Design Museum's Designs of the Year Awards 2012

The Design Museum opened its ‘Designs of the Year' exhibition yesterday in a celebration of global design innovation at its home in Shad Thames, London.

Designs from across the world within seven categories – Transport, Architecture, Digital, Fashion, Furniture, Graphics and Product – have been nominated by industry experts, with the nominations now on show at the Design Museum.

The first of the transportation nominations is the Autolib, a Parisian electric car commissioned by Paris' Mayor, Bertrand Delanoë. The car, designed for urban residents, is essentially rented on a pay as you go basis with the only cost the electricity used to recharge. Charging the car via a lead is easy, from various docking points around the city.

A re-design for the London Emergency Ambulance has also been nominated for the prestigious award, coming from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art. It features an improved layout as well as the technology and equipment needed for paramedics to work effectively at incident scenes. It's designed to achieve a reduction in total hospital admissions of up to 60 per cent and cost savings of more than £30 million.

The T27 electric city car, by Gordon Murray Design, is also featured in the exhibition. The T27 specifically targets the urban city environment via a unique, holistic, manufacturing process called iStream® developed by Gordon Murray Design. The design and development of the vehicle significantly reduce lifecycle impacts and enable low cost, efficient manufacture close to market.

The 787 Boeing Dreamliner, also named ‘Aircraft of Legend' by the Living Legends of Aviation organization, applies the latest technology to a new airplane design. The advanced features of the 787 increase efficiency, simplify the plane's operation, and significantly improve the overall air travel experience.

A bike hangar was the final design to make it into the list of nominations. The ‘BH-6S' model, installed at the 2011 Gwangju Design Biennale, Korea, was developed by Manifesto Architecture, addresses the issue of future transport – namely, when the majority of people convert to bicycles, where are they all going to stored?

All these nominations will be on show at the ‘Designs of the Year' exhibition at the Design Museum until 15 July. A prestigious jury, yet to be confirmed, will then select the seven category winners and an overall winner for the Design of the Year 2012. The winners will be announced at an Awards Night held at the Design Museum on 24 April.

To view a full list of nominations for all seven categories, visit the Design of the Year Awards's website.

By Rufus Thompson