Seven Finalists Stretched the 2026 RIMOWA Design Prize Beyond Transport
The finalist field moved from menstrual-pain support to peatland machinery, showing that the competition now defines mobility as access and participation.
Quick answer
The seven 2026 finalists were PIP, HyVe, Paludi Harvesters, NURA, Compassion Aid, ARC and Aerodomestics. Their common subject was not luggage but agency: social contact, healthcare, restored landscapes, deaf-hearing communication, emergency response and domestic systems. NURA later won first prize and Paludi Harvesters received the special mention. Read this as a field map of student ideas, not as seven equally validated products.
Seven different barriers to movement
PIP, by Jakob Schlenker, examined social participation; HyVe, by Tim Kipper and John Roller, approached a healthcare or care-related mobility problem; Niklas Henning's Paludi Harvesters proposed autonomous reed farming on rewetted peatland. Samuel Nagel and Paul Feiler's NURA used forearm EMG in a proposed communication wearable for deaf and hearing people.
Tobias Kremer and Yannick Stilgenbauer developed Compassion Aid around emergency or humanitarian support; Nicolas Nielsen's ARC and Valerio Sampognaro's Aerodomestics expanded the brief into other systems of access and domestic movement. The official finalist page is visually led and concise, so descriptions should remain tied to each team's stated concept rather than embellished with imagined performance.
- Projects: PIP, HyVe, Paludi Harvesters and NURA
- Projects: Compassion Aid, ARC and Aerodomestics
Mentoring made this more than a one-day jury
The finalists developed their work over several months with practitioners before presenting in Berlin. The international jury included Stefan Daniel, Farah Ebrahimi, Konstantin Grcic, Matylda Krzykowski, Clemens Poloczek, Tim Richter and Hanne Willmann, with RIMOWA CEO Beatrice Monguidi serving as honorary member.
That structure matters because student design awards can otherwise reward polished renderings over resolved thinking. Mentoring gives a team time to revise the brief, prototype and confront a project's users. Public records still do not provide the testing depth needed to evaluate medical, ecological or structural claims as if the finalists were finished commercial products.
- Final presentation: Berlin, 11 May 2026
- Award structure: €20,000 first prize, €10,000 special mention and €5,000 for each other finalist team
The jury chose communication and ecological work
NURA won the first prize after the finalist announcement, while Paludi Harvesters received the special mention. The result connected two scales of mobility: an immediate exchange between people and a landscape-scale system intended to keep rewetted peat productive. That breadth explains the competition better than a generic promise of innovation.
Our verdict: the finalist story deserves to exist only if every project remains visible after the winners are named. Awards naturally compress attention around two results; editorial coverage should preserve the questions raised by the other five. The competition's strongest achievement is making mobility a social condition, not a synonym for wheels.
- Winner: NURA by Samuel Nagel and Paul Feiler
- Special mention: Paludi Harvesters by Niklas Henning
Frequently asked questions
What were the seven RIMOWA Design Prize finalists?
Which finalist won the 2026 prize?
Were the finalist projects commercial products?
Find your perfect RIMOWA
Answer a few travel questions and get one recommended suitcase, one smart alternative, and live price links.
Next pages to read
Related pages that make the buying decision easier.
Sources checked
Authoritative references used for factual claims.
Use the live comparison tools before purchase because prices, stock, exchange rates, airline rules, refund eligibility, and official policies can change.