Author: 9ve8c

“Doka” is the Dutch word for the photographic darkroom, “donkere kamer”. This research project aims to provide sustainable alternatives to the harmful chemical process of darkroom photography.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Traditional developing and fixing processes in film photography rely on toxic chemicals like hydroquinone, metol and ammonium thiosulfate, and their disposal poses a major ecological risk. Growing up in Naples, where toxic waste dumping is a critical issue, I felt compelled to seek alternatives that wouldn’t contribute further to environmental harm. During my Tech Fellowship at Rijksakademie, I researched and developed new techniques that replace hazardous chemicals with natural and biodegradable substitutes. I identified ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as a safe developing agent and formulated an eco-friendly developer with sodium ascorbate and natural phenols from blueberries, coffee or cocoa powder, which allowed for effective film processing without traditional toxic developers. Similarly, I substituted the stop bath with a simple solution of rainwater and vinegar and experimented with a salt-based fixer, using sustainable accelerants like sulfenic acid from onions and MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) to speed up the process.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

An estimated 11.6 million tonnes of toxic waste is buried or burned beneath vegetable fields, in quarries or on open land in the area around Naples, Italy, my hometown. Highly toxic industrial waste such as dioxin, arsenic, and even radioactive material can be found in the area. It is important to be aware of what these chemicals do to the environment over time, and be eco-smart about the best method of disposal. Most municipalities do not allow the disposal of any photographic waste into septic systems because it can adversely affect sources of underground drinking water and aquatic life. Yet most photographers dispose of their chemicals down the drain. I am developing recipes and guidelines to share with a wider community, hoping to inspire others to pursue environmentally conscious approaches to art and chemical-based processes, while also laying the groundwork for sustainable practices in creative industries.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

While most coffee-based developers are film-specific, my research focuses on a universal recipe compatible with any black-and-white brand and a massive sensitivity range (ISO 12–3200). I am currently refining this formula to offer a cheap, accessible alternative that I plan to both commercialize and share freely online. The analogue revival is undeniable; over the last decade, Kodak resumed production and ILFORD’s revenues doubled. However, many “eco-friendly” chemicals currently on the market are merely greenwashed products that remain environmentally harmful. My goal is to provide a truly sustainable solution that honours the craft. I hope this movement eventually inspires other chemical-heavy industries, like ceramics and painting, to adopt authentic, sustainable alternatives at a commercial level.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

This project taps directly into the “Analog Renaissance” led by Gen Z and Millennials, who are increasingly seeking tactile, slow processes to counter their digital-heavy life. Young people are highly sensitive to greenwashing. My recipe offers a transparent, DIY alternative to “eco-labeled” industrial toxins, aligning with their environmental values. Additionally, by keeping the recipe cheap and open-source, I lower the financial barrier to entry, making high-quality film development inclusive rather than elitist.
The project transforms a high-tech hobby into a grounding, kitchen-based ritual, turning a “black box” chemical process into something tangible and safe, satisfying a deep-seated need to reconnect with natural, non-digital cycles.

EcoRush is a cooperative didactic game designed to build environmental awareness in children through play, showing them how everyday actions affect nature while developing cognitive, social, and creative skills.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

EcoRush addresses the growing disconnect between children and environmental responsibility. As ecological crises intensify, early education must embed ecological thinking, yet most tools rely on passive instruction rather than playful, embodied learning.
The game responds directly to the Open Call criteria. It delivers environmental impact through mechanics where rewards and penalties are tied to ecological actions, helping children understand consequences through experience. Social engagement is fostered through cooperative play requiring teamwork to restore a shared natural landscape. The user experience is innovative: children do not just learn about nature, they actively protect it, making decisions with immediate, visible effects on their shared world. Resource efficiency is achieved through thoughtful design that reduces material use while preserving educational value. Community-driven solutions are central: no one wins alone. Players must collaborate as the Guardians of soil, air, forest, and river to restore balance together.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

