ACRE Made in Amazonia

The aim of the project was both knowledge transfer and the development of minimum four product lines in the field of wood furniture. The project lasted nine months and

went through different phases, from research to workshop sessions, from concept to prototyping. There was a course for around thirty-five participants and over twenty

companies were involved. A team of two designers (an Italian and a Brazilian) ad a specialist in production developed twnty-nine products which were also exhibited during

the Milan Design Week in 2014.

URBAN FABLAB

The African Fabbers project is a social innovation and non-profit initiative promoted by Urban FabLab. The project is based on the idea of bridging the African and the European makers communities through workshops, collaborative projects, talks etc.

The workshops were developed in order to share an opportunity to creative clusters from different continents and backgrounds to meet up and share knowledge, to investigate the interaction between African material systems and computer aided design technologies.

The African Fabbers project is curated by Paolo Cascone with Urban FabLab and Maria.

Giovanna Mancini.

The project is supported among the others by: COdesignLab, Fondazione Idis/Città della Scienza (Italy), Fondazione Architetti e Ingegneri Liberi Professionisti iscritti INARCassa.

Among the African partners of the project : Ker Thiossane, Afropixel, Dakar Biennale.

Wasp, as technological partner, will give us the possibility to explore the potentialities of the Big Delta prototype, one of the biggest and most ecological 3d printing machine worldwide.

Among the local partners of the project in Morocco: the ESAV - Ecole Supérieure des Arts Visuels, the CFQMAM - Centre de Formation et Qualification dans les Métiers de l’Artisanat, the Voice Gallery and the Association of Marrakech Biennale.

The African Fabbers project has developed an itinerant fab lab putting emphasis  

on the open source hardware approach for sustainable technologies an urban ecologies.

Therefore we have realized the first two steps participating at both the Marrakech and

Dakar art Biennale where we have organized free workshops opened to African and

European creatives, makers, st dents and artisans selected by the local cultural institutions

and by an open public call.

The workshops were developed in order to share an opportunity to creative clusters

from different continents and backgrounds to meet up and share knowledge, to investigate

the interaction between African material systems and computer aided manufacturing

technologies, to create ecological prototypes through an advanced craftsmanship

approach for sustainable living.

The team:

responsible scientific:

Paolo Cascone / AA-MA PhD-Ing.

Elena Ciancio, Flavio Galdi, Giuliano Galluccio, Andrea Giglio, Imma Polito

Design as a Development tool - Giulio Vinaccia

Il design è uno dei settori delle industrie creative che ha più potenziale per il miglioramento delle condizioni di vita dei paesi in via di sviluppo, per questo è stato promosso da università, imprese e governi di molti paesi del mondo come uno strumento per contribuire a combattere la povertà e generare reddito attraverso lo sviluppo di nuove forme di economia creativa. Il lavoro dei due designer da anni promuove la visione del design come attivatore di creatività nelle comunità, trasferendo metodi e approcci del design, con l’obiettivo di stimolare crescita, specie nei paesi con un significativo ritardo di sviluppo. Tale approccio non è solo volto alla creazione di prodotti innovativi, ma anche al dare vita a nuove interazioni tra produttori che provengono da zone diverse e usano tecniche differenti: un progetto inteso come agente di cambiamento della realtà produttiva e come catalizzatore di relazioni tra culture differenti. La metodologia introdotta è adesso utilizzata da agenzie internazionali come UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organisation), da stati come il Brasile, la Colombia e il Pakistan.

Tajiki Handicraft

Project developed by WhoMade (www.whomade.it) and presented in Milano in November 2012.
The project aims to help local craftsmen in Tajikistan to develop new products for the fair trade international market.

Design & crafts. Where is the (real) news?

Article on design@large in English, April 5, 2012

Last night at Design Circle (the circuit of open conferences/debates organized by Patrizia Coggiola and hosted this time by Skitsch) we have been talking about crafts and design. A topic on which, normally, everyone agrees: manual skills have to be respected and supported. Luckily, though, instead of the usual presentation of stunning objects conceived by designers and made by artisans – designed to “rediscover traditions”, the discussion was quickly moved onto more tangible topics on which the participating speakers had different opinions. Here are the questions raised…

When we say craftman who do we mean? The person who works materials by hand following ancient techniques or, rather, the ‘supplier’ who knows everything about new technologies and uses them to make objects with a soul of extreme quality?

Everyone talks about the ‘rediscovery of crafts’. But this is no news (the whole Italian design system is based on the relationship between designers, companies and craftsmen since its dawn). So why is everyone talking about this? Is it an intellectual exercise, a response against globalization and the loss of the sense of quality, in line with Slow Food for instance? Or, rather, a more sinister signal of a great crisis that brings designers to work with craftsmen and use them as mini-production facilities for capsule collections?

