Czech designer Jan Čtvrtník has won the Climate Competition organised by Droog with a vase based on Alvar Aalto’s famous design, but modified to express the effects of global warming.

The Aalto vase was inspired by the outline of a Finnish lake and Čtvrtník’s design suggests how the lake’s shape could change due to climate change.

Here’s some text from Droog:

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Visitors of the Droog website have chosen ‘Droog Aalto’ by Jan Ctvrtnik as the winning proposal for the Climate Competition. Congratulations! With 32% of all votes, Droog Aalto is an idea to be proud of.

Designer Rachel Hevic reached up to the second-favourite with her proposal of ‘Large red switch’ (23% of the votes). Third place comes for Jenny Bergström with ‘This is the air we breathe…’ (15% of all votes). Droog initiated the competition for which anyone could submit any idea in any possible form, as long as it concerned the ‘climate’ theme.

Jan Ctvrtnik: ‘I realised that climate changes are visualised mostly by numbers and scientific measurements. In order to show changes, it is good to have a reference point.’ And so the Aalto vase became that reference point with its shape originating from the shape of a Finnish lake. The ‘Droog’ part of the title can be translated as ‘Dry’, obviously relating to global warming.

Originally Czechoslovakian, Jan Ctvrtnik currently lives and works in Pordenone, Italy. After studying design in Prague and at IKDC in Lund (Sweden), he is now working as an industrial designer for Electrolux. New experiences trigger his inspiration: ‘I am trying to think different. Quite often I propose strange, odd and crazy ideas. After that I cut the “wings of imagination” and step by step refine something new but reasonable. I love doing something what I have never done before. I love the process of learning and exploring connections between subjects and surrounding space.’