RCA and Hyundai name winners of Excellence in Sustainability and Creative Practice award

The Royal College of Art (RCA) together with Hyundai Motor Group has announced the winners of the inaugural Hyundai Awards for Excellence in Sustainability and Creative Practice 2024, each selected for their ability to present projects that question societal cultural norms and work to solve the climate crisis.

The initiative is open to RCA students graduating in 2024 who are invited to take on three different categories: Inspiration, Innovation and Aesthetics & Craft.

While the latter was awarded to Kahee Jeong of the RCA’s MA Painting for the project ‘Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?’, Paul Baule received the Inspiration award for his project ‘Wood You’, an immersive installation serving as a commentary on deforestation in Amazon.

Ankita Khanna and Yohaan Kukreja, students in MA Design Products, were the recipients of the Innovation award, an honour they received for their project ‘Raw Materials’, which was created in response to the polluting practice of rice straw burning in India. The duo presented a rice straw-derived biodegradable composite and sheet material, which they designed for footwear production in the fast fashion industry.

The Hyundai Awards, which come as part of the industry-funded Hyundai-Kia Innovation Laboratory, aim to underline the importance of approaching different perspectives when tackling certain global issues, while further providing RCA students with the ability to follow through with their propositions in relation to their wider industries.