Innovative ideas such as warning and prediction systems, shelter and protection devices and strategies for rebuilding communities have been presented to a design forum aimed at producing novel concepts to protect the community against the threat of devastating bushfires.
Environment, Climate Change and Innovation Minister Gavin Jennings, one of seven judges of the Design for Fire: Challenge Pitch at the 2009 Design Challenge, said he was impressed with the creative thinking shown by Victorian designers.
“Bushfires are an unavoidable part of life in Victoria and the Brumby Labour Government is taking action through events such as this design challenge to explore as many innovative solutions to protect the lives of Victorian families and businesses,” Mr Jennings said.
“The bushfires that devastated Victoria this year were unprecedented and so future fire threats demand creative and innovative responses. By encouraging innovative thinking we could find solutions can be achieved in ways we never thought possible.”
“The Design Challenge encourages researchers, industry and community experts to put their heads together and develop ideas that can have a real impact on Australia lives.”
As part of an ongoing competition, more than a dozen design teams gathered at Federation Square today to pitch their solutions to the design challenge posed by bushfires and their impact on the Australian community.
Run by RMIT’s Design Research Institute (DRI) and supported by the Brumby Government, the challenge brought together participants from a diverse range of backgrounds including chemical engineers, mobile learning experts and cartographers.
“There is incredible value in getting specialists from different fields to share ideas and work together – it was fascinating to see what they came up with,” Mr Jennings said.
“These innovative proposals will hopefully offer us genuine outcomes to help deal with extreme bushfires in the future.”
Five finalist teams will be announced on 10 August with winners invited to develop their concepts for the final stage of the 2009 Design Challenge Award Exhibition to be held in conjunction with DRI’s Transdisciplinary Design Symposium in November.
One finalist team will then be selected to receive the RMIT Design Research Institute Challenge Award which includes $25,000 to fund the next stage of research and development of the proposal in 2010.
No comments:
Post a Comment