Eco Solidarity 2022

European Literature Night

November 11, 2021

un/mute 10002

June 21, 2021

ECO Solidarity

Date of event: May 15-17, 2022

Eco Solidarity stands for a multidisciplinary hybrid project, an initiative and a movement developed with WantedDesign, which seeks unity and solidarity through design + architecture focused on Ecology, climate change, the key concepts of the Green New Deal, sustainability, public well-being, public health and their social implications in public spaces. This year’s edition will introduce leading designers and studios from nine European Union countries to showcase sustainable, future-focused solutions in architecture, urban planning, product design and development, energy and waste. Exhibition and two talks will be presented at WantedDesign Manhattan, May 15-17 at the Javits Center.

Participating designers and studios include: EOOS NEXT (Austria), Herrmann & Coufal (Czech Republic), Livable Platform (Flanders, Belgium), MOYA Birch Bark (Germany), AHA Objects (Malta), NASDRA Conscious Design (Poland), SUSDESIGN (Portugal), Atelier Ad Hoc (Romania), crafting plastics! studio (Slovakia).

About project

ECO Solidarity was initiated in 2020 by the Polish Cultural Institute New York in collaboration with WantedDesign and eight European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) organizations as an international, multidisciplinary initiative and movement.
ECO Solidarity addresses urgency for:

Human-centered, Green New Deal-aligned product design, architecture, and public space.
Sustainable design solutions focused on climate change ecology, public wellbeing, public health.
Real-life applicable solutions addressing Covid-19 public health crisis.
Inclusivity and diversity: providing equal opportunity to designers from all genders and races
Prioritizing European emerging designers interested in developing collaborations in the US

EUNIC, European Union National Institutes for Culture – is the European network of organizations engaging in cultural relations. Together with our partners, we bring to life European cultural collaboration in more than 90 countries worldwide with a network of over 120 clusters, drawing on the broad experience of our members from all EU Member States and associate countries. EUNIC advocates a prominent role of culture in international relations and is a strategic partner of the EU, actively involved in the further definition of European cultural policy. EUNIC is a platform for knowledge sharing and for capacity building amongst its members and partners.

Learn More

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NAS-DRA –
Polish Cultural Institute
New York

“Designing interconnections” is a project that started in 2018 and is still developing. It shows how the fields of art, science, health and ecology are connected. It consists of several smaller intertwined with each other projects about: pollution as a resources and bioremediation (Biomine project), urban farming where foods are grown as medicine (IKEA project), light therapy (IKEA and Televisor project), bioelectronics (Biodegradable photo-voltaic cells made from food).

Aha Objects –
Arts Council Malta in
New York

Sorġi is an ongoing research project about opportunities for circularity in Malta, whose first outcome is an outdoor furniture collection for public spaces, highly critical of the booming construction industry. Six benches inspired by six buildings affected by the local construction frenzy will stand both as a memento of today’s choices and a suggestion for tomorrow’s actions. Every piece is made of recycled construction waste (limestone, broken terrazzo, marble offcuts and fragments of glass among others) and tells the story of the building that inspired it, contributing to the need for tangible solutions to the sheer amount of discarded materials that keeps accumulating on the island, while promoting circularity and raising awareness on environmental issues within a larger audience. Sorġi is literally an invitation to sit down (from the Maltese ‘Sorga’, meaning ‘to politely ask someone to sit down’) and observe the ever-changing Maltese built landscape from a different perspective.

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Livable –
Delegation of Flanders
to the USA

More than 35% of the world‘s population lack access to safe sanitation. The vision of this project is to empower local craftsmen around the world to integrate EOOS NEXTs ‘URINE TRAP’, a passive urine separation technology, into toilets that can be produced locally and integrated into already existing toilet slabs. The ODM was created by female designers and improved with feedback out of a co-creation process provided by craftsmen in South Africa. The production of the open-source urine diverting squat toilet is explained with a step-by-step pdf and a video manual. Simple production techniques are presented in an easy-to-understand way, reaching people with various backgrounds, providing business opportunities and building capacities. By sourcing material locally, import, transport and storage of often rarely available squat pans is eliminated, and resources are being saved. In BoP markets, the ODM can significantly contribute to the skipping of 4 out of 5 steps on the sanitary ladder: from open defecation to basic sanitation. Urine Diversion is key to improve basic sanitary conditions.

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Algaeing –
Goethe-Institut New York

Algaeing is a textile innovation company that harnesses the power of renewable algae to create real impact against climate change. We formulate planet-positive, scalable solutions for manufacturing fibers and dyeing fabrics all in a 100% closed system that can be used with existing production machinery. By offering both fiber and dye solutions, we’re changing the way garments are made from the inside out. Our algae-based dyes and fibers are not only good for our planet , but are also good for our skin by leveraging the benefits of the algae to nourish and protect our body. We’re saving 80% of water consumption normally used in fashion production and preventing water pollution globally. Algaeing provides the world of fashion with the tools needed to transform into a planet-positive industry.

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Atelier Ad Hoc –
Romanian Cultural Institute
New York

As an attempt of redefining the limit, the project uses the existing spatial and human resources of the temporary night shelter in the Pantelimon neighborhood, in order to respond and upgrade the daily needs of the homeless people who currently live there. The property limit is used as a space for mediation and negotiation, a position that would question the street and its role as a public space and the shelter as public infrastructure. In response to the excessive presence of fences in the Bucharest public spaces, the project proposes a new form of the border made out of 48 storage units, a neighborhood resource collector, a covered space, and a planter. The presence of the equipment extends and completes the shelter’s restrictive night-time schedule, allowing individual access to personal belongings throughout the day by transforming the existing property limit from an object of separation into a space that is continuously defined through its everyday use. The limit acts as a flexible storage apparatus for personal belongings, a necessary feature that does not exist inside the shelter.

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Herrmann & Coufal –
Czech Center New York

The project explores a designer’s relationship to the “do it yourself” phenomenon. It shows that self-made production does not have to be perceived only as a low-cost, alternative, and unaesthetic solution – on the contrary, it highlights its benefits for both individuals and society. In addition to environmental aspects (such as reduction of transport, packaging, and commercial overproduction), it brings the human approach to products and makes their users understand and appreciate hidden ideas. The creation process thus becomes an integral part of the final product, a shared experience.

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Studio Plastique –
Wallonie-Bruxelles
International
New York

Flax is a crop with a strong European heritage. As it grows well in the coastal areas of Western Europe, a strong industry and economy has flourished around flax and its processed products up until today. We all know the fine linen cloth, lace, linseed oil, linseed oil-based paint, to name a few. However, the production of fibre-based products is increasingly delocalised to other parts of the world. This pressure from a globalised economy is leading the flax growers and processors to reach out to scientists and designers looking into the potential of this versatile crop beyond its traditional products.

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