In the category “New Living“ and for her final thesis of “Myamo“, KISD graduate Katharina Querbach has recently won the Green Concept Award 2020. The latter is part of the internationally announced Green Product Award which serves as a platform for companies, students, and start-ups whose products combine the topics of design, innovation, and sustainability. The prizes are awarded in 13 categories to companies, students, and start-ups separately.

Katharina Querbach’s final thesis from 2019 deals in great detail with the structure and role of so-called Myamo. Myamo are modular acoustic panels out of Mycelium-Material, a fungi-based material that is 100 percent biodegradable and has a high-performance sound-absorbing property. The parametric surface structure is reminiscent of natural cell structures, resulting in a distinctive appearance that harmonizes acoustic functions and aesthetics. The modular system, consisting of an edge, corner and center panel, allows individual design of a relief-like overall picture by rotating the individual modules.

Besides the honor of winning the Green Concept Award 2020, Katharina’s final thesis of “Myamo“ has been currently nominated for two further awards: on the one hand, for the 13th edition of “Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitspreis (German Sustainability Award)“ with its awards presentation being held in early December in Düsseldorf, and on the other hand for “Bundespreis Ecodesign (Federal German Award of Ecodesign)“ whose jury will come together on September 21 in Berlin to announce the winning participants.

KISD – Köln International School of Design of TH Köln is delighted with the positive state of external evaluation of Katharina’s work in KISD’s area of expertise “Design and Ecology“ (supervised by Prof. Katrin Müller-Russo), and also refers to the fact that Katharina Querbach’s work “Myamo“ has been recently and will be exhibited at Cologne-based design and sustainability festival “ökoRAUSCH“ taking place at MAKK, Museum for Applied Art Cologne, from August 28 to September 24, 2020.

Please find more information on the award winners, on Katharina Querbach‘s thesis “Myamo“, on the respective awards, and on the Cologne ökoRAUSCH design festival here:

Green Product Award 2020: https://www.gp-award.com/en/blog/posts/unsere-gewinner-2020
German Sustainability Award 2021: https://www.nachhaltigkeitspreis.de/en/
Ecodesign Award: https://bundespreis-ecodesign.de/en
ökoRAUSCH Festival: https://www.oekorausch.de/en/