EcoRush centers on a circular board symbolizing the planet and the interconnection of all ecosystems, populated with modular elements including trees, factories, recycling stations, solar panels, and oil spills. The landscape visually reflects the state of the world, shifting as players make decisions. Four Guardian characters represent soil, air, forest, and river, each carrying a distinct ecological role.
The game was developed through direct testing with children across multiple prototype iterations, with cardboard and foam models used to refine scale, element proportions, and gameplay mechanics before moving to digital 3D modeling. Material choices were guided by durability, tactile quality, and ecological responsibility. The final system combines structural components with smaller detailed pieces, creating a rich sensory experience. Rewards and penalties are tied directly to ecological actions, making cause and effect immediately legible to young players.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

Most eco-educational toys are either passive or competitive, framing environmental protection as individual achievement. EcoRush differs in three meaningful ways.
First, it is structurally collective: the game ends only when all four Guardians complete their tasks together, modeling real ecological interdependence rather than simplifying it.
Second, its world-building system is dynamic. Polluted factories sit alongside solar panels, oil spills alongside recycling stations, creating a landscape that visibly degrades or recovers based on player choices, making environmental consequences tangible for young children.
Third, the Guardian characters foster identification over competition: each child embodies a specific ecological role, grounding abstract concepts in personal responsibility. This combination of collective mechanics, visual storytelling, and role embodiment, validated through multiple rounds of child user testing, has no direct equivalent in the current market.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

EcoRush is designed around the developmental needs of children aged 6 and above, drawing on Piaget’s cognitive stages, fine motor skill research, and socio-emotional growth theory.
At this age, children are transitioning from egocentric toward cooperative reasoning. Gameplay supports this directly: it requires turn-taking, communication, strategic thinking, and emotional regulation when outcomes are negative. Tactile miniature elements strengthen fine motor skills; illustrated character cards support language development and narrative thinking; the ecological task system builds environmental literacy through lived experience.
Young people are the generation that will bear the full weight of today’s environmental decisions. EcoRush meets them at their developmental level with honest, age-appropriate content, not fear, but agency. Children learn that small actions carry weight and that real change happens through cooperation. These are not abstract lessons. They are practiced through play.

A handmade raft navigates along the Rhine-River, transforming river travel into a platform for shared knowledge, dialogue and alternative measurement.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Decisions about rivers are often made by distant institutions that manage them through technical standards, data platforms, and clearly defined borders of responsibility. Environmental protection, engineering, and energy production operate in parallel systems, rarely sharing knowledge or perspectives.
At the same time, crucial information about water flows remains inaccessible. For example, hydropower operators in upstream regions do not publish reservoir levels or flow data, which leaves downstream regions in a state of uncertainty regarding future water availability.
Historically, rivers were interpreted differently. Timber rafters had to understand currents, landscapes and seasonal changes through direct observation and exchange. This situational knowledge has largely disappeared.
Today, the Rhine-River is largely used as an industrial material, but is rarely understood as a shared ecosystem that can also be depleted. There is a need to bridge this gap by creating opportunities for institutions and communities to exchange knowledge and rethink collective responsibility across landscapes.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

A handmade raft becomes a mobile measuring station that floats on the Rhine as an unconventional research instrument. This structure encourages direct engagement with the river landscapes and with the people, ecologies and institutions that form around the river. Rooted in pre-industrial rafting, the project reflects on how industrial standards have shaped our relationship with rivers. At each station, conversations with scientists, ethnologists and engineers will provide site-specific insights into missing parameters, which will later be translated into visual and spatial interventions. Instead of transporting goods, the raft carries stories, knowledge and alternative ways of knowing. Each documentary episode addresses gaps in recorded history, while archival publications compare standards and values along the Rhine, bringing knowledge back to institutions and crossing rigid borders of responsibility. The evolving design process transforms the raft into a platform for exchange, turning the river into a shared space of connection.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

