"When the seven prizewinning students brought to Cologne for the awards ceremony gathered in the Architecture Lounge on May 9 for a brief rehearsal ahead of the next day’s ceremony, they felt a bit week in the knees with a mixture of pride in their achievements and apprehension about standing up in front of an international audience to accept their awards".

For them and for the IDA team, the awards ceremony was the culmination of a year’s hard work. A joint IDA team was formed in 2006. We wanted to be sure that the 2007 IDA would be a true competition open to all 3rd level educational institutions that met one criteria. We were also determined to iron out problems that had arisen in the pervious five competition cycles. So our first task was to analyse what needed to be improved. Once the improvements were in place and the budget approved, the IDA 2007 was launched.

The prizewinners and their faculty supervisors enjoyed a couple of special days in Cologne. A festival dinner the evening before the awards ceremony gave everyone a chance to relax and enjoy themselves - the students, their supervisors, the jurors and not least the Hettich - Rehau project team. Conversation ranged from the professional to the personal. It was a great evening with lively input form the creative and open - minded students, and from the no less visionary teachers and jurors working at the leading edge of their professions. Hettich and Rehau earned praise for the fact that we are the only companies running this type of competition and for the equal opportunities we give to young people around the world. The 2007 IDA was spilt into two sections. In one, the task was to design a piece of furniture relevant to local cultures and modern lifestyles. The other section focused on creative designs for fittings.

The ceremony on May 10 began with speeches by Angela Spitzig, one of the mayors of Cologne, by Jan Hoet, director of the MARTa Museum in Herford, and by Messrs Riechers and Streefeld (Rehau). Then the students received their trophies and awards. Until this moment, although all the students knew they were among the winners, no-one knew who was first, second or third. So there was great excitement and not a few joyful tears. The supervisors of the wining students received cheques for their faculties. Total prize money was € 25,000.