where climate action meets the future of design

Tag: nature based solutions

Birgit Lohmann

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Bridging design, research, and curatorial innovation, Birgit continues to shape contemporary design discourse.

Foreseeing the impact of digital media, in 1999 she co-founded designboom, the world’s first online magazine, illustrating information on art, architecture, and technology.

Beyond her editorial work, Birgit has contributed as a design historian for international auction houses and justice departments, while continuously engaging with the design community through lectures and exhibitions, leveraging her extensive experience in design and product development.

As of now, Lohmann is involved with various initiatives, including her new project called “NOT COMPROMISED,” which debuted at Milan Design Week 2024. The exhibition challenged perspectives on sustainability, featuring works like Boonserm Premthada’s outdoor collection made from elephant dung. Advocating for non-anthropocentric coexistence, for a world where human presence protects rather than harms, while fostering education and public dialogue in contemporary art.

David Jablonski

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David is an activist, designer and co-founder of the climate visualisation collective Klimadashboard.org. He believes that the crises of our time need radical paradigm shifts across politics, economics and the way we look at the world and our role in it.

Aimed at making these transformations tangible, David’s work tells stories about our future on screen and on stage, merging technology with arts and data with emotion. He studied in Graz, Berlin and London, is one of Austria’s youth delegates at COP28 and COP29 and is running his own design practice in Vienna.

“I see design as deeply connected to society, politics, and the environment. It shapes the way we live and must evolve to meet the urgent challenges of our time.“

Squeeze the orange

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Orange peels are a food waste residue abundant in the Mediterranean diet, and we can give them another life: many things are possible with what we consider “waste” today.

Squeeze the Orange is a research project on the reuse of orange peel to make biodegradable and compostable materials for the fashion industry.

Through the work and knowledge shared between makers and designers, they investigated orange waste to design a material that all fashion designers can use. The project was developed in collaboration with restaurants in the Poblenou neighbourhood in Barcelona. Its purpose is to manufacture a completely biodegradable or compostable waterproof bioplastic using dehydrated orange peel to produce clothing and accessories for the fashion industry.


Ressaca

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Ressaca is an immersive installation that takes the viewer into a dystopian world where humanity’s only remaining natural resources are its own waste and dross. Broken and sharp glass is the main construction element of what we intuit to be an eccentric room that sparkles with danger. Vila pushes to the limit a set of semi-utilitarian furniture that threatens and provokes, invites and prohibits in equal parts, an exercise in speculative design that reflects on the future of society.

Founder and Head Designer of Aparentment, Josep Vila Capdevila (1976) is a multidisciplinary designer that has been linked to fashion, advertising, photo-journalism and even music. In 2012, he launched his first collection of objects, Marblelous, which had an impact nationally and internationally. Since then, he has followed a design path towards experimentation and innovation working with noble, robust and lasting materials.

matapalo

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matapalo, by Unlable Design Studio, is a brand from Algiers that markets biophilic pots and installations made of flexible and innovative composite fabrics that stand out for their design, lightness, durability and recyclability.

The product was presented during Underground BDW, a new collective and immersive exhibition during the Barcelona Design Week 2024.

Maja Lalic

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Maja Lalic is an architect, expert in gender equality, and regenerative urban development. Recognized by The New York Times as one of “Belgrade’s most progressive architects,” Maja is the founder of the Mikser organization, as well as the creative director of the Mikser Festival, dedicated to sustainable development and design.

As an architect and urban planner educated at Columbia University in New York, Maja advocates for participatory urban practices involving citizens and the application of nature-based solutions in urban environments. For her urban revitalization projects and efforts to engage citizens in the planning process, she has received awards from the Belgrade Salon of Architecture and distinctions such as the Lucille Smyser Lowenfish Memorial Prize and the Kinne Fellows Memorial Prize from Columbia University.

Maja also co-founded the Women’s Architectural Society, founded Young Balkan Designers, and initiated the Balkan Design Network to promote regional young talents in the field of sustainable design.

Fabio Palma

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With a solid background in Business and Institutional Communication, complemented by a Master’s in Scientific and Environmental Communication from UPF in Barcelona and an MBA in Sustainability and Environmental Management from FGV in Rio de Janeiro, Fabio Palma has built a career shaped by unwavering personal values and a strong commitment to positive social impact, with a particular focus on sustainability, creativity, and social innovation.

He has primarily worked within institutions, NGOs, and the higher education sector at a global level, taking on increasing responsibilities and challenges. Much of his career unfolded within the IED – Istituto Europeo di Design network, where he began in 2007 in Barcelona as a Teacher and Course Coordinator. Later, he moved to Brazil as General Director of IED Rio and CEO of IED Brazil. Currently, he serves as Strategic Partnerships Director at the global foundation Plant for the Planet, advancing ecosystem restoration and empowering young environmental leaders.