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Dez 15. 2022

Introducing our Gold German Design Award winning concept Cercle, a revolution in sustainable design

We are pleased to announce Cercle, our recyclable haptic feedback steering wheel has been awarded a Gold German Design Award (GDA).

Having already won an iF Design Award back in spring, Cercle is already making waves in the world of design - and, more specifically, sustainable design.

Arising from the ever-more-pressing need for recyclable products with a circular economy approach, Cercle turns steering wheel design on its head as we know it. Traditionally, steering wheels end up as waste in automotive landfill once they reach their end of life however Cercle aims to change this.

Designed to be simply disassembled into component waste streams utilising new approaches to materials, production and assembly technologies, Cercle uses sustainable and reusable materials throughout without compromising this key touch point feature within the vehicle.

Explore the Cercle steering wheel

About the German Design Award

The German Design Award is, undoubtedly, one of the world’s most respected prizes in design, handed out annually to the concepts and products deemed the best across the globe.

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the awards committee of worldwide design experts identifies, honours and presents the world’s greatest designs to the public from product design to communication design, to architecture.

Cercle isn’t our first accolade at the German Design Awards, our previous medical device design work on Layr and Dose both received awards by the GDA in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

So, what does a ‘Gold’ design award mean?
Whilst a German Design Award is impressive enough, ‘Gold’ is its highest category of distinction, awarded for excellent, comprehensive, and innovative design work. Previous Gold winners from 2022 include an underground station in Berlin, a meditation courtyard inspired by the pinnacles of Buddhism, and the Museum of Imperial Kiln Brick in the Xiangcheng District in Suzhou, China.

The German Design Awards 2023 will be held in February at Ambiente, Frankfurt where the team will be collecting our award and, as always, look forward to catching up with our friends from the world of design.


Next steps

Read more about our latest award winning design or explore more of our work.

Interested in our approach to circular economy and the challenges of its design in the real world? Watch Dr Katie Beverley, Senior Research Officer, explain more in this video.