The project brings social design and humanitarian design to the centre of Italy’s most prestigious design award, with an applied research model dedicated to emergencies, migration and social vulnerability.
Milan (Italy) – Ánako APS has received the Compasso d’Oro ADI 2026 for ‘+ Vicini da lontano’, a social design project that brings together the association’s work in developing concrete solutions for humanitarian emergencies, migration and social vulnerability.
The award recognizes a design approach that applies the methods of industrial design to needs that are often excluded from ordinary innovation processes: being born in a crisis context, crossing the sea with a newborn, protecting vulnerable people in temporary facilities, and improving safety and dignity in situations of extreme precariousness.
‘+ Vicini da lontano’ is not a single object, but a system of research, collaboration and applied design. The project includes several solutions developed by Ánako APS together with universities, students, NGOs, technical companies and third sector partners: from the emergency folding cradle for newborns, already produced and delivered in humanitarian contexts, to Kanguro, the lifejacket for mothers with newborns developed with the technical contribution of Veleria San Giorgio, as well as other devices dedicated to care, safety and the protection of vulnerable people.
The Compasso d’Oro ADI 2026 therefore recognizes the value of a design model capable of combining research, social responsibility, technical expertise and international collaboration. In a time marked by wars, forced migration, climate crises and growing inequalities, Ánako APS shows how design can become a concrete tool for care, prevention and dignity.
“This Compasso d’Oro does not only reward an object, but a way of working,” shared Valerio Vinaccia, Founder and President of Ánako APS. “We have tried to apply the method of industrial design to needs that often remain outside the field of design: being born in a refugee camp, crossing the sea with a newborn, caring for people in temporary structures. For us, design is not decoration. It is responsibility.”
Ánako APS works through a broad network of academic, technical and social collaborations. The association collaborates with Italian and international universities, Third Sector organizations, NGOs and specialised companies, building processes in which design does not stop at the concept stage, but moves towards prototypes, testing, production and possible real use.
“The point is not to produce symbolic objects,” Vinaccia continued. “The point is to design solutions that can actually work, be produced at sustainable costs, adapt to difficult contexts and, where possible, be replicated locally. Social design only makes sense when it stays close to reality.”
Ánako APS is part of national and international networks including World Design Organization, ADI and the New European Bauhaus. In recent years, its work has received several recognitions, including the Seoul Design Award, the Angelo Ferro Award for Social Innovation, the “Welfare, cheimpresa!” Award and the selection for the ADI Design Index.
With the Compasso d’Oro ADI 2026, Anako consolidates a path that offers a broader reading of contemporary design: not only product, market or formal innovation, but the ability to identify real needs, activate distributed expertise and build useful responses for the people and communities most exposed to vulnerability.
Ánako APS is a social design laboratory based in Parma (Italy). It develops solutions for humanitarian emergencies, migration and social vulnerability through research, co-design, prototyping and knowledge transfer. Its method combines academic research, industrial culture and social responsibility, with the aim of creating simple, replicable devices oriented towards human dignity. www.anako.it
