HFBK PhD candidate Simone C Niquille receives the Swiss Grand Award for Design 2026 for her transdisciplinary practice at the intersection of design, research, and education. Her work examines how digital image systems shape bodies, spaces, and perception. Through films, installations, and research-based projects, she reveals how standards and classifications embedded in technology influence the way we see and understand the world. As the first recipient of the award in the field of Media & Interaction Design, her practice represents a new generation of designers who redefine design as a critical and investigative discipline.

The Swiss Grand Award for Design is endowed with CHF 40,000 per award and, in 2026, will be granted on the recommendation of the Federal Design Commission to the design and architecture studio atelier oï, the graphic designer Ursula Hiestand, and the designer and researcher Simone C. Niquille.

Click here for more info on Niquille’s artistic research.