Author: 9ve8c

Marking the culmination of one of the most dynamic phases of the Next Gen Design program, the winners of the Next Gen Design Residency Award were announced during a hybrid award ceremony hosted by Skopje Design Week.

Following the open call and selection for the Next Gen Design exhibition by a world-renowned international jury—including Birgit Lohmann, Laura Clèries, Zoran Jedrejcic, David Jablonski and Amanda Pinatih —more than 50 young designers from across Europe continued their journey through the Next Gen Design Residency Program.

Hosted at five partner festivals in Belgrade, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Vienna and Skopje, the residencies brought together around ten designers per city for an intense, five-day collaborative experience. In just a few days, participants immersed themselves in local contexts, interacted with local designers, experts and organizations, and tackled real design challenges. Working in culturally and geographically diverse teams, they developed brand-new concepts and pitched them to local juries. Beyond the outcomes, the residencies sparked new friendships, fresh perspectives and lasting inspiration, showing how powerful design collaboration can be when it is dynamic, open and grounded in place.

The Next Gen Design Residency Awards recognized one standout residency project per festival, each supported by a €2,000 prize intended to help winning teams continue learning, exploring and developing their ideas.

Meet the Next Gen Design Residency Award Winners for 2025:  

In Belgrade (Mikser Festival), the award unanimously went to the project Obnova by Elisa Schneider (Germany) and Justine Oriana Vargas Parra (Spain), which proposed a modular system that transforms oak furniture waste into elegant solutions for urban gardening.

In Amsterdam (What Design Can Do), the jury selected Attached by Emily Klein (Austria), Emina Murtezić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Konstantin Diehl (Germany), introducing a second-hand clothing labelling system that reveals hidden stories and deepens emotional attachment to garments.

In Barcelona (Barcelona Design Week),the awarded SOS project by Jacqueline Yu (UK), Lazar Avramovski (North Macedonia) and Boldizsár Csongor Nagy (Hungary) reimagined discarded seashells as refined serving trays, merging sustainability with poetic design expression.

In Vienna (designaustria / MQ Wien), the winning solution Mailing Quartier by Amnon Direktor (Belgium), Arthur Guilleminot (The Netherlands) and Janine Kerscher (Germany) created a postcard exchange system that encourages interaction and shared memories among visitors of Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier.

In Skopje (Skopje Design Week), the festival jury selected the residency project From Waste to Objects by Barbara Rakovska (Czech Republic), Bram de Vos (The Netherlands) and Florian Steidl (Austria), proposing an open-source product development tool that turns textile waste from North Macedonia’s textile sector into innovative new products.

As we celebrate the winners, we extend our heartfelt thanks to all residents! Your commitment, openness, and inspiring creativity made this edition truly unforgettable.

To all next-generation designers: stay tuned for our next open call in 2026!

NEXT GEN DESIGN 2025 in Vienna drew hundreds of visitors to designforum Wien, where they
explored the winning projects, met the designers in person, and joined guided tours during VIENNA
DESIGN WEEK and ORF Long Night of Museums. The exhibition offered a unique opportunity to
experience Europe’s next generation of changemakers in action that sparks conversation about a
sustainable future.

From 26 September to 5 October 2025, the winning projects of the NEXT GEN DESIGN 2025
competition were on display at designforum Wien in the MuseumsQuartier during VIENNA DESIGN
WEEK, and particularly during the ORF Long Night of Museums on 4 October. The exhibition
attracted more than 800 visitors, who had the opportunity to gain fresh insights into a vibrant spectrum
of creativity, and vision from Europe’s next generation of designers. Each winning project
embraced circular design principles, presenting sustainable, inclusive, and impactful concepts that
engaged audiences and sparked conversations about the future of design.

Alongside the exhibition, a residency for young design professionals and a complementary
program fostered networking, exchange, and inclusive design practices. The residency was mentored
by Sigrid Bürstmayr, author, designer, and lecturer for sustainable design at the FH Joanneum,
Institute of Design and Communication, who guided the participants through group assignments. The
central residency task combined best-practice inclusive design with the unique local context of the
MuseumsQuartier, asking participants:

“Every day, many different people come together at the MuseumsQuartier – museum visitors, tourists,
locals, employees, café guests, and passers-by. They all use the space in very different ways. How
can it be made visible and tangible that collaboration achieves more than individual effort?

Christoph Pauschitz, managing director of industrial design company GP design partners, co-
mentored the residency, sharing insights from his 30+ years of industrial design practice with global
clients, emphasizing strategies for inclusiveness. David Jablonski, designer, climate activist, and
board member of designaustria, also supported the residency as a co-mentor.

Severin Filek, managing director of designaustria, led a masterclass on intellectual property rights
and copyright calculations. He emphasized that a professional, business-oriented approach is a key
skill alongside creativity for sustaining a designer’s career.

The residency program combined site visits, workshops, concept development, presentations, guided
tours through the exhibition, and many inspiring interactions with new people.
As a knowledge centre and interest association, designaustria underlined during these days that
the future of design depends not only on professional expertise but also on social skills and empathy –
essential competences for Europe’s next generation of designers. The NEXT GEN DESIGN 2025
exhibition and residency exemplified how the New European Bauhaus principles of sustainability,
inclusivity, and aesthetics can come to life through collaboration and experimentation.

We hope to see you in Vienna in Autumn 2026!

In the week of 2-6 June ten young designers and winners of the NEXT GEN DESIGN 2025 competition ‘ Resign Tomorrow, Today’ were invited to join a week-long residency hosted by What Design Can Do in Amsterdam where they took a deep dive into the world of circular fashion, aligning with Amsterdam’s muncipality goal to become fully circular by 2050.

The residency programme consisted of site visits, a design thinking workshop, concept development and presentation. For the programme, the residents were challenged to develop their own bold new circular fashion concepts that disrupt today’s systems, which they presented at the end of the week.

To dive into the topic of a circular approach to fashion, the residents first paid a visit to ByBorre, a Dutch textile innovation company that specialises in knitting fabrics with unique textures. Founder Borre Akkersdijk shared his story of starting his company, working as a designer on innovations in the industry and showed us around the workshop where his textiles are produced.

Next, the group visited United Repair Cente, a garment repair company that extends the life of garments while making social impact by offering job for those with a distance to the labor market. Finally, the residents received a tour at the Stedelijk Museum exhibition ‘Oltre Terra’ by design duo Formafantasma that displays the relation between humans and sheep. Curator of the exhibition and a jury member for the Next Gen competition Amanda Pinatih explained how the design research project came into existence.

After the inspiring site visits the residents received the assignment to create their own circular fashion innovations. The pressure cooker format resulted in three design concepts that addressed the relation between people and their garments, ways to minimise garment production and encouraging repairs on a neighborhood level. The closure of the week happened during the WDCD festival where the Next Gen ‘Redesign Tomorrow, Today’ exhibition was on display showcasing all 50 winning projects. 

Next up are three more residency programmes in Vienna, Barcelona and Skopje happening in fall 2025.