Dezeen School Shows: a modular positioning kit designed to aid children's comfort during X-rays is among the projects from this year's Designblok selection.

Also featured is a proposal exploring upholstery techniques without using glue or permanent joints, and sensory therapy objects designed for people with disabilities.

Designblok, Prague International Design Festival

Competition: Designblok Diploma Selection International Competition

School statement:

"The Designblok Diploma Selection talent competition, organised by the festival in cooperation with the EUNIC Cluster Prague to support and promote graduates of European universities, will celebrate its 11th edition in 2025.

"From 197 submitted projects, the international expert jury has selected thirty finalists from 12 countries and 19 universities, who will present their graduation works to the public and jury during Designblok 2025.

"The final will feature 15 product design graduates and 15 fashion design graduates, with product collections displayed in an exhibition format and fashion collections presented through runway shows.

"The winners in both categories will receive a financial reward of €1,000 to create a new collection, which will be presented at Designblok 2026. The winners, as well as the second and third-place finalists, will also be invited to present their work at the next edition of the festival.

"The Designblok Diploma Selection 2025 Awards Ceremony will take place on Saturday 11 October, at 7pm at the Nová Spirála Theatre, in the presence of the international juries, journalists, and curators.

"The full list of winners will be available on Designblok's website.

"The partners of the Designblok Diploma Selection for 2025 are Hornbach, ELLE and ELLE Decoration."

Get Lacky by Peter Barens

"Get Lacky is both a critique and celebration of IKEA's Lack series, reframing its surface-over-substance philosophy as a form of ingenuity rather than declino.

"By combining efficient, low-cost construction with intentional surface design, the project questions traditional notions of value, skill and craft, offering instead a more sustainable approach to contemporary making."

Student: Peter Barens
School: ArtEZ University of the Arts
Email: info[at]peterbarens.nl

Hydro Bold by Ondřej Čižmář

"My bachelor thesis focuses on the design of a public drinking fountain. The project explores how an element as seemingly ordinary as a fountain can influence the form and perception of public space.

"Inspired by historical water infrastructure and the emotional value of physical interaction, I designed a device activated by turning a wheel, a simple mechanical gesture.

"Although the design is rooted in conceptual thinking, it remains fully functional and suitable for industrial production."

Student: Ondřej Čižmář
School: Faculty of Fine Arts of Brno University of Technology
Email: ondrejcizmar[at]post.cz

Apnée by Margot Danloy

"This project invites us to question our relationship with time, to (re)connect with our sense of self, with what surrounds us and with a genealogy born at the bottom of the oceans.

"The materials reflect meaning and evoke local heritage.

"Copper and indigo, interacting with oxygen, evoke breath and insatiably coveted resources. In a world of perpetual acceleration, Apnée creates a suspended space, a call to listen and slow down."

Student: Margot Danloy
School: La Cambre
Email: margot.danloy[at]lacambre.be

DIY by Klaudia Ďugelová

"The topic of erotic toys opens up a wide range of possibilities, even in today's oversaturated world.

"Toys designed for women, my chosen target group, are often the embodiment of designers' unrealistic fantasies, lacking the personal touch that female sexuality and sensuality truly deserve.

"In the product, the woman herself becomes the central figure. Its visual form rejects phallic shapes and literalness, giving her space for her own imagination."

Student: Klaudia Ďugelová
School: Brno University of Technology
Email: klaudiadugelova[at]gmail.com

Spiky by Kamila Dvořáková

"In her work, Kamila Dvořáková builds on one of the most demanding glass painting techniques, which she has adapted to create colourful, durable and richly layered structures.

"Each vase took several days to complete, with the artist manually placing individual spines onto the surface of the glass.

"The resulting object carries patience and a willingness to experiment. What begins as an ordinary vase transforms into an object that invites touch and transcends its original function."

Student: Kamila Dvořáková
School: Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Email: kamidvor[at]seznam.cz

You May Also Like by Paula Holzhauser

"The project investigates pre-consumer waste in industrial weaving, where short running lengths and colour deviations lead to significant yarn disposal.

"It reimagines these leftover yarns as a central design element. Knotting and twisting the remnants extends their usability for industrial applications by transforming waste into functional yarn.

"In this process, residual colours shape the fabric's patterns, turning discarded material into a design asset."

Student: Paula Holzhauser
School: Burg Giebichenstein University of Design
Email: paulaholzhauser[at]gmail.com

Handy by Dita Koubek

"The diploma project focuses on developing sensory objects – aids for people with mental and combined disabilities. It is carried out in collaboration with Domov Mladá, a day care centre in Milovice that provides individual care for people with reduced self-sufficiency.

"The work is based on the principles of art therapy as a means of nonverbal communication and as a creative process that helps develop clients' sensory perception, patience and concentration."

Student: Dita Koubek
School: Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Email: ditakoubek[at]gmail.com

l by Gréta Kušnírová

"In my thesis, I examine the authenticity of the memories I have reconstructed.

