Slow design wins this year's competition: Gregory Granados is granted the jury's Grand Prix

The Grand Prix and the Prix of the City of Hyères, were awarded Sunday, June 30th to Grégory Granados, graduate of the College of Art and Design of Toulon Provence Méditerranée for Step, his project of collective musical instruments.

His design is composed of a sound set made of tubes, dishes, wooden modular objects, which vibrate together. "Here is a virtuoso instrumentalist who has created a tribal and primitive object that is not intended for an elite," rejoices Mathieu Lehanneur, head of the jury which included, among others, the curator of the department of architecture and design and director of MoMA R & D, Paola Antonelli, the French decorator, Jacques Grange, and Carlotta de Bevilacqua, vice president of the Artemide Group.

Mathieu Lehanneur pursues: "I appreciate that he is interested in music, an unexplored field in design. His idea made me think of the schools and the SNCF (French national railroad company) which had this daring project to display pianos in the stations, when everyone was saying they would be quickly destroyed. They weren't! These pianos have changed people's lives in stations all over France much like Grégory's project, which is both generous and beautiful."

The ten finalists all shared the same desire to offer sustainable designs for the future. Coming from very different countries such as Columbia, France, Germany or Japan, they wish to change the way we live in a better way. For example, Maxime Louis Courcier who won a special mention this year for the air humidifier made of paper explains: "In the appliance industry where I did internships, I was surprised by the ridiculous comfort gained from the mismanagement of energy, human efforts and materials deployed to make a machine, air conditioner or humidifier. So I looked for ways to save money by reinventing ceramics, "says the 27-year-old.