Karolina Kruszewska wins Young Design 2021 Lem Year
Karolina Kruszewska, a student of the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Katowice, submitted her work ‘HOSHI: your private piece of the sky.’
The Young Design competition has been supporting young designers for 13 years. This year’s theme is speculative design, i. e. design of the future, inspired by the works of Stanisław Lem. The competition is intended for students and graduates of design, art, graphic art, painting or architecture.
HOSHI was created to allow city dwellers to have a substitute for their own private piece of the sky. The design incorporates crystal balls passed on from generation to generation; they familiarize the user with the loss of a loved one. The second part is a piece of public space furniture which lights up the stars of our ancestors with electromagnetic field after the crystal balls are placed in it. The induction plate and water filter are powered by gradient solar cells, which prevents the production of additional pollution. The design uses regularly filtered rainwater.
‘HOSHI’ was inspired by the main themes in Solaris: water, reflection, death, memories and night sky. Additionally, if we look at the table through the crystal ball we will see the stars from above but when we look up into the sky, the stars will be gone.