Next Gen Design Reaches Prishtina Sustainable Design Week 2026

The Next Gen Design Travelling Exhibition 2026: “Futures Worth Living” expands its European creative footprint and reaches Prishtina Sustainable Design Week (PSDW) 2026.

Coming from Novi Pazar, Mikser Festival 2026, the exhibition travels to Prishtina where it will launch on August 31 at the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Prishtina at 17:30. The opening is accompanied by keynotes & speakers: remarks by Niki Murseli (Executive Director at DYVÓ & PSDW Curator), Përparim Rama (Mayor of Prishtina), Hubert Perr (Head of Cooperation, EU Office in Kosovo), and Prof. Assoc. Dean Florim Grajqevci.

The exhibition highlights 50 visionary young designers from Europe, winners of the Next Gen Design 2026 Open Call. Co-curated by important European design festivals/weeks—Mikser Festival, designaustria @Vienna Design Week, Barcelona Design Week, Skopje Design Week, and What Design Can Do @Dutch Design Week—this exhibition scales sustainable design narratives across borders.

What This Means for Local Young Creatives

For the new generation of Kosovar creatives, designers, architects and artists, this means direct access to contemporary European standards and practice without having to leave the country; for Kosovo, it means building a cultural reference that outlasts the festival and opens the way to further institutional collaboration.

Beyond the Exhibition: Conference, Talks and Workshops

Alongside the exhibition, PSDW features expert-led talks, conference tracks, and interactive labs led by Next Gen Design creatives:

Ilse Kremer (2025 Next Gen Design Open Call Winner): Fashion and textile innovator, founder of Fabulous Fungi. Ilse will speak at the “Design Narratives” conference and host the hands-on Fabulous Fungi Lab exploring mushroom-based natural dyes.

Arthur Guilleminot (2025 Next Gen Design Open Call Winner): Ecodeviant artist blending material research, performance, and visual art. At the “Bodies, Identity and Materials” conference, Arthur will challenge conventional environmental narratives to champion inclusive, regenerative practices for marginalized communities.

Maja Halilovic (2025 Next Gen Design Edu-Talk Lecturer): Biomaterial pioneer with 15+ years of experience transforming organic waste, SCOBY cultures, and eggshells into high-value materials like the BIOCANDLE. Maja presents her research at the “Bodies, Identity and Materials” conference and leads the hands-on BIOMATERIALS Workshop.

To apply for workshops and view the full schedule, visit the PSDW website.

Arpad Pulai

Arpad Pulai is a distinguished textile artist and Senior Artistic Associate at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. His practice focuses on sustainable textile design and the exploration of sociological themes, working exclusively with eco-friendly materials and recycling techniques.

His work is part of the collection of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, and he has received numerous prestigious awards in Serbia for his contribution to contemporary textile art and sustainable design.

Maja Halilovic

Maja Halilovic, an award-winning biodesigner and innovator, who transforms organic waste and living systems into next-generation materials. She works with biomaterials derived from eggshells and unicellular organisms, exploring how natural intelligence can be integrated into design and manufacturing.

Her research challenges conventional boundaries, demonstrating that the future of design lies in nurturing materials rather than extracting them. By bridging the gap between biological systems and functional objects, she redefines unicellular organisms, agricultural residues, and urban waste streams into intelligent, sustainable materials that unite technical innovation with refined aesthetics. As one of the leading voices in Balkan biodesign, Maja is widely recognized for her pioneering work in organic biomaterial synthesis, advocating for regenerative production cycles that eliminate waste at the source.