The ‘design collections’ made by companies active in the mass market are to be considered marketing operations (conceived for brand image purposes and to attract purchase on more traditional lines) or opportunities to bring the meaning of the word quality within the mass production industry?

Each year in Europe there are 140.000 new designers but very few new craftsmen. What could be done to attract young people towards these professions?

So what would be really new with regard to design and crafts? Wouldn’t it be – rather than a style exercise – the definition of a new model of business, finizione di un nuovo modello di business, storage, distribution, sales and communications?

The real challenge for designers and craftsmen is still making beautiful things or, more practically, finding ways to actually sell them?

Since it’s not very likely that they will manage following hte traditional business model,how can they?

Participants: designers: Francesco Faccin, Giulio Iacchetti, Lorenzo Longo,Chiara Moreschi, Andrea Radice, Harry Thaler; Stefano Maffei (Politecnico di Milano, Subalterno1); Mario Sampietro of Sampietro 1927;Kuno Prey (Head of the Facoltà di Design & Arti della Libera Università di Bolzano).

SALONE DEL MOBILE: Design & il sud del mondo

In occasione del Fuori Salone della settimana del Design a Milano, la prima edizione di Design & il sud del mondo mira a promuovere il confronto tra ‘domanda e offerta progettuale’ a sostegno di comunità, territori, piccole imprese e artigiani del sud delmondo.

7-22/4 2012 h.10-24

Circolo ACLI di Lambrate

via, via Conte Rosso 5

www.designersenzafrontiere.org

www.arch.unige.it/eve/facw1eve.htm

www.designeisudfiera.blogspot.com

BOTUÁFRICA CONVIDA

HIS-PANIOLA

10 Designer progettano i banchi delle escuelitas per bambini haitiani e dominicani.

Design e solidarietà internazionale insieme per un progetto di cooperazione tra Italia, Haiti e Repubblica Dominicana.

Mostra a Milano dal 13 al 26 gennaio 2012

I tre progetti che saranno realizzati per le esculeitas di Haiti sono quelli di Claudio Larcher, Matteo Ragni con Maurizio Prina e Simone Simonelli; + menzione speciale per Lorenz Kaz

Design for Social Business Conference

When the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus stated:
“I believe that we can create a world without poverty, because it is not the poor who created poverty”, it sounded like an utopia since he imagined that a world without poverty could be created through business activities.

Our current economic system is mainly responsible for the wealth pyramid, creating billions of people with little or no income. However, using the capitalistic system and business activities carried out by the poorest is subversive and very successful in overcoming poverty when we follow Prof. Yunus, social business concept, which is carried out by e.g. Grameen Bank or Grameen Danone. The concept of social business is simple but convincing. Social businesses are companies that have the objective to overcome poverty or other problems that threaten people in society. The goal of the company is not profit maximization. Investors in social businesses invest their money in business activities without receiving any dividends. Instead the profit of a social business stays within the company and is solely used to reinforce the social goal of the business. Furthermore social businesses pay market wage, and act it environmentally consciously. The Grameen Bank, the mother of social business, has distributed 8,7 Billion US$ in small loans with a 98% loan recovery, taking out no profit and empowering hundred thousands of people to overcome poverty and illiteracy in the second generation.

In social business, design plays a major role if we take Herbert Simonsdefinition of design seriously: “design is revising existing situations into preferred ones”. From this perspective each business creation is a design activity; each generation of new product or service is a design activity. Therefore, the question of design within the context of social business is manifold and interesting. As it seems Prof. Yunus’ main activities regarding design have been focused on the designing aspect of the business activity, which we could call business design, probably because he is an economic expert.
But there has to be more to it, since there is a huge awareness that environmental sustainability needs to be considered as a further important aspect of the design activity. Looking at many of the established products in the top tier of the wealth pyramid, it seems that the way products and services are designed today cannot be the future solution and cannot be sustained. We cannot generate the same carbon footprint for the world inhabitants as we do in the Western economies. We cannot use up the same amount of water resources in the upcoming economies as we still do in the western countries.
Therefore social business that has the goal to overcome poverty must be accompanied with conscious design activities, considering the half life of all products, considering the limited resources of the poorest, considering different lifestyles, considering the education of the consumer and considering the limited resources of this planet.

