Projects

Reimagining education for Indigenous communities in Jawadhu Hills, India

In Jawadhu Hills, India, over half of the tribal children, who are the first in their families to attend school, drop out due to migration for work, lack of school resources, and lessons disconnected from their lives.

"Not so school" challenges traditional norms and institutional practices by creating an alternative learning space that is safe, welcoming, and relevant to students. It aims to empower communities to take ownership of their schools and advocate for their rights.

Using social design methods like research, dialogue, and community collaboration, the project explores long-term challenges and needs. It experiments with new strategies, interventions, safe spaces, community tools, and workshops to create lasting change.

The initiative focuses on supporting first-generation tribal students and their communities in Jawadhu Hills, who have faced exploitation, discrimination, and limited opportunities due to their socio-economic status.    

Upcycling furniture and mindsets

The furniture industry contributes significantly to fast consumerism and environmental issues. Despite these challenges, it presents an opportunity to optimize resource use and promote sustainability.

Each year, over 10 million tones of furniture are discarded in Europe, with only 10% being recycled. This project seeks to transform discarded materials into secondary resources within a circular economy by designing products that extend their life cycle and connecting local partners and supply chains.

The design incorporates a supply chain with local partners providing waste materials, which are used to create modular, flexible, and playful furniture. The goal is to promote upcycling of fast furniture and inspire industry players to embrace the Looped philosophy.

"Looped" is more than just a product; it’s a system that tackles the fast furniture issue by offering sustainable solutions to consumers, encouraging an upcycling movement, targeting design universities, and aiming to partner with companies like Ikea to establish upcycling hubs in stores.

Sowing curiosity for plants

Urbanization and inadequate education have led to a widespread lack of basic botanical knowledge, resulting in disconnection from nature and limited engagement in climate and biodiversity protection.

To address this, a manifesto guides the creation of location-specific activities such as workshops, displays, and artefacts. These initiatives aim to change people’s perceptions of plants and foster a deeper connection with the natural world.

The interventions spark curiosity, encouraging future interest in and support for the plant world. Through storytelling and reflections on plant-human relationships, they promote knowledge and inspire a shift in perspective.

Designed to be adaptable, these site-specific activities are ideal for a variety of educational settings, including museums, botanical gardens, conferences, and more, making them versatile tools for diverse stakeholders in education.
  

A teachers' network to promote education in and with nature.

The Regenerative Education Network creates space for regular meetings to facilitate and promote teachers' and stakeholders' exchange, networking, and cooperation. The website provides an overview of existing offers, courses, and further training from all relevant organizations and associations in Switzerland's outdoor and nature education field. The research highlighted the need for an offer for regular exchange as part of the written master's thesis in January 2022. 
The great interest in the first ""Regenerative Education"" network meeting confirmed the research findings. Teachers would like a platform to meet on an ongoing basis and work together on teaching ideas and visions. The exchange of implicit practical knowledge plays a vital role in this. With this knowledge, teachers can overcome the last hurdles and thus significantly contribute to implementing outdoor lessons. All pupils should be allowed to learn outdoors one day a week all year round. Regeneration means an improved quality of life for everyone involved, including nature. The goal is a critical-thinking, self-effective, and sensitized generation of students who recognize the value of the natural environment and act accordingly. The revolution in regenerative education begins with networking!
   

Design strategies, recycling concepts and material research for circular mattresses

Why are up to 1 million mattresses disposed of in Switzerland every year and none of them are recycled? The vision of ECOMADE is to initiate a paradigm shift towards a sustainable and circular mattress industry. In view of the fact that 90% of the ecological footprint of mattresses is linked to the materials used, the focus has therefore been on the aspects of materials, recycling and design. Exploratory material and process developments were carried out in collaboration with the industry. This resulted in practical strategies for Swiss mattress manufacturers on how they can become more sustainable and customer-friendly through product design.

With the support of: Mattress Alliance Switzerland, 
Roviva Roth & Cie and Ikea Foundation Switzerland
   

Anuvad (meaning: Translation in Hindi) integrates E-textile technology in traditional crafts. The collaboration with craftsmen in rural villages and tech experts developed a range of heated rugs, heated cushions (to provide heat in places where conventional heating solutions are scarce) and LEDs embedded in scarves (for visibility and security). These products show the seamless integration of technology in textiles through weaving. Anuvad creates sustainable smart materials by enabling traditional crafts to grow in the ‘digital era'. This project shows the potential in the age-old skills of traditional craftsmanship and takes it forward to the future.
  

Modified raw material wood - technology transfer through the collaboration of designers and scientists.

White Wood is a material concept based on wood. Compared to the natural raw material wood, a chemical treatment combined with compaction achieves the tripling of tensile strength and stiffness. A further material advantage is its deformability in the wet state, which allows the production of complex shapes and design elements. The WhiteWood project analysed the design and material science collaboration via a “Material Diversity” approach.