Research is often conducted from a top view—identifying problems and attempting to intervene from the outside. Much like the sequence of your questions: Problem > Project > Innovation > Impact. For me, it was important to become an actor within the system, standing alongside the institutions and stakeholders along the Rhine.
Every conversation, research step, journey, and intervention happens through the object. The timber history and the building of a raft become the entry point for exchange.
Historically, rafts were highly adapted to each river course and current. In a similar way, the object—and myself as its navigator—remain adaptable in form and language, translating internal or specialised knowledge into accessible entry points.
The project challenges how we enter a river system: where access begins, through which tools, and who is allowed to participate in understanding it.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

Young people will face the ecological consequences of river systems, yet they are rarely part of current discussions. Flößern challenges this “not yet.” It shows that one does not need to be a scientist or engineer to begin engaging with rivers, and how a simple object can become a tool for community building and interdisciplinary exchange.
As more young people move to cities, they become consumers of distant landscapes without perceiving the infrastructures that sustain them. Rivers reveal these hidden connections. Timber once travelled from Alpine forests to Dutch cities, enabling urban growth. Today, these relationships persist but remain invisible.
By retracing these routes and translating them into publications, conversations, and spatial encounters, the project reconnects urban generations with the landscapes, communities, and infrastructures they depend on. It highlights how decisions in one region—such as climate change in the Alps or restricted environmental data—directly affect ecosystems and communities downstream.

Forecast typeface embodies the consequences of man-made climate change. It illustrates the problems posed by extreme weather events such as floods and droughts.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

The purpose of my typeface is to raise awareness of the growing problem of climate change. It is an issue that affects everyone around the world.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

Forecast is a variable typeface. It is made up of four masters. Flash Flood, Flood, Moderate Weather and Flash Drought. Moderate Weather illustrates a balanced climate, while the other masters depict the destruction caused by an unbalanced climate.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

Showing climate change in the form of a typeface is not a common occurrence. Even though a lot of design uses typography. So it’s my approach to highlight the problem through typography, which can be used to strengthen a design’s message.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

Extreme weather has already destroyed many livelihoods around the world. The more climate change continues, the more destruction there will be. It’s something we’ll have to deal with sooner or later.

A future-oriented design project exploring sixteen plausible human–nature relations in Lombok toward 2045, translating societal goals into an educational program now active across ten primary schools, and continuing to grow beyond the graduation project itself.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Across Lombok, human–nature relations are shifting, shaped by forces operating at different levels of agency: community life, knowledge systems, institutional governance, and global market pressures. The way people relate to nature varies fundamentally, from nature as sacred, to an interdependent system, uncontrollable, or something to be controlled. Existing systems struggle to navigate this plurality.

This project addresses this through a community-driven futures framework, developed with local stakeholders, NGOs, and policymakers, making it socially engaged and culturally grounded by design. By integrating the outcome into an existing curriculum rather than building parallel systems, it is resource-efficient and scalable. The educational approach builds long-term ecological awareness, contributing to environmental impact beyond the project itself. The workshop format and lesson modules prioritize accessibility and participation, ensuring the solution is usable and meaningful in its local context.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

Human–Nature 2045 is a graduation project guided by the Vision in Design methodology, mapping sixteen plausible human–nature relations toward 2045 and translating these into societal goals. The resulting framework was applied at Coral Connect as a conversation and coalition-forming tool among NGOs, policymakers, and conservation actors.

Four societal goals became the pillars of a modular educational concept, integrated within the existing curriculum in Lombok. Each pillar was materialised as a distinct lesson module with its own learning objectives rooted in the framework. One uses a map-based game with nature change cards, teaching children to navigate natural disasters through discussion-based learning. Others take the form of a website, storycards and a diary used in a natural context, and a design workshop addressing a local natural problem to foster agency.

Together they demonstrate how future-oriented societal goals can be translated into varied, contextually grounded learning experiences for the next generation.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

This project received a perfect 10 for its graduation assessment, a rare distinction within the MSc Design for Interaction program at TU Delft, reflecting the originality and rigor of its approach.

