Canadian student captures 2014 Sapa Sustainable Design Award

Dawson College student Nicholas Parent has won the 2014 Sapa Sustainable Design Award for an extruded aluminium wall bracket system that helps bring new life to old skateboards.

More than 80 entries from 13 universities around the world were received for the 2014 Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition held by the Extrusion Technology Foundation (ET Foundation). Nine students were recognized for their designs showcasing the versatility of aluminium extrusions.

Extrusion Technology FoundationScholarship awards of USD 12,500 in total were presented to the winning students. Each student winner also received an invitation to attend a Sapa Profile Academy event, an advanced course designed to demonstrate opportunities with extruded aluminium.

Versatile design
The Sapa Sustainable Design Award, sponsored by Sapa, is presented to the student entry that meets the four basic competition judging criteria of practicality, creativity, market potential and process/product improvement, as well as addressing environmental and/or societal concerns.

The 2014 winner, Nicholas Parent (pictured, right), is a senior studying Industrial Design at Dawson College in Westmont, Quebec, Canada. His "Boardslide" is a wall bracket system to hold and display skateboards or to reuse old skateboard decks by mounting them to the brackets as shelves.

Nicholas ParentDue to the versatile design with its cross-sectional geometry and features, the extruded aluminium bracket system can be configured to display skateboards in a variety of positions, and to store skateboard gear. Three separate end-use configurations can be created: Hangtruck, Deckgrab, and Wheelgrab.

The ET Foundation will be inviting entries from students only for the 2015 International Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition. The Call for Entries for the 2015 Aluminum Extrusion Design Competition will be available in fall 2014 with judging and announcement of the winners expected in spring 2015.