Discarded Dreams Mattress Competition

Result

First Place
Helix by Nicole Knox and Grace Dalman

Second Place
Deconstructing and Reconstructing Sleep by RHWL students

Third Place
Silk City by Romulus Sim

View winner's entry.

Overview

This competition invite entrants to create innovative ways of converting used mattresses into useful products.

Description
Why, then, are our mattresses being abandoned in dumps and left to the seagulls? Every year in the U.S. 40 million mattresses get thrown in the trash. Don’t our mattresses deserve another chance?
The problem is, the nature and construction of mattresses has made them difficult to dispose of. They often end up in landfills because they cannot be broken down and their component parts are hard to utilize.
The competition aims to encourage entrants to form groups capable of creating a consumer product, instructions detailing how to make the product, and a plan for production on a larger scale.
Entrants must create designs that take into account the volume of mattress waste generated each year. Groups are encouraged to utilize local resources, including existing manufacturing facilities and other waste products.

Jury
Allan Chochinov (Partner of Core77)
Julie Lasky (Editor-in-Chief, ID magazine)
Piper Kujac (LEED accredited designer)
Angie Tadeo (Strategy Lead, Fuse Project)
Bret Recor (Product designer, Fuse Project)

Prize
1st place: $1000
2nd place: $500
3rd place: Amazing Rubicon Bakery baked goods
The winner/winners will also be invited to collaborate with Rubicon to design and execute a method of collecting and converting the mattresses into their value-added product, and potentially distributed for commercial use.

Entry Fee
None

Entries
Description (200 word minimum) and minimum 3 images

Timetable
Jury Review: December
Announcement of winners: February 2009

Organizer
Architecture for Humanity and Rubicon National Social Innovations

Official Website
http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/mattress