where climate action meets the future of design

Tag: community

Barbara Weingartshofer

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Barbara Weingartshofer is a Vienna-based graphic and information designer with a deep passion for pictograms, typography, and the power of visual communication.

CEO of Nau Design since 2005, she specializes in creating compelling infographics using her design expertise to support international-driven social causes and advocate for gender equality.

In 2023, Barbara initiated and published Frauen zählen (Women Count), a collection of data focusing on the representation and experiences of women in professional design fields in Austria. This publication has been praised for shedding light on gender disparities and opened up an international conversation on women’s contributions and challenges in the design industry. Barbara was key note speaker at Next Gen Design: Women Creating the Future of Design at designforum Wien in September 2024. An active member of the International Institute of Information Design, Barbara is also a keynote speaker and advisor on the visualization of statistics.

AMINA HASANBEGOVIC

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Amina Hasanbegovic is an established fashion designer based in Novi Pazar, Serbia, recognized for her distinct high-fashion aesthetic that balances bold, dramatic silhouettes with subtle, elegant femininity.

Since launching her career, she has specialized in unique evening gowns, custom-made couture pieces, and bridal wear. Her design philosophy rejects passing fast-fashion trends, focusing heavily on craftsmanship, intricate details, and genuine emotional expression.

In addition to running her fashion atelier and dressing prominent regional music and style icons, Hasanbegović incorporates her creative expertise into education, balancing entrepreneurship, family life, and her role as a professor. Deeply influenced by the rich culture of her hometown and an early admiration for classic style icons like Audrey Hepburn. While she continues to scale her brand internationally, she does so through conscious, sustainable growth, remaining deeply rooted in the local ecosystem of Novi Pazar.

Richard van der Laken

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Laken practice advocates for designers’ responsibility to engage with societal issues and contribute to systemic change.

Richard van der Laken is a designer and creative director, and co-founder of the international platform What Design Can Do (WDCD). Through WDCD, he has led numerous campaigns, conferences, and design challenges that bring together multidisciplinary communities to rethink the role of creativity in urgent global challenges such as climate change, inequality, migration, and the transition to circular systems.

Recently, he founded Laecken, a contemporary fashion label that explores men’s self-expression through clothing, accessories, and textiles. Rooted in global craft traditions from regions such as Mexico, Japan, Ghana and India, the brand draws on geometric simplicity and the traditional menswear.

Henriëtte Waal

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Artist and designer known for her interdisciplinary work in artistic research, environmental design, and community engagement.

She is the artistic leader of Veenweide Atelier and the co-founder of Atelier LUMA, LUMA Arles’ biodesign lab dedicated to bioregional practices and material engineering. Henriëtte has led fieldwork in Mediterranean wetlands, collaborating with remote wetland communities from Southern Europe, Africa, and West Asia. Her work spans co-fabrication systems for beverages, footwear, colors, crafts, and spaces, as part of an ongoing search for new ecosocial balance. Her projects have been exhibited internationally.

In her recent book Water Works (Waal & Driessen, 2025), she outlines ecosocial design as a method, in which the relationship between humans, ecology, and systems is central. The book positions water infrastructures as socio-ecological systems that require new forms of ecological imagination, storytelling, and alliances between human and non-human actors. 

Ivan Kucina

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Kucina’s research explores urban transformation through informality, participatory design, and community-led development.

Professor at the Dessau International Architecture Graduate School (DIA), Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, where he leads the Master Thesis Studio and elective courses. Previously, he taught at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade (1996–2014), and has held visiting professorships at institutions including Parsons School of Design in New York, Polis University in Tirana, KTH Stockholm, and the German University of Technology in Oman.

Alongside his academic work, Kucina has maintained an architectural practice spanning urban design, architecture, exhibitions, and furniture design. He co-founded the Belgrade International Architecture Week (2006) and founded the School of Urban Practices (2012).