The AWareness AWard 2011 is an annual award that aims to promote new design talent and raise awareness for the concept of ‘upcycling’: the idea that value can be generated from old and used carpet by turning it into innovative and beautiful new products.

This year’s competition, in which 80 young designers from some of Belgium’s leading art and design establishments took part, attracted a high standard of entries.

The winner of the competition is a joint entry by Vincent Welleman, Yves Verhaegen, Pim Van Eijk and Oskar Vermeylen’s piece, ‘Plof’. According to stefan schöning, the chair of the judging panel, the piece is about “what you see is what you get, it is a cool seat with endless possibilities in terms of colour, shape and usage”.

The runner up is another joint entry by four students; Nienke Ijpelaar, Mieke Keukelier, Stien Lambrechts and Elien Sockeel and was given the name: ‘Tapis Assis’, a versatile piece of furniture made from the underside of a carpet treated with water-based resin compound.

Third place was awarded to Maghalie Dooms for her creation, ‘The carpet disappears through movement’ a stunning fashion concept which tells the poetic story of carpet being used as clothing before slowly falling apart and disappearing through movement.

AW’s product range is eco-friendly, with carpets made from new sustainable raw materials such as bamboo and flax yarn and combinations of these yarns with wool. The company has also recently launched a new ‘a la carte’ bespoke carpet service, further expanding the range of choices available to the design-conscious consumer.

Domotex 2011, held from 15-18 January 2011, was a platform for exhibiting the latest collections and designs, whether contemporary and colourful or traditional and understated, functional or elegant, patterned or plain – the complete range of textile and resilient floor coverings for the domestic and contract markets.

AW has also introduced natural renewable, raw materials, such as bamboo and flax, both with unique intrinsic properties to enhance the comfort and functional advantages of carpet.

The AWareness AWard is an annual award aimed at celebrating design talent and raising awareness of environmental sustainability in the carpet industry. Instead of allowing carpet waste and obsolete sample material to be used as secondary fuel or to be consigned to landfill, the AWareness AWard aims to highlight the potential for carpets to be ‘up-cycled’, or given a new lease of life and new value by being re-engineered into new useful, beautiful and clever objects. The AWareness AWard was open to any student or student group in Belgium and the panel of judges was chaired by stefan schöning.