3D puzzle by students wins Design Museum’s Design Ventura 2023

Annual design competition Design Ventura 2023 was won by the Piggott School’s students, who created the ‘Stack It!’ 3D architectural puzzle

Design Ventura 2023 winner 3D architectural puzzle
(Image credit: Richard Heald)

Students from Reading’s Piggott School won the Design Ventura 2023 competition with a proposal for a 3D architectural puzzle. Titled ‘Stack It!’, the wooden puzzle comes with a series of challenge cards inviting users to create different tasks. Over the next few months, the puzzle will be developed for manufacture and later sold at the Design Museum Shop in London for around £15, with all proceeds going to Cancer Research UK.

Design Ventura 2023 winner Stack it 3D architectural puzzle

(Image credit: Richard Heald)

For Design Ventura 2023, students from secondary schools across the UK were invited to conceive and develop products based on the theme of 'Place', and their work was assessed by a jury. This was led by brief-setter Selasi Setufe, senior architect Innovative Sites manager at BeFirst and co-founder of Black Females in Architecture, and included: Sujata Burman, editor at London Design Festival and London Design Biennale; designer Sebastian Conran; Preena Patel, buying and merchandising manager at the Design Museum; and Christoph Woermann, chief marketing officer for Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank division.

'The first time I considered a career in design was whilst I was at secondary school, and I am glad the Design Ventura experience is inspiring a new generation of designers and entrepreneurs,' says Setufe. 'Whilst the competition was tough, The Piggott School stood out for their 3D architectural puzzle structure, 'Stack It!'. The product is both visually striking and socially responsive, with a focus on their target audience’s needs.'

Adds Tim Marlow, CEO and director at the Design Museum: 'Design Ventura is now in its 13th year and I’m always so impressed by the level of creativity and business acumen shown by all the student teams. The programme does fantastic work in helping children to develop business knowledge as well as nurturing creativity and placing design back on their curriculum. Every day at the Design Museum we see first-hand the important role that creativity and design plays in a child’s education and we’re so glad to be able to encourage school kids across the UK to develop these skills whilst gaining valuable business experience.'

ventura.designmuseum.org

Rosa Bertoli was born in Udine, Italy, and now lives in London. Since 2014, she has been the Design Editor of Wallpaper*, where she oversees design content for the print and online editions, as well as special editorial projects. Through her role at Wallpaper*, she has written extensively about all areas of design. Rosa has been speaker and moderator for various design talks and conferences including London Craft Week, Maison & Objet, The Italian Cultural Institute (London), Clippings, Zaha Hadid Design, Kartell and Frieze Art Fair. Rosa has been on judging panels for the Chart Architecture Award, the Dutch Design Awards and the DesignGuild Marks. She has written for numerous English and Italian language publications, and worked as a content and communication consultant for fashion and design brands.