and Charles and Ray Eames, honors the sustainable innovation product designs, architecture, landscape architecture, and urban planning, with the intent to instill a call of action among American and European institutions to “Design a Better World Now.”

“The Green Good Design idea is to challenge designers, architects, developers, contractors, corporations, and manufacturers to do a superior job in terms of protecting our environments, encouraging sustainability and recycling, using smart materials, conserving resources, and better understanding the social and political context for objects and buildings destined to be in our ever endangered living and working environments,” says Christian K. Narkiewicz-Laine, president of The Chicago Athenaeum and chief curator of the Good Design program.

He continues, “In all, consumer products and architecture, from the ‘spoon to the city,’ Green Good Design 2011 is a banner year for new technological research expressed in sustainability, wise decisions concerning materials and conservation, as well as innovation, which is combined with intelligent designed elegance and great aesthetic impact.”

>> Download the list of 2011 Green Good Design Awards or visit The European Centre’s Web site at www.europeanarch.eu to view.

More then 60 new buildings, landscape architecture, urban planning projects were awarded, designed by firms from across the globe, including United States-based Bohlin Cywinski Jackson; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (SOM); Cannon Design; Belzberg Architects; Mark Cavagnero Associates; Gensler; and HKS, Inc. Firms from nations including Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Lebanon, Japan, People’s Republic of China, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam were also named.

The list of honored consumer products spans across categories of new appliances, bathrooms, mixers, lighting, sports equipment, tabletop, writing instruments, electronics, building materials, medical equipment, furniture, water purifiers, floor and wall covering, hardware, sun shades, Web designs, and cleaning and household products. Honored product designers include Sir Norman Foster (Great Britain), Philippe Starck (France), Russ Lovegove (Great Britain), Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, LLP (USA), Fernando + Huberto Campana (Brazil), Metaphase Design Group (USA), NewDealDesign, LLP. (USA), Karim Rashid (USA), Matteo Thun (Italy), Phoenix Design GmbH. (Germany), Pentagram Design (Great Britain), Makio Hasuike (Japan), and Alfredo Häberli (Switzerland); while manufacturers and corporations include Hewlett-Packard Company, Oracle, Steelcase, Bodum AG., Alessi SpA., Stanford Corporation, Grohe AG., Tupperware Brands Corporation, Permasteelisa SpA., Sling Media, Inc., Coca Cola Co., Artemide SpA., Hansgrohe AG., Teknion, Indesit Company SpA., Electrolux SA., Hyundai Motor America, and Humanscale.

Efforts were made by the jury composed of The European Centre’s International Advisory Committee, to select designs that demonstrated a heightened awareness for new cities, new planning projects, and new buildings that use resources wisely, the selection of wood and materials from managed forests and from overconsumption, substituting engineered buildings products for alternative materials where appropriate, reusing existing materials, building with energy conservation in mind, and minimizing construction waste. In terms of product design, criteria included materials and products having one or more “green” characteristics, minimized waste, energy reduction, appropriate materials, greater life-expectancy, low-toxic and biodegradable components, and the ability to recycle after consumer use.

 “Through Green Good Design, our cities and our lives,” he continues, “will be enhanced greatly and better served now and in the future,” Narkiewicz-Laine says.

The deadline for Green Good Design 2012 is September 1, 2011. Submission information and on-line applications are available at www.europeanarch.eu.