Mercedes Benz

Within the framework of this year's International Motor Show in Frankfurt am Main, yesterday evening the smart future minds award was awarded to the visionary and sustainable project „The People’s Supermarket“ from London. Eleven projects from Europe were nominated and were selected by experts from the fields of society, design, architecture, media, science and mobility. An international jury consisting of trend forecaster Lidewij Edelkoort, sustainability blogger Graham Hill (treehugger.com), Norwegian artist Magne Furuholmen (a-ha) and head of smart Dr. Annette Winkler chose the overall winner of the smart future minds award in Frankfurt. All eleven projects nominated will be exhibited from 15 to 25 September at the smart urban stage in Frankfurt.


„The People’s Supermarket“, amongst others initiated by Kate Bull and Arthur Potts from London wins the international smart future minds award on the future of the city and receives as one of the first customers a third generation smart fortwo electric drive. The sustainable food cooperative from the United Kingdom set itself the task of offering city dwellers from all social classes healthy, locally grown produce at fair prices. Giving the reasons for their choice the jury said "The People’s Supermarket makes a positive contribution to urban life. The convincing concept helps people in cities to return to community values. It's also about healthy food – and food is a subject that unites people around the world!"

Dr. Annette Winkler says "With the space- and resource-saving smart we have been making life in cities around the world a bit brighter and more flexible since 1998. "The People's Supermarket" has lots of things in common with smart: the project questions the status quo, improves the quality of life in cities and proves that less can often be more."

The jury in Frankfurt also made a further surprising decision: the project "Calle de Diversion" from Rome, which encourages people to revive traditional and very inexpensive street games, was awarded a surprising second place. "We found it so hard to choose the winner of the smart future minds award that we decided to acknowledge a second project. "Calle de Diversion" is a great idea that needs very little to move a lot. It's a fantastic idea that brings young people in particular together in a community in a fun way.", the jury said. The jury members spontaneously decided to give financial support to the project "Calle de Diversion“.

Between April 2010 and September 2011 a smart urban stage was held in eleven European cities (Berlin, Rome, Zurich, Paris, Madrid, Brussels, Amsterdam, London, Barcelona, Cologne and Milan) and a total of 110 future-oriented projects on the theme of "The future of the city" were presented. 55 experts from the fields of society, design, architecture, media, science and mobility – including Italian industrial designer Martino Gamper, French journalist Diane Pernet, and Spanish film director Isabel Coixet – acted as curators for the sustainable, future-oriented ideas, and also chose the local winners of the smart future minds award.

The national winners did not only win prize money of €10,000, they were also nominated for the international future minds award that has now been awarded in Frankfurt to the food co-operative “The People’s Supermarket”.

All eleven projects shown at the smart urban stage proved themselves to be particularly trend-setting and sustainable in the Europe-wide competition. They provide answers to the question of how people living in urban areas can bring more community and sustainability into their everyday lives in future.

From 14 September the general public will also be able to vote for their favourite project. On the smart urban stage Facebook page www.facebook.com/smarturbanstage people can choose their personal favourite and vote for it. The winner will be supported in the active continuation of his projects.

The winning smart future minds projects and all ideas curated to date will be on display to the public from 15 to 25 September with opening hours from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. .

At the smart urban stage anyone in possession of a driving licence can test drive the smart fortwo electric drive just outside the exhibition site in Frankfurt – and satisfy oneself that electric driving already is an alternative for the individual mobility in the city. Those interested can register on site or online at: www.smart-urban-stage.com/testdrive .

Over the past eighteen months more than 60,000 people have visited the smart urban stage, and more than 14,000 people have test driven t he smart fortwo electric drive. Through these awards, since April 2010 smart has given its support to international future-oriented projects like the Berlin city garden project "Prinzessinnengärten" in the form of almost €140,000 of prize money. All 110 projects curated in the past year and a half are presented on the website www.smart-urban-stage.com .

The temporary exhibition space, designed by the Aachen design agency BRAUNWAGNER, has won several awards including the red dot award 2010, the Good Design Award 2010 and an ADC nail in bronze in 2011. The smart urban stage is currently nominated for the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany in the Communication Design category.