Chance for Students to Win $1,000 at the 6th annual Role Models Contest

Parsons Healthy Materials Lab is hosting the 6th annual Role Models Contest to award design innovations for material use that have no negative impact on the planet. This global contest, open to current students in all disciplines, is looking for the next healthy design role model. 

The grand prize winner receives $1,000 USD and extensive media coverage.

Students currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree-seeking design program are eligible to enter. This includes students in all disciplines and continents.​

Selection Criteria:

Healthy Materials Lab will choose winners who exemplify innovation, use healthy materials or healthy strategies, and/or advocate through design. Projects of all types, including theoretical, proposed, and real, are eligible. Entries can include models, prototypes, artwork, or visual media. Requirements include documentation of the design process through pictures, drawings, or short videos, and an annotated life-cycle diagram summarizing the carbon impact of your design in order to understand how your design responds to the current global climate emergency.

Submission requirements: 

The contest accepts in-process and digital models (that might have been made in your kitchen) and/or any other evidence to support your final concept.

• First and Last name of individual or all team members
• Name and location of your University
• Faculty reference
• Name of academic program you are enrolled in
• Project title
• A description of your motivation or inspiration (100-word limit)
• A description of your process (100-word limit)
• A description of market viability (100-word limit)
• A description of all materials used, including any coatings and/or adhesives; plus evidence to support any claims of healthier materials (Why is your material innovation healthier?) (500-word limit)
• Annotation of this diagram to reflect the lifecycle of your design. Consider the impact on human and environmental health at every stage.
• At least 3 final project images (under 1MB). All images must be high resolution

A maximum of 7 supporting images, videos, drawings, and/or other means of demonstrating your process. All images must be high resolution.

About Healthy Materials Lab:

Healthy Materials Lab, a design research lab at Parsons School of Design. Healthy Materials Lab is dedicated to a world in which people’s health is placed at the center of all design decisions. Healthy Materials Lab is committed to raising awareness about toxins in building products and to creating resources for the next generation of designers and architects to make healthier places for all people to live.

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