Awards 2005

HENRY van de VELDE AWARDS 2005
Award presentation and preview on 19 January 2006
Exhibition from 20 January to 12 March 2006

Design Flanders promotes qualitative design and thus presents the Henry van de Velde Awards annually to the most deserving designers and companies. All selected designers could compete for this quality label, which is one of the world’s most prestigious design prizes. Only five designers and one company can win one of these Awards.

The winners will be announced during the award presentation ceremony that will be held on 19 January 2006 at 7 pm in the auditorium of the ‘Vlaamse Huisvestingsmaatschappij’ (Flemish Housing Society).
The preview of the exhibition covering the works of the Henry van de Velde prize-winners will open immediately after the award presentation, so at about 8.30 pm, in the Design Flanders Gallery.
The exhibition itself will run in the Design Flanders Gallery from 20 January to 12 March 2006.

Design Flanders communicates the names of the prize-winners to the Press in advance and in confidence, so that reports in the Press can be released quickly. The Press embargo applies until 19 January 2006.

The Career Award goes to Koen de Winter, a Flemish designer who completed his training in ceramics in 1962 in Maredsous. In 1969 he graduated from the Academy of Industrial Design in Eindhoven and subsequently worked in Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada. In 1979 he became Vice-President for Design in Danesco, a company in Quebec. In 1981 he became a professor at the University of Montreal’s design faculty. There he set up his own design bureau, Hippodesign, in 1989. At the same time, he started his own company, Atelier Orange, producing domestic ceramic products. Koen De Winter has more than 400 designs to his name. Most of them are in the area of industrial design, with his biggest customer being Pelican International, the world’s largest producer of pleasure yachts, as well as for the company Demeyere in Herentals that produces high-quality cooking pots. With such an impressive international career to his name, it should come as no surprise that Koen de Winter is the winner of the Henry van de Velde Career Award.

Steven Brouns receives the Young Talent Award. He successfully completed his studies at the Katholieke Hogeschool in Genk in 1998 and is now thirty years old. In the year 2000, under the name JZUZ, he started designing modular furniture made of foam - the “Living elements”. Then in 2002 he set up a new design bureau, with the intriguing name ZOINK. Here, similarly, he designs foam-rubber products, but with the difference that his work is done mostly on commission and with a focus on high-tech. For example, he designed the well-known seat for the announcers of the television channel ‘Eén’, incorporating lights in the back rest. He strives for balance between form, function and sustainability in his work. Often he starts from his existing basic designs, which he then adapts to the requirements of the client. Despite his youth, Steven Brouns is already working for big names such as Nike, Walter Van Beirendonck and Illy.

Modular Lighting Instruments receives the Company Award. This company was set up as Inter-Beams in 1980 by Paul Rommens and the late Jan Meyfroid. Although initially an import company for low-voltage lighting, Modular began to produce its own designs in 1983. In 1987 the company also began focusing on the export market. In the 1990s Modular offered total concepts: design, prototype, distribution, communication campaigns, light studies. This expansion in their range of services eventually resulted, as a new century dawned, in the separation of several business units. Modular forged ahead with its professionalisation drive by positioning itself better on the world market and so became the first lighting company to obtain the ISO 14001 certificate. This growing company works increasingly with external designers such as Vincent Van Duysen and Luc Vincent. At present Modular employs 110 people and exports to around 60 countries.

With his Lace glasses Patrick Hoet wins the Best Product Award. Patrick Hoet has enjoyed a big reputation for years now, as the designer of the glasses sold under the brand name Theo. He designed the Lace glasses as light sunglasses for the World Expo of 2005 in Japan where the theme was ‘The Wisdom of Nature’, which he took to mean ‘authenticity’. Coming from Bruges, he immediately hit upon Bruges lace as his source of inspiration. The Lace glasses have been designed in two versions: with and without lenses. Both versions are characterised by a lace pattern in front of the eyes. The lenses of the version with glass are made from polycarbonate. They have been printed in such a way that the lace motif is only visible from the outer side. The Lace without lenses is made solely from metal with a blank lace pattern in front of the eyes. There were only 1,000 copies of the Lace glasses made, all of which have already been sold.

Alexander Crolla and Pieter Lessage from the Antwerp design firm Concrete All Round Creative are the winners of the Henry van de Velde/Dyson Young Design Award. James Dyson defines designing as providing solutions to practical problems. Crolla and Lessage have certainly done that when designing the Intera, which is both a city-bike as well as a reclining bicycle. It is possible to transform this bicycle in no time at all, and without the help of any other accessories, from a bicycle for getting round town to a reclining bicycle and vice versa. The Intera combines the safety features of an ordinary urban bicycle with the speed of a reclining bicycle in the countryside. This makes it the ideal mode of transport for sporty commuters from the suburbs. With these practical advantages and its elegant look, this bicycle finds the perfect balance between design and functionality.

The above winners have been selected by a professional jury. Since Design Flanders also prizes the opinion of the general public, each year also sees the presentation of the Public Award. During the Henry van de Velde Exhibition in 2004 the public voted en masse for Soul Ash Solace from Maxime Szyf, a cremation coffin with an integrated urn. The coffin looks sober and serene. It is entirely made of corrugated cardboard, papier-mâché and wood - all of which are materials that burn easily. The small urn, on the other hand, is made of stainless steel. It is intended that the flames should create a coloured patina on the fireproof urn. It has the stylised form of an hourglass, a symbolic reference to the fact that time heals all wounds.

In the appended brochure texts you will find more information about the winners of the Henry van de Velde Awards 2005.


The exhibition presents a broad overview of the work of the prize-winners.

Design Flanders exhibits a retrospective of Koen De Winter’s entire life’s work, including ceramics and graphic and industrial design.

From the Young Talent Steven Brouns you will find a compact display giving an overview of the seats and interior design items he has designed to date.

Modular Lighting Instruments dazzles with the lighting objects designed by the late Jean Meyfroid, Vincent Van Duysen and Luc Vincent.

Besides the prize-winning Lace glasses from Patrick Hoet, both the nominated and the selected Best Products are exhibited. The complete overview is included in the appendix.

From Concrete, the innovative Intera bicycle is presented to the public for the first time.

Finally, one must not forget to mention the Public Award for 2004: Soul Ash Solace from Maxime Szyf.

Following a visit to the Gallery it will be quite clear that Design Flanders has once again taken its task of identifying and rewarding high quality in contemporary design very seriously indeed.