Its innovation lies in applying Vision in Design, a methodology built for structuring complexity and articulating long-term values, in a non-Western, cross-cultural context. It is widely acknowledged that the vast majority of design is made for the wealthiest ten percent of the world. This project deliberately works against that tendency, bringing futures thinking and design methodology to a context where it is rarely applied, yet urgently needed.

Rather than proposing a single solution, the project maps a plurality of futures and societal goals, acknowledging that there is no single right relationship with nature. This systemic, values-driven approach, translated into tangible tools tested in real schools, makes it both conceptually rigorous and practically grounded.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

This project is fundamentally oriented toward the next generation. The educational program is designed for primary school children in Lombok, directly addressing a gap in their curriculum: a relational, future-oriented understanding of nature that connects their daily lives to the world they will inherit by 2045.

Young people in Lombok are growing up in a context of accelerating ecological change, including increased natural disasters, shifting landscapes, and uncertain futures. Yet education rarely prepares them to navigate this complexity or to see themselves as agents within it. This project responds to that need by designing learning experiences that are contextually grounded, engaging, and empowering.

More broadly, the planet and how we live on it is the defining challenge for today’s youth globally. This project contributes to building the ecological literacy and relational understanding that the next generation will need to face it.

Inocula is an open-source, locally producible field applicator for introducing fungus into invasive trees, enabling more accessible tree management through repairable design, 3D printing, and small-series production.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Invasive tree management is labor-intensive and still often relies on herbicides. Inocula offers a more targeted alternative by enabling the application of a species-specific fungal treatment through a dedicated field tool. It is designed for safer and more consistent use in real working conditions. The applicator is repairable, suited to local small-series production, and made so individual parts can be replaced instead of discarding the whole device. This supports resource efficiency and lowers barriers for smaller municipalities, land managers, and other trained users.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

Inocula is a handheld applicator developed as part of my bachelor thesis in collaboration with Biohelp. The project grew from the gap between a promising biological treatment for invasive trees and the lack of a well-suited tool for applying it in the field. It combines incision, dosing, handling, and transport in one device designed around the real sequence of use. The applicator uses a sliding hammer for insertion and removal, an adjustable dosing system, a visible blade area for feedback during application, and an integrated safety cover and carrying system. It is designed for local small-series production and uses predominantly FDM-printed polypropylene parts. Repairability and clear material identification through labeling were important so the parts can be sorted into a defined recycling stream and more easily re-enter circular material flows. The project developed through iterative prototyping, testing, and refinement of construction, handling, and field workflow.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

What makes the project different is the way it responds to a very specific use case. In a niche field like this, conventional manufacturing would often be too expensive to justify a specialized tool. This project uses 3D printing for small-series production to make such a tool possible at all. It is designed to be produced locally, repaired, adapted, and improved over time. That matters because availability and maintenance are often just as important as the treatment itself. Compared to existing efforts, the project is not only about applying a specific fungus, but about making the tool behind that treatment realistic to build and use in practice.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

We as young people are growing up in a world shaped by climate change, ecological instability, all of which make issues like invasive species more urgent and more visible. This creates a growing need for tools and systems that help people respond to changing environmental conditions. Inocula reflects that need by supporting a more precise and locally adaptable approach to ecological maintenance. It also speaks to young designers. Many niche environmental fields lack well-designed tools, even when better methods already exist. The project aims to show, how design can contribute beyond mainstream consumer products by improving access, usability, and production in areas where small interventions can have real impact. In that sense, it reflects both the environmental challenges young people face and the opportunity to use design skills in a different and meaningful ways.

