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.
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.'
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