where climate action meets the future of design

Tag: new materials

Bojana Nikitovic

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Bojana Nikitović’s work in costume design spans theatre, opera, ballet, and film.

She graduated as Valedictorian from the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade in 1989 and began her career in theatre, designing costumes for more than 100 productions, including productions of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, Dickens, and Molière. Her contribution to the performing arts has been recognised with numerous awards, including an EMMY NOMINATION for Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes for her work in Dune Prophecy, a winner of the Costume Designers Guild Awards for Excellence in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Television for her work in Dune Prophecy, four Sterija Awards, two Ardalion Awards, and the Grand International Award for Spectacle Design at the YUSTAT Biennial.

Since 2001, she has worked internationally, collaborating with Academy Award-winning costume designer Milena Canonero on films such as The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Marie Antoinette, and The Wolfman. Her film credits include Coriolanus, A Good Day to Die Hard, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and numerous other international productions.

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).

Thami Schweichler

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Social designer, entrepreneur, and impact leader based in Amsterdam, whose work sits at the intersection of circularity, social justice, and entrepreneurship.

As the founder and CEO of the United Repair Centre, he has pioneered a scalable B2B clothing repair model that partners with major fashion brands to extend the life of garments while simultaneously creating meaningful employment for people with limited access to the labour market, including newcomers and refugees.

Prior to this, Thami co-founded Makers Unite, a social enterprise that empowers refugees and local creatives through sustainable design projects and circular production. This initiative gained international recognition after winning the What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge in 2016. Thami’s vision challenges fast fashion by embedding repair, reuse, and inclusion into the industry’s infrastructure.

Mary Nyaruai Mureithi

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Powerful advocate for dignity, gender equality, and a sustainable future by amplifying grassroots voices on global stages. Beyond Nyungu Afrika, she empowers the next generation of female entrepreneurs as a pan-African pitching and entrepreneurship trainer, helping young women confidently present their ideas and reach their full potential. For Mary, design is activism, and every product is a step toward systemic change.

Driven by an activist heart and firsthand exposure to the harsh realities of period poverty, where girls are forced to exchange sex for pads, use unsafe alternatives, or suffer health issues from poor-quality products, Mary designed a better solution. Through Nyungu Afrika, she pioneers a circular economy model that transforms agricultural waste, like pineapple leaves and maize husks, into a patent-pending, biodegradable, tree-free pulp for eco-friendly sanitary pads. Her innovation tackles both period poverty and the harmful impact of imported disposable pads on health and the environment.

Natasa Perkovic

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BLENDING AESTHETICS, INNOVATION AND A DEEP CONNECTION TO NATURE IN HER DESIGN PRACTICE.

Born in Sarajevo into a family in which her father and grandfather worked for the well- known Yugoslav-era wood industry, SIPAD, Natasa grew up surrounded by the scent of wood samples and an appreciation for wood crafts and industry. Though she once found furniture design uninspiring, her perspective shifted after studying Product Design at the Academy of Fine Arts, University of Sarajevo and gaining international experience.

Returning to Sarajevo in the early 2000s, she began teaching at her alma mater and built her design practice in a country still recovering from war and industrial decline. As the country’s furniture sector moved from exporting raw materials to developing its own products, Natasa established her studio and began collaborating with local manufacturers.

Today, she is a leading voice in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s design revival, dedicated to education, regional collaboration, and shaping a bold, innovative and sustainable design culture.