INTERLOOM turns discarded inner bike tubes into adaptable wearables built for people who move through the world on their own terms.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Most products are designed to be replaced, not repaired. INTERLOOM challenges that by working with a material that is already at the end of its life, discarded inner bike tubes, and turning it into something durable and adaptable. The modular system means components can be swapped, repaired, or resized rather than discarded, keeping the product in use longer. Materials are sourced locally in Eindhoven, keeping the supply chain short and energy use low. Beyond the material, the project is connected to a real community, free party and sound system culture, where function and adaptability matter because conditions are unpredictable. The pieces respond to that. INTERLOOM is not about sustainability as a trend. It is about making well-crafted objects from discarded materials. Craftsmanship is also part of the equation. Through an internship in Haute Couture, Josquin developed a precise understanding of garment construction, a standard he carries into every piece.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

INTERLOOM started from a personal need. Coming from free party and sound system culture meant long journeys, walking through forests, and sometimes having to move fast. That reality drove the need for wearables that are functional, adaptable, and built for unpredictable situations. The material came from that same world of overlooked things, inner bike tubes collected from local shops in Eindhoven. They are durable, water resistant, and widely discarded. The core technique is hand weaving, structuring the tubes into a rigid yet flexible surface. The weave used as an adaptable system allows components to be attached, detached, resized, and replaced. There are products designed for similar situations, but INTERLOOM also speaks to the people who use them those who exist outside the mainstream, much like the material itself. Each piece is made by hand with a level of craft informed by Josquin’s experience in Haute Couture garment construction.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

Most products made from recycled materials use sustainability as a selling point while the object itself remains conventional. INTERLOOM doesn’t lead with that. The recycled material is a starting point, not a marketing angle.
What makes it different is the combination of things it brings together, a modular system that genuinely extends the life of the product, a material that is locally sourced and otherwise discarded, and a level of craft that makes it hard to believe where it comes from. The pieces are also connected to a real community and a real set of needs, not a trend.
It is not the first product made from bike tubes, and it doesn’t claim to be. But the intersection of function, craft, cultural context, and a system designed to last rather than be replaced is what sets it apart.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

I work with materials that are thrown away for a culture that doesn’t fit in. The goal is to make something so well-crafted you forget where it came from because both deserve a second look.

Just Bones is a material research project that transforms discarded animal bones into a biodegradable material, rooted in Iceland’s tradition of utilising bones as part of everyday life.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Modern meat production generates large quantities of waste, while society simultaneously struggles with the environmental cost of non-biodegradable materials. Just Bones addresses both challenges by transforming discarded animal bones into a durable, biodegradable material, similar in strength to MDF, capable of being moulded, drilled, sawn, and laser-cut.
The project is rooted in Icelandic heritage. Historically, survival in Iceland demanded extreme resourcefulness. For example, bones were used in everyday life, carved into buttons, used as toys, and as tools because nothing was wasted. Just Bones is a modern expression of this tradition.
Living on an island creates an awareness of materials, or perhaps the very lack of materials available. It’s important to explore discarded matter from different perspectives and find new opportunities for utilization.
Rather than creating new demand for animal products, the project works with what already exists. Just Bones strives to transform cultural memory into a modern material future.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

Just Bones is a material research project developing a strong, natural biomaterial made entirely from animal bones. The process involves two methods: bones are heated and ground into a fine powder, and are separately processed into bone glue, which acts as a binder. Mixed together, the result is a material comparable in strength to MDF. It is liquid when mixed, allowing it to be moulded like ceramics, and once hardened, it can be drilled, sawed, and laser cut. Different heating methods produce colour variations in the material.
Objects made so far include urns and miniature toy horses, each referencing Icelandic cultural history.
The material is prepared entirely by hand. This deliberate slowness is central to the work, ensuring each bone, often dismissed as waste, is handled with intention and care throughout the entire process.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

If we make the choice to consume meat, it is our responsibility to utilize the whole animal and do it with as little pollution to our planet as possible. Just Bones reflects on society’s meat consumption and the question of waste that follows it. The project is an example of how various opportunities are hidden in our immediate environment. By exploring familiar materials from different perspectives, new opportunities for utilisation can be found. The material is strong for as long as you need it to be, and is designed to disappear when it is no longer needed. It can be dissolved in water and returned to nature. The project draws on the Icelandic heritage of utilising bones and translates this into a contemporary material practice. The project suggests that innovation for the future can come by looking back, finding answers in the resourcefulness of those who came before us.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

Just Bones invites people to reconsider where materials come from and what happens to them after use, a question that feels increasingly relevant in a world of mass production and disposable culture. Just Bones hopefully inspires people to seek material alternatives in unsuspected places, in what is already around us, waste that, with care and curiosity, can become something to treat as precious treasures.

