WAN Product of the Year entries lead the way in innovative technologies

This week, the diverse longlist for the 2011 WAN AWARDS Product of the Year (sponsored by BAU) was commended for pushing the boundaries of innovative technologies across a multitude of fields. Transforming time-old traditions with sharp engineering, the longlisted products drew many positive comments from the jury panel.

Director at Wilkinson Eyre, Paul Baker was keen to place Vergokan’s KBSTI cable tray system on the shortlist, stating: “I am extremely excited by simple thinking that has made - I think - a new approach to what is a very old technique... I think it’s simple, logical in design, making an old product more useable and a lot neater.”

On a similar note, an air of simplicity was a regular hit with the judges, demonstrating that an effective product does not have to incorporate the most complex technology or extravagant design to be top of its field. WAN’s remote juror, Design and Construction Associate at Tishman Speyer, Brendon Moss selected composite material Resysta for the shortlist noting: “This is a great sounding product which fulfils a need and is a great substitute for hard wood. I don’t know of another product using rice husks, good innovation.”

Dr Zoe Laughlin, Creative Director of The Institute of Making was quick to agree: “There are a lot of unsustainably sourced woods that would ordinarily be used in this instance and to create this effect.” The final shortlist is a stunning showcase of this year’s most exemplary products in the architectural field, encompassing ‘space-age’ windows, ‘fantastic’ fans, ‘evolutionary’ cable tray systems, ‘innovative’ composite materials and lighting products that ‘takes LED technology one step closer to providing a viable replacement to traditional lighting’.

Product of the Year shortlist
LED modules, United Kingdom
KBSTI, Oudenaarde, Belgium
Resysta, Forsting, Germany
Pilkington Spacia™
Isis®, Lexington, United States
Kebony, United Kingdom