Documentation

The Jury
N.I.C.E. Award
2015
2015: Chair of the N.I.C.E. Jury,
Charles Landry.
This year’s N.I.C.E. Award received 213 submissions
and has thus surpassed all expectations. It
was a huge challenge for us as a jury – with only 15
allocating vacancies on the shortlist, the choice was not
easy to make. And that is why we decided to present a
16 th project as a “Special Guest” at the N.I.C.E. Exhibition
and to include it in the further award procedures.
We are still impressed by the quality of the submissions
and would like to congratulate all nominees of the
N.I.C.E. Award 2015. The shortlist includes only projects
of the highest standard, dealing with the topic “Solving
the World’s Major Challenges” from various perspectives.
For us as a jury, this entailed particularly long and intense
discussions and it was not easy to come to a decision.
The applicants found so many different ways to solve the
major challenges of our times, and we wanted to reflect
and maintain this diversity with the award. In the end, we
chose five winning projects that offer particularly original
solutions for the following problem areas: social integration/anti-discrimination,
environment/sustainability, urban
development, financial crisis, technological change.
The prize money of 20,000 Euros is distributed as follows:
The first prize, and thus 8,000 Euros goes to the project
THE MACHINE TO BE ANOTHER. It cunningly combines
the arts and neurosciences by making it possible to see
oneself in the body of another person and listen to his/
her thoughts inside their mind. Suddenly, you know how it
feels to sit in a wheelchair, to be of the opposite sex or to
have a different skin colour – which constitutes a cultural
and innovative contribution to social integration and the
fight against discrimination.
The second prize and 5,000 Euros go to the project PlanEt.
The technology of PlanEt was originally developed for an
arts project. It evaluates biological data from plants – a
hitherto undiscovered source of knowledge. This information
is very valuable as it can show the impact of the
environment in real time and tell us what new solutions are
necessary and possible for the development of smart cities.
The jury awarded the third prize and 3,000 Euros to
WikiHouse. The project is an open source platform –
which means it is accessible for everyone – providing
building and construction plans for citizens, designers
and architects alike to make it simple to plan and build
homes according to individual needs. The project offers
a solution for the housing crisis of the 21 st century, which
serves as an example for the failure of the construction
industry’s undemocratic and centralised system.
The fourth prize was awarded to two projects with 2,000
Euros each:
HOME BACK HOME from Spain is a solution for social
problems arising from the financial crisis in the
countries of Southern Europe: many young and usually
highly trained and qualified people do not find work
and cannot earn their living. Most of them are forced to
move back to their parents and live on just a few square
metres, which gives them a feeling of social failure. This
is where HOME BACK HOME comes into play: not only
does it help to adequately transform old bedrooms, but
it also aims at giving these young people a feeling of
success and strengthening their confidence.
Creative Technologies in the Classroom from Sweden
designed tools and methods to incorporate and develop
own emerging technologies in the classroom. The
technological progress of our times is rapidly advancing,
and most of us are using the latest technologies without
really knowing how they work. That is why this project
provides school children with a deeper understanding
of technology and keeps teachers informed about the
current state of developments. This helps them use new
didactic methods in the classroom.
Text: Charles Landry,
Chair of the N.I.C.E. Jury 2015
“The focus of the
N.I.C.E. Award is to
honour digital, cultural
solutions to the
challenges of this world
and to present best
practice examples from
throughout Europe.“
Prof Dieter Gorny
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