where climate action meets the future of design

Tag: new materials

Christoph Pauschitz

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Christoph Pauschitz is Managing Director of GP designpartners, an industrial design studio based in Vienna working with clients worldwide.
For Christoph, innovation is inseparable from value. He believes products need genuine added value — that function, usability, and experience are what matter most.

He sees the potential for innovation in every market offering, always aiming for something better, simpler, and more convincing. He recognizes what’s missing, because without something new, there is no interest — and without interest, no value.

Lotte Kristoferitsch

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Lotte Kristoferitsch is co-founder of EOOS NEXT, an industrial design studio and social enterprise that responds to the world’s major challenges, such as the climate crisis and social injustice, through industrial design strategies. She sees design as a tool for social change, aiming to create alternatives for future, sustainable ways of living.

At EOOS NEXT, Lotte and her team strive for positive change by designing transformative technologies in fields such as mobility, health, water, self-sufficient sanitation, and electricity, driving forward social and sustainable design projects. To achieve this, they collaborate globally with universities and research institutes, social enterprises, and NGOs to improve the situation of people in need, working with Open Design and applying the principles of Circular Design across all their projects.

Barbara Gollackner

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Gollackner’s concepts show how design must dare to look beneath an attractive surface — she has developed a particular passion for conceptual work at the intersection of disciplines, driven by a curiosity for new methods, materials, networking and sharing.

With Wasteware, an experimental tableware project, Barbara created a series of pieces made entirely from food waste, using techniques ranging from moulding and pressing to 3D printing — turning something ordinarily discarded into objects of everyday use. Her collection Rest in Beauty follows a similar philosophy, giving new life to leftover, surplus, and overlooked materials. Working across wood, metal, and stone, from rare finds to everyday remnants, she creates simple, functional objects that balance minimalism with warmth, transforming what was once leftover into subtle, enduring design that quietly celebrates the uniqueness of what remains.

Alongside running her studio, Barbara serves on the board of designaustria and teaches at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences.

Juan Umbert Rosselló

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Juan’s approach is rooted in systems thinking, circularity and interdisciplinary collaboration, with the aim of designing food experiences and tools that are not only desirable, but also meaningful, efficient and aligned with future environmental and social challenges.

Juan Umbert is CEO and Co-Founder of Makeat, a food design and innovation studio focused on rethinking how food systems are conceived, produced and experienced. His work operates at the intersection of gastronomy, design, technology and science, developing tools, products and experiences that connect creativity with operational reality across hospitality, food industry and brand ecosystems.

Beyond Makeat, he co-created Plesh, a new concept on the chocolate snack brand exploring new models of responsible indulgence taking out the sugar from the equation keeping the same pleshure, and co-founded liQeat, an R&D platform researching the future of liquid gastronomy through technology, process innovation and sensory design.

Arpad Pulai

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Arpad Pulai is a distinguished textile artist and Senior Artistic Associate at the Faculty of Applied Arts in Belgrade. His practice focuses on sustainable textile design and the exploration of sociological themes, working exclusively with eco-friendly materials and recycling techniques.

His work is part of the collection of the Museum of Applied Art in Belgrade, and he has received numerous prestigious awards in Serbia for his contribution to contemporary textile art and sustainable design.

Maja Halilovic

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Maja Halilovic, an award-winning biodesigner and innovator, who transforms organic waste and living systems into next-generation materials. She works with biomaterials derived from eggshells and unicellular organisms, exploring how natural intelligence can be integrated into design and manufacturing.

Her research challenges conventional boundaries, demonstrating that the future of design lies in nurturing materials rather than extracting them. By bridging the gap between biological systems and functional objects, she redefines unicellular organisms, agricultural residues, and urban waste streams into intelligent, sustainable materials that unite technical innovation with refined aesthetics. As one of the leading voices in Balkan biodesign, Maja is widely recognized for her pioneering work in organic biomaterial synthesis, advocating for regenerative production cycles that eliminate waste at the source.

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.

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.

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.