Mar 17. 2026 - Latest News
Recently, the results of the 2026 German iF Design Award were officially announced. The Shape-Shifting Pin Table project, jointly designed by Professor Seungwoo Je's research group at the School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) and DCBolt Productions in the United States, won the iF Design Award. This project in winning the award in the fields of Brand & Communication Design/Data Visualization not only represents the international jury’s dual recognition of the design concept and engineering realization of the work, but also serves as an endorsement and encouragement for our exploration of empowering social development through "technology + design".
The Shape-Shifting Pin Table is a reconfigurable, dynamic shape-changing display, an innovative carrier that transforms abstract urban data into tangible physical topographies. Inspired by the evolving trend of hardware and software data visualization in the digital age, this project have innovatively integrated data visualization with physical interface, converting spatial, temporal, and programmatic datasets into intuitive physical models and breaking new ground in the field of physical data visualization.
This project is built on three core design pillars: a dynamic shape-changing display, projection mapping, and a user-friendly interface. It transcends the screen-bound limitations of traditional data visualization, turning abstract urban analytics data into visible, touchable, and interactive. With this innovative tool, urban planners, educators, and community stakeholders can quickly create scenario prototypes, visually compare different planning schemes, and efficiently communicate design ideas, making urban planning decisions more scientific, participatory, and efficient. In an era of deep integration between the digital and physical worlds, the core design philosophy of the Shape-Shifting Pin Table lies in lowering the barrier to data comprehension and facilitating multi-stakeholder collaborative decision-making through the dual empowerment of technology and design.
This project was co-designed and manufactured through deep collaboration between Prof. Seungwoo Je's research group and DCBolt Productions in the U.S., with CBRE, a renowned U.S. real estate industry leader, serving as the client. By integrating technological research and development, industrial design, and industry resources, the participating teams leveraged their complementary strengths within a collaborative framework to advance the project. The work progressed from conceptual development and iterative design refinement to product realization, forming a relatively complete development and implementation process.
About iF
Founded in 1954, the iF Design Award is one of the oldest and most authoritative design awards in the world. The iF Design Award is organized into nine disciplines, each further divided into multiple subcategories, covering a wide range of design fields including products, spatial design, digital interaction, and service systems.
The award follows a two-stage jury process: first, an online preselection phase filters approximately 50% of the submitted entries; this is followed by a physical final jury, where an international panel of experts determines the final winners. All entries are evaluated based on five key criteria: Idea, Form, Function, Differentiation, and Sustainability.
For the 2026 competition, an independent jury composed of 129 leading international experts in design and sustainability selected outstanding designs that demonstrated innovation, practicality, aesthetic value, and social significance from more than 10,000 entries worldwide through a rigorous, transparent evaluation process.
About Design Team
Seungwoo Je is currently an Assistant Professor and Ph.D. supervisor at the School of Design, Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech). He is a researcher and educator in Haptics, Virtual Reality, and Human–Computer Interaction, and the director of the Immersive Design Group. His research focuses on creating novel experiences through cutting-edge technologies to enrich and diversify human–computer interaction. His work has been published at top international HCI conferences, including ACM CHI, ACM UIST, and IEEE ISMAR. His research on haptic technologies for enhancing virtual avatars has been awarded the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) Research Fund for International Young Scientists. He is also involved in a national-level collaborative research project with the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF). In addition, he collaborates with leading institutions such as MIT, Beihang University, and the University of Birmingham, spanning disciplines including computer science, industrial design, architecture, cultural technology, and aerospace engineering. He has been selected as a JSPS Invitational Fellow, currently serves as a board member of the Korean Society of Design Science (KSDS), and is a program committee member for multiple top-tier international conferences. More information can be found at www.seungwooje.com