During the international design for social business designing conference in Milan, up to 60 international experts from various fields, representatives from the Grameen Creative Lab, multinational companies active in social business, IED, and other design schools as well as many international design experts, will be activelydesigning a new design philosophy and design agenda to frame and reframe design for social business. The organizers think and hope that it will be possible to have a clear notion how design, its methodology, its objectives need to change to design for a better world, without poverty, creating sustainable business activities, services and products.

The position papers will focus on different approaches to important issues in this area, representing the pluralism of approaches that are emerging in our different institutions and in professional practice.

Design with the Souths of the World

BAGS For AFRICA

COOPI propone l’asta “BAGS For AFRICA” con l’intento di promuovere una moda solidale.
L'iniziativa prevede il coinvolgimento di grandi maisons e stilisti italiani, tra cui i soci di Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana, che si impegneranno a mettere all’asta un borsa della loro collezione o creata appositamente per l’occasione. Il ricavato dei pezzi battuti sarà interamente devoluto ai progetti di COOPI “Un futuro per le giovani mamme di Ziguinchor” in Senegal e “D come sviluppo. Il futuro della Sierra Leone è Donna”.

SOCIAL CHANGE

OPENIDEO

OpenIDEO has partnered with the Holistic Social Business Movement (HSBM) of Caldas – a joint venture between the Grameen Creative Lab and the Government of Caldas, Colombia – to consider how social businesses can improve the health of low-income communities in Colombia and around the world. Together, with your help, we hope to develop a set of implementable and high impact solutions to support and promote social business development and improve health in low-income areas like Caldas, where 26% of the population lives in extreme poverty.

DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD

Established and emerging designers are invited to submit innovative and radical examples of ecologically responsible and/or socially responsive designs that address everyday problems or social needs in the spirit of Victor J. Papanek's philosophy.

Vivienne Westwood's New Ethical Bags Are Now Online

Today, at Pitti Immagine in Florence, Vivienne Westwood launched a new series of bags for herEthical Fashion Africa Project. Handmade by men and women in Nairobi from recycled materials — electrical wiring, tent canvas, aluminum, plastic bags — the accessories are not only environmentally friendly, they're also community-sustaining. "It's not charity, it's work," Westwood says of the project's aim to create jobs in impoverished communities by teaching workers real skills. Ranging in price from $83 to $339, the collection is a colorful melange of chic prints, interesting textures and easy-to-wear shapes. The pieces are available online at yoox.com, with a special video shot by her campaign photographer, Juergen Teller. Click through the slideshow to see our favorites from the collection.

Design as a Development tool - NEW BOOK

A new book by Giulio and Valerio Vinaccia documenting over 20 projects done around the world in the past 15 years.

THE IOU PROJECT

Using technology we create mass market potential for an easy-to-wear line of clothing based on the idea that each piece is handmade and completely unique. The uniqueness of each item allows us to provide traceability right down to the weaver that hand-wove the fabric. The stories of how that item was created, of the people involved, of the customers who purchased them, are the essence of the the e-commerce social network which we have built as a meeting place for a community that shares our brand values of authenticity, transparency, uniqueness and both social and environmental responsibility.

Sono pezzi unici creati da Krizia, Gianfranco Ferre' e altri grandi stilisti. Le borse di "Bags For Africa" vanno all'asta giovedi' 27 gennaio a Milano. Il ricavato sosterra' due importanti progetti di COOPI in Senegal e Sierra Leone.

RSA Design & Society

RSA Design and Society

RSA Animate - First as Tragedy, Then as Farce

Design Activism

Full Circle - 3 form

Design has the power to transform more than just space.
It can positively change our planet, our environment, and people’s lives. Welcome to 3form Full Circle- a class of sustainable and impactful products, a program, a creed, and a belief put into action.

DOWNLOAD
http://www.archiportale.com/newsletter/dossier/download/3516_fullcircle.pdf

SOS-Design

Sos Design è nato nell’ottobre del 2001. L’ 11 settembre l’occidente era stato colpito e aveva deciso di aprire un fronte di difesa/offesa in Afghanistan. In segno di autonomia etico/economica Emergency aveva rinunciato alla quota di finanziamenti pubblici che riceveva per le attività mediche sui fronti di guerra. In un articolo a tutta pagina su laRepubblica Gino Strada invitava la società civile ad aiutarli a reintegrare i fondi rifiutati. Noi avevamo da poco fondato una società che si occupava di comunicazione con una forte attenzione al mondo del Design, e ci siamo chiesti cosa si potesse fare per risponde all'appello. E così, di domenica, in quei silenzi carichi di soluzioni, abbiamo progettato Sos Design: il primo format di raccolta fondi espressamente attivo nel mondo Design.

