"Creating Social Value Through Design" KAIST Honored with Red Dot Design Award

Professor Sangmin Bae's team from KAIST has won the grand prize at the 'Red Dot Design Award,' one of the world’s top three design competitions. The evaluation emphasized that it was not just the product design itself, but the creation of social value through design by addressing common challenges facing humanity that was decisive in winning the award.

Professor Baesangmin (wearing a blue vest) and his research team, after conducting a field survey and collaborative design workshop for the development of the 'SolarSteel Box,' are taking a commemorative photo with local residents in Tanzania. KAIST

On July 17, KAIST announced that the research team led by Professor Bae from the Department of Industrial Design won the 'Red Dot: Best of the Best,' the top honor in the Social Impact category at the 'Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2026.'

The Red Dot Design Award is recognized as one of the top three global design awards, alongside Germany's iF Design Award and the United States' IDEA (International Design Excellence Awards). In particular, the 'Best of the Best' distinction is granted to the most innovative and complete works in each category.

The team received this award for the 'Solarstill Box,' a solar-powered water purification and desalination device. The Solarstill Box utilizes solar energy to generate drinking water without electricity or fuel. Its key function is to distill seawater or water containing salt and contaminants using solar heat, enabling it to provide potable water as a type of purification and desalination device.

This device was developed for off-grid regions—areas not connected to public infrastructure and reliant on coastal, saline, or contaminated water resources. It has received high international acclaim for enabling water supply and management in areas suffering from water scarcity and water pollution.

The greater significance lies not simply in the product’s design excellence, but in how design was used to address the global issue of access to clean water, thereby creating sustainable social value.

Diagram of the structure and operating principle of the 'SolarSteel Box.' This device features a prefabricated structure based on Plaveneer and can be installed within 20 minutes. The installed device uses solar thermal distillation to produce up to 6 liters of potable water per day. KAIST

Previously, the Solarstill Box was developed as part of the SEED Project, a social contribution design research initiative of the I'D+IM Design Lab (Professor Bae’s laboratory) conducted in collaboration with World Vision. Professor Bae, doctoral student Kim Jungwoo, master's student Kim Minsu, and undergraduate Han Seunghee led the design development for the SEED Project.

With this Best of the Best award, the research team plans to pursue commercialization of the product with World Vision and build deployment models for off-grid local communities.

In particular, the long-term vision is to establish a cooperative-based operational model, where local residents manufacture, distribute, and participate in the maintenance of the Solarstill Box themselves, supporting solutions to global drinking water problems and the sustainable development of regional communities.

The Solarstill Box will be introduced to a global audience at the official awards ceremony and exhibition for the 'Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2026,' scheduled for October this year.

Professor Bae stated, "Design should be more than creating beautiful products; it should be a tool for solving social issues and transforming the lives of humanity," adding, "I hope the Solarstill Box becomes a sustainable drinking water system that takes root and spreads throughout off-grid communities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.