Vehicles win in design awards

Taking the gong in the James Dyson Award section for students, the ‘sci-fi meets safety’ Amatoya Fire Reconnaissance Vehicle crowned Liam Ferguson as the country’s most inspirational young designer. The Monash University student says the idea for Amatoya – which means ‘rain maker’ – was prompted by the experience of helping defend his Hazelwood South family home in 2009 during the Black Saturday bushfires.

"We were completely surrounded by the flames within seconds and had to defend ourselves... There was a point when we thought we wouldn’t make it," Ferguson says.

While he speaks highly of the efforts of the fire brigades in what have been described as our worst ever blazes, it made him question whether they could be helped by better design – and then prompted him to work with them on the Amatoya. While most fire-fighting reconnaissance vehicles are tipover-prone 500-litre tankers with a crew of around six, his design needs only two operators, can carry 2200 litres and has a low and centralised gravity weighting to increase stability.

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In the AIDA category for production vehicles, the prizes were taken by Hyundai’s just-arrived i45 sedan, Nissan’s Murano SUV, and the Audi A5 Sportback. Accepting the award on behalf of Hyundai, the company’s marketing director Oliver Mann said on the night that it was a great acknowledgement of the badge’s new styling.

"We're delighted that i45 has been recognised by the AIDA judges - it's a landmark design for the category and signposts Hyundai's future direction," Mann said.

Winners in other categories were:

Architecture and Interior Products