The USM Design Grant is a study grant launched by the FONDATION USM to encourage innovation by rewarding a student’s project. The grant amounts to CHF 25,000. This competition takes place each year during the Design Days, alternating between Geneva and Lausanne, and is granted in turn to students from HEAD/Haute école d’art et design Genève and ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne.

The soundscape of our daily lives refers to a large number of different sensations ranging from the irritation created by a ringing phone, to the beneficial relaxation effects of ASMR. It questions our relationship to objects through the sounds they make. For the 4th edition of the USM Design Grant, students in Bachelor Industrial Design at ECAL/Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne were invited to design a listening station that somehow materializes the sound it broadcasts, thus generating a distinctive multi-sensory experience in the context of a public exhibition.

Stéphane Halmaï-Voisard,
Head of Bachelor Industrial Design, ECAL
www.ecal.ch

The USM Design Grant is awarded to the “Infinity” project by Theo Luvisotto and Martin Stricker. As an exception, the jury awards a special mention to the “Bambino” project by Bérengère Bussioz and Clémence Buytaert.

THEO LUVISOTTO,
MARTIN STRICKER
Infinity

Infinity is a visual and sound installation which invites the user to enter into an infinite space. People can look through an opening and experience the echo of their own voice while seeing themselves in an infinite reflexion. The openings are positioned at different heights, allowing children and adults to interact freely inside the structure. Built out of duplicated cardboard modules linked by elastic ropes, the construction offers a maximum of effects with a minimum of means. It is efficient to produce, stackable in piles for transport, it can be quickly built in different kinds of shapes without the help of tools and is therefore inexpensive.

BÉRENGÈRE BUSSIOZ,
CLÉMENCE BUYTAERT
Bambino

We imagine this chatty bench to be installed in outdoor or indoor cultural spaces. Thanks to two Bluetooth speakers integrated in the backrest, it whispers sounds or informations to visitors. Our first inspiration was the confident armchair and from that we wanted to keep an intimate atmosphere with a sound that comes from the back. By adding a new sensitive dimension, the experience becomes more immersive. We declined it into two colors versions, a natural and a painted one, to be able to easily integrate it in different environments. It is stackable and easily rechargeable. Thanks to the caps, the speakers can correctly be replaced into this big tube, which gives all the character to our object.

The FONDATION USM would like to express its gratitude to the 11 groups who participated in the project and who engaged their reflection and creativity in order to research and propose relevant and diverse projects.