Winner: Product design of the year 2019. The minimalist LARQ bottle cleans itself using UV light, for people troubled by the hygiene of tricky-to-wash reusable water bottles.

The LARQ bottle provides instant water purification in a self-cleaning bottle through an LED technology in its lid that emits UV-C light in the 280-nanometre range. According to LARQ, at this wavelength, the light eradicates almost all harmful and odour-causing bacteria and viruses.

The bottle also intelligently activates every 2 hours, basking the water and inner surface of the bottle in the purifying UV light. Users can turn on the light manually or set it to automatically activate every two hours in self-cleaning mode.

Judges comments: "The main problem with reusable bottles is that they are difficult to clean, but the LARQ bottle solves that problem. It provides psychological reassurance for the user and introduces a new technology that has great potential to evolve."

Designer: LARQ
Project: LARQ Bottle
Winner of: Product design