They're in the Money

Judith Gura -- Interior Design, 11/1/2005 12:00:00 AM

A straw to purify drinking water and a soccer program to boost HIV/AIDS education are two of the projects singled out by the new Index: 2005 Awards. Sponsored by a consortium of Danish government and business entities, the Index recognizes "design to improve life" with prizes of $117,500.

Two winning groups from the U.S. were Architecture for Humanity, for the soccer field in South Africa, and Apple Computer, for iPod and iTunes. Torben V. Frandsen, Rob Z. Fleuren, and Moshe Frommer designed the LifeStraw; the Fundación Español Para la Innovaciós de la Artesanía and a Spanish government ministry got together to organize a networking program for Latin American craftspeople; and Stephanie Forsythe, Todd MacAllen, and Robert Pasut created Softwall, a recyclable paper partition.