Naidoo joins R4.7 million Index prize jury

The founder of Design Indaba and MD of Interactive Africa, Ravi Naidoo, has been invited to judge Index, a Danish competition focusing on “design to improve life” whose patron is the Crown Prince of Denmark. With a design prize worth €500 000 (R4.7 million), awards categories are in body, home, work, play and community.

“It’s a great honour to be part of this initiative, which spurs public and professional awareness of the great potential that design has to really make a difference to peoples’ lives,” says Naidoo.

He joins 2007 Index jury luminaries such as Arnold Wasserman, chairman of Idea Factory in Singapore; Paola Antonelli, curator at MoMA in New York; Hella Jongerius, founder and CEO of Jongerius Lab in Holland, and a speaker at Design Indaba 10; and Nille Juul-Sørensen, associate director of ARUP, the world’s biggest engineering company.

Naidoo adds that South African design is already well known to Index: a Kwazulu-Natal project called Somkhele, developed by Architecture for Humanity, was a previous winner and the Hippo Water Roller, designed for water transportation by rural villagers, has been a finalist.

The second jury round takes place in Copenhagen, 14 - 16 June 2007, and the winner will be announced on 24 August.