KomshiLOOK is a community-based model that turns residential spaces into collective places of culture, connection and pride, shaped by local residents and shared experiences that strengthen relationships, neighbourhood belonging and everyday forms of citizenship.

Define the problem/need you are solving or addressing with your project. How does it address the Open Call criteria, such as environmental impact, social engagement, circularity, user experience, resource efficiency, and community-driven solutions?

Komsiluk is a Balkan value based on care, responsibility, proximity and the everyday practice of living with others. Yet in many contemporary residential areas, these bonds are weakening. Shared spaces still exist, but they are often underused and rarely seen as places for participation, exchange or collective life. KomshiLOOK starts from look as an invitation to pay closer attention to our surroundings. Through multidisciplinary art formats, it reuses existing residential architecture, local knowledge and everyday routines, transforming these environments into low-resource, community-driven cultural spaces. This method connects social engagement with resource-conscious practice, using adaptation instead of new construction. By activating places where people already live, it nurtures relationships, reinforces neighbourhood identity and encourages participation as a form of citizenship. Through this process, residents become co-curators and co-authors, shaping a cultural experience that reflects local identity while reinforcing responsibility, recognition, and collective ownership of shared space.

Please describe your project, reflecting on the concept, inspiration, materials, technical aspects, methods and process(es).

KomshiLOOK is a one-day neighbourhood format created through a three-month collaborative curatorial process. It is designed for residential areas of different social and cultural backgrounds, in both urban and rural settings, usually involving communities of up to 300 residents or about 150 households. Each edition includes over 100 participants and reaches around 2,000 visitors. The project places multidisciplinary art formats inside private and semi-private spaces, from balconies and windows to yards and domestic interiors. Residents take on small but meaningful hosting roles, while artists and creatives develop the programme through spatial dramaturgy and close collaboration with the community. In this way, neighbours also encounter new artistic formats and ways of participating in culture. The result is a collective process shaped from within the neighbourhood itself, making KomshiLOOK a one-day rehearsal of an ideal neighbourhood, where everyone contributes to a shared experience.

What do you think makes your project innovative compared to the existing efforts and ideas in the field it addresses?

KomshiLOOK connects social practice, spatial design and multidisciplinary art in one community-based model. It places culture inside the neighbourhood itself, using existing architecture as a living platform for collaboration. Through different artistic-formats and a process of spatial dramaturgy, it creates new ways of meeting and working together in places where culture is often absent or inaccessible. Its value lies not only in artistic output, but in building trust, collaboration and resilience. The artistic programme becomes one layer of a wider process in which people begin relating differently to one another and to the spaces they share. In this sense, KomshiLOOK functions both as a cultural format and as a model for active neighbourhood citizenship. It is a low-resource, adaptable approach that offers a strong alternative to institution-based programming and top-down community engagement. It also brings together multigenerational residents from different backgrounds, connected not by profession or status, but simply neighbours.

Does it impact or reflect young people need(s) and how?

KomshiLOOK reflects young people’s needs by responding to the lack of accessible, meaningful and participatory cultural spaces in everyday life. Many young people experience culture as distant, expensive, institutional, or disconnected from their own environment. KomshiLOOK brings art directly into neighbourhoods, streets, villages and shared spaces, making participation easier, more open and more relevant.

It also responds to the need for visibility, belonging, expressio and connection. Through the project, young people gain space to experiment, meet others and see their surroundings differently.

KomshiLOOK supports social imagination, local pride and a sense of agency. It shows young people that culture can happen where they are, and that they can actively shape public life, community relations and the identity of their own environment. It also offers a strong example for future generations and a reminder of what it means to be a good neighbour.