"I attempt to recall memories of food and places, creating a cultural transfer enriched with now layers.

"I work with nostalgia and subjective memory, playing with the boundary between authentic experience and its aestheticised representation.

"We carry with us fragments of the cultures and places we have visited and admired. But does our following and admiring of these places border on cultural appropriation?"

Student: Gréta Kušnírová
School: University of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Email: kusnirovagreta[at]gmail.com

Humanisation of Paediatric Care: X-ray Positioning Set for Paediatric Patients by Oliwia Olbińska

"Children's hospitalisation and medical procedures cause stress and trauma. Analysis into the products available on the market showed a lack of proper support during positioning for paediatric X-rays.

"The response to this issue is the set providing holistic care for young patients, parents and health professionals during positioning extremities for X-ray imaging.

"The modular tool for medical service provides children's comfort, wellbeing and improves the quality of the results."

Student: Oliwia Olbińska
School: The Academy of Art and Design in Wroclaw
Email: o.olbinska[at]gmail.com

What Goes Around Comes Around – Sun as a Tool by Sophie Stanitzek

"In an alternate reality shaped by two suns, Sophie Stanitzek's project explores a world defined by climate weirding and human-made environmental collapse.

"Under relentless heat and chaotic weather, traditional survival strategies become obsolete. Through speculative, low-tech objects, like parabolic tanning devices, she stages the absurdity of apocalyptic joy and exposes the inequalities of future leisure.

"These designs critically reflect on our relationship to natural forces and open resources, to surface contradictions.

"Rather than proposing fixes, the work amplifies symptoms of collapse that are already unfolding.

"It moves beyond the idea that techno-solutionism is the only path forward and reveals how comfort, pleasure, and resilience are increasingly privileges of the wealthy.

"In doing so, it opens up space for a more conscious and honest engagement with the forces shaping life on Earth."

Student: Sophie Stanitzek
School: Berlin Univeristy of the Arts
Email: mail[at]sophiestanitzek.de

Holobiont – Microalgae and Microbial Symbiosis: Concept for More Resilient Urban Ecosystems by Milan Stein

"Holobiont is a self-sustaining photobioreactor that enables local cultivation of microalgae – highlighting their role as circular bioresources.

"The project reveals the invisible but crucial symbiosis between microbes, roots and plants, and envisions a future where microalgae improve soil, support biodiversity and enhance urban ecosystems' resilience to pollution, drought and heat.

"Built from recyclable mono-materials, the object merges ecological function with material responsibility."

Student: Milan Stein
School: Kunsthochschule Kassel
Email: milan.stein[at]gmx.de

The Taste of Togetherness by Marie Van Dun

"The Taste of Togetherness brings meaningful experience into the hospital. This drink ritual, co-created by patient and visitor, breaks routine and fosters connection, calm and autonomy.

"Using local ingredients and sensory actions, it creates a healing moment by hacking the hospital routine.

"This design responds to patients' need for social interaction and meaningful engagement, showing how shared rituals and interaction can deeply enrich the recovery process and boost mental health."

Student: Marie Van Dun
School: LUCA School of Arts
Email: marievandun.studio[at]gmail.com

Collaborating with Animals: Meer Koet, Minder Afval and Woodwormdesign by Jaron Vandevelde

"Vandevelde explores how natural processes can co-shape design, showing how insects like woodworms and waterbirds such as coots become co-creators.

"By studying their behaviour and collaborating with different experts, Vandevelde develops new ways of working with animals to explore sustainable alternatives and now solutions.

"This approach challenges traditional design, opening artistic and ecological perspectives that aim for practical feasibility and reciprocal benefit for both humans and animals."

Student: Jaron Vandevelde
School: KASK & Conservatorium
Email: jaron.vandevelde[at]telenet.be

UnoArthed: Recontextualisation of Gemer ceramics by Mátyás Zagiba

"The work addresses the question of locality and authenticity in the context of Gemer ceramics. It draws on contemporary material theories and critically reflects on folklorism.

"The designer perceives material as a culturally significant aspect, and shifts it into the realm of decor/ornament through burnished surfaces that reveal the natural structure of the local material.

"A large part of the project is dedicated to material and technological research aimed at using raw and unrefined clay for the creation of ceramic objects."

Student: Mátyás Zagiba
School: University of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague
Email: zagibamatyas[at]gmail.com

Circular Superstructures by Žofia Horová

"How can a change in technology lead to solutions that optimise material use, without reducing user comfort?

"The project explores mono-material approaches to upholstery, without glued and other permanent joints, which are one of the main barriers to recycling at the end of a product."

Student: Žofia Horová
School: Faculty of Architecture and Design of STU
Email: zofiahorova[at]gmail.com

Partnership content

This school show is a partnership between Dezeen and Designblok. Find out more about Dezeen partnership content here.

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