What Design Can Do champions artistic options to local weather and social challenges. Its founders reveal the inspiration behind their newest artistic name: (the small matter of) radically redesigning the whole lot
“Take a look at landfill websites,” says Pepijn Zurburg, co-founder of Dutch nonprofit What Design Can Do. “At one level, somebody designed all that trash that’s in them. The whole lot that we made ultimately finally ends up being an issue for us. Whether or not it’s meals, clothes or different merchandise: if we have now been concerned in creating this drawback, then we must also, as designers, really feel liable for being a part of the answer.”
What Design Can Do, a global organisation based mostly in Amsterdam, with hubs in Delhi, Nairobi, Tokyo, São Paolo and Mexico Metropolis, started life 12 years in the past, when co-founders Zurburg and Richard van der Laken determined to discover design’s affect on society.
The pair – graphic designers who ran an company collectively – started with a one-day convention, inviting consultants to talk on how objective drives design and aesthetics. “We appreciated to work with purchasers, after all,” says van der Laken. “However once you do your personal initiative, you’re additionally the proprietor of the contents. As a graphic designer, you can say that you simply design the duvet, however you by no means write the e-book.” What Design Can Do is the designers writing the e-book – they usually’re removed from completed.
The Loop’s mycelium impressed the staff at What Design Can Do. Picture: Loop
In 2015 got here the primary of many challenges. Working with the Ikea Basis and the United Nations Excessive Commissioner for Refugees, the pair invited designers worldwide to submit design-led concepts that might ease the refugee disaster. Greater than 911,000 refugees arrived in Europe that 12 months, with 3,550 dropping their lives on the journey. The 5 successful submissions, which included a biodegradable shelter, a storytelling platform and a radio-frequency ID card, have been every awarded €10,000 (£8,580) to make their concepts a actuality. Since then, six extra challenges have invited concepts to deal with challenges starting from little one sexual exploitation to waste.
Entrants over time have embraced the challenges wholeheartedly, if the concepts Zurburg describes are something to go by. “One we appreciated very a lot known as the residing coffin by a startup referred to as Loop. It’s a coffin, made not from wooden however from mycelium [a root structure that carries nutrients to a fungus]. When somebody is buried, the coffin itself will disappear, and it’ll break down the poisonous supplies from the physique. One thing we see in lots of options is designers occupied with new supplies. And with that, they usually contact on different societal points. This residing coffin opens up a dialog about loss of life, which could be very usually taboo, particularly within the west,” says Zurburg.
This 12 months’s problem is probably the most bold but: the Redesign The whole lot Problem. “[The entries] vary from overhauling and rethinking techniques – as an example, new concepts for land use – to redesigning on a regular basis merchandise,” says Zurburg. “There’s a new form of round, electrical, idea automotive in there. Nevertheless it’s additionally about supplies, similar to biodegradable or round alternate options to plastics, leather-based and textiles. The vary could be very vast.”
If we have now been concerned in creating this drawback, then we must also, as designers, really feel liable for being a part of the answer
Greater than 550 concepts have been submitted, from neighbourhood initiatives to rejuvenate native meals techniques to solar-powered improvements that help communities in want. A variety committee has narrowed the sector all the way down to 33 nominees, who will go earlier than a global jury, which is able to decide 10 winners. These winners will probably be invited to Amsterdam within the first week of July to a ‘dash week’, the place they’ll participate in workshops, masterclasses and visits to round design businesses. On 5 July the winners change into a central a part of the What Design Can Do Stay the place lots of of creatives, activists and policymakers will meet on the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam to share concepts.
Redesign The whole lot is precisely what it says on the tin: an invite to rethink on a regular basis merchandise, processes and techniques for the higher, with circularity on the core.
With reference to supplies the pair have had thought-provoking conversations with individuals who work in waste administration. “They inform us in regards to the problem of packaging usually being made of various supplies melted collectively, which might’t be separated. The one factor to do is incinerate it,” provides van der Laken. “But when it’s designed in a different way then the waste administration facility can separate and reuse the supplies.”
In addition to contemplating constituent components, the co-founders supply extra recommendation for designers who wish to make circularity central to their work: greater is just not at all times higher. “Circling again to our problem programme, we don’t concentrate on large manufacturers,” says van der Laken. “There are some nice examples of designers and startups who grew to become very profitable entrepreneurs with their merchandise, not that startups at all times succeed after all. However have a look at [Swiss bag maker] Freitag, for instance. It began as a distinct segment challenge by two graphic designers, making luggage from used truck tarpaulins. Now it’s large.”
It’s necessary to first work out the place your concepts can actually have an effect, says Zurburg. “Don’t simply assist to supply stuff that can find yourself being burned in landfill. If you happen to actually wish to concentrate on sustainability, take into consideration working someplace the place your imaginative and prescient and abilities can most make a distinction,” he says. “However that’s not a lot about design – that’s simply life recommendation.”
What Design Can Do Stay is in Amsterdam on 5 July 2024.This 12 months’s pageant cross contains entry to essential stage talks by audio system like Bobby Kolade, Afaina de Jong and Clive Russell, workshops on themes like community-building and local weather storytelling and an opportunity to attach with lots of of likeminded residents, creatives and activists. Get tickets right here
Predominant picture: Carol Sachs
