Jordanian schools among winners of regional design challenge

AMMAN — Schneider Electric received innovative design solutions from high-school students as part of Project Design Space (PDS), the Middle East’s largest annual design challenge run by the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (DIDI). 

Participants in the competition included emerging student designers from schools across the Middle East, according to a statement from Schneider Electric, a multinational company specialising in digital transformation of energy management. 

Student teams from Amman Baccalaureate School, International Academy Amman, GEMS Our Own English High School Dubai&Sharjah, ADEK - Mixed Schools, were selected by a Jury of judges as the winning teams of the challenge to designing a stand-alone, detached villa smart-home prototype. 

This year, Schneider Electric design brief challenged participating students to design a smart home that harnesses the power of technology to enable sustainable, personalised and connected living. 

Jury members from Schneider Electric reviewed over 120 video entries and concepts that reflected how youth envision smart homes, how it appeals to them and what they think a smart home should consist of. 

Mohamed Samy, General Manager for Schneider Electric Levant, said: “Schneider Electric’s participation in Project Design Space gave us the opportunity to take part in and engage with the region’s youth to create and innovate, solve problems and apply their ideas and design skills to real-world projects.” 

Throughout the 16-week challenge from March to May, each participating school received specialised training and programme materials to design solutions for the design brief.  

First launched in 2017, DIDI’s Project Design Space aims to support the development of design knowledge as an academic discipline, as well as to give students the opportunity to experience the tasks and challenges that come with a career in design.