EcoChic Milan Exhibition

The EcoChic Milan Exhibition will take place within Italy's main sustainable trade fair, called 'Fa' la cosa giusta! meaning to 'do the right thing' on 12th-14th March in Milan.
'Fa' la cosa giusta!, which is open to the public, attracted 50,000 visitors in 2009 and the fair has become a benchmark for the exchange of ideas and solutions for sustainable lifestyles amongst consumers, organisations and institutions in Italy.
The EcoChic Milan Exhibition will consist of 18 of the eco-couture garments that were created specifically for 'EcoChic Geneva', which Green2greener co-organised with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) at the Palais des Nations, the United Nations' headquarters in Geneva, in January 2010.

Fashion Ethic Day - Milano

Two events in Milano in the past months.

TOMSshoes

One for One

TOMS Shoes was founded on a simple premise: With every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need. One for One. Using the purchasing power of individuals to benefit the greater good is what we're all about. The TOMS One for One business model transforms our customers into benefactors, which allows us to grow a truly sustainable business rather than depending on fundraising for support.

Why shoes?


Many children in developing countries grow up barefoot. Whether at play, doing chores or going to school, these children are at risk:

•A leading cause of disease in developing countries is soil-transmitted diseases, which can penetrate the skin through bare feet. Wearing shoes can help prevent these diseases, and the long-term physical and cognitive harm they cause.

•Wearing shoes also prevents feet from getting cuts and sores. Not only are these injuries painful, they also are dangerous when wounds become infected.

•Many times children can't attend school barefoot because shoes are a required part of their uniform. If they don't have shoes, they don't go to school. If they don't receive an education, they don't have the opportunity to realize their potential.

REFRESH

TUDO A MÃO in ceramics factory 2008 from STRAAT TUDO A MÃO on Vimeo.

REFRESH collection created by designers Lucas Van Vugt, João Parenti and Marcia Gervastok during  straatceramica project and the hanger Cabide STRAAT designed by Takeshi Sumi at straatbambu project can be found at Brazilian TOK&STOK stores.

TUDO A MÃO with bamboo 2008 from STRAAT TUDO A MÃO on Vimeo.

Designer: Takeshi Sumi,Producer: Kotybambu

MAASAI WOMEN ART

MAASAI WOMEN ART

www.maasaiwomenart.net

You were impressed by our selection of shawls, cushions and bed linen in the 'Talents à la Carte' showcase at the Maison & Objet Exhibition, September 2009…
 We hope we'll have the pleasure of showing you the full range of our textiles at our private Exhibition & Sale in Paris, 3–5 December, 2009

WomenWeave

WomenWeave is an organization dedicated to empowering and improving the lives of women who weave in rural India. Its goal is to make handloom a profitable, fulfilling and sustainable income-earning activity for women.

Moving towards this objective, WomenWeave follows a holistic approach towards the weavers it works with. Alongside design, skill-enhancement and marketing interventions, WomenWeave also undertakes health, education and childcare initiatives. Overall, the idea is to have happy, healthy and empowered women who make a constructive contribution to their families and to society.

 WomenWeave is a registered Charitable Trust, supporting the role of women in handloom weaving since 2002.

 Headquartered in Mumbai, it has a field office in Maheshwar, Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh.

Lulu&Nat

Driven by colour and inspired by India, Mumbai-based Lulu McEvoy and London-based Nat Robinson launched Lulu & Nat, a home and lifestyle range for adults and children.
With experience in textile design and retail, Lulu and Nat have created a modern, vibrant collection with an exotic Indian edge. Handcrafted and made in India using traditional techniques, each piece is completely unique and nothing is mass-produced. The result is a beautiful selection of hand-printed bedlinen, embroidered wall hangings and embellished cushions - all in Lulu & Nat's signature Anglo-Indian style.
Since it was set up in 2008, Lulu & Nat's client list has grown and now includes prestigious London stores such as Designers Guild, SCP, the Cross and Liberty, as well as designer childrenswear shop Bonton in Paris.

EL CAMINO

Association of French designers created by Véronique Tesseraud works alongside the weavers of Chiapas to produce 

collections that respect Indian traditions and the new rules of fair trade.

Véronique Tesseraud founded the El Camino association in 1996 to support weavers in Chiapas. New collections have been developed, with the help of volunteer French designers. These ranges weave contemporary aspirations and inspirations from Maya’s textile heritage. Long research work has been carried out to recreate the tones of ancient vegetal stains, providing harmonious hybridisation between tradition and modernity. Distributed in France and Mexico according to fair trade principles, this production allows more than 150 women to have worthy living conditions through the use of their ancestral knowledge.

El CAMINO: el.camino.france(at)gmail.com