ECO DESIGN FORUM Archive | ökoRAUSCH

ONYA Collective

Anika Paape — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 07:14:46 +0000

Facts

Designer: The ONYA Collective
Field: urban gardening, social design & activism
Founded: 2014
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: www.onyacity.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/onyacity

One of our fieldtrips during our ECO DESIGN FORUM in Tel Aviv past October 2016 was to „ONYA City“. Heela and Yoav of the ONYA Collective – a gathering of architects, activists, community leaders, and volunteers – took the time and showed us around one of their impressive projects at the New Central Bus Station in South Tel Aviv.

Here are some impressions of our trip and a glimpse at who the ONYA Collective is and what they are doing in their own words:

The Onya Collective started in 2014 as part of the WorldWide Storefront contest, to reimagine alternative futures for large urban landscapes. We focused on the Central Bus Station in South Tel Aviv, an enormous concrete structure that has destroyed the surrounding neighborhoods and is a center for drug use, prostitution, and crime. We launched the Collective with a two-month-long festival on all seven floors of the bus station, showcasing artwork and creative urban agriculture such as hydroponics and a library with a green wall.

Since that time, we have continued to be active at the bus station with a community garden and space on Neve Shaanan street. We give tours of the bus station to highlight the unique challenges of this massive building, which today stands 60% abandoned, but also provides a home for the city’s marginalized populations.

We are working towards turning the “Rampa Garden” on Neve Shaanan St into a community resource available free of charge to the diverse communities of South Tel Aviv.

Today, the Onya Collective is made up of a core group of architects, activists, community leaders, and volunteers. Through our work at the bus station, cities from across Israel have turned to us to copy our approach to Neve Shaanan and do “placemaking” in their challenging neighborhoods. We utilize community organizing principals to design public spaces that serve the needs of all of the residents of the areas where we work.

Heela Harel & Yoav Shafranek of the ONYA Collective took the time to give us a grand tour through the controversial area of Tel Avivs New Central Bus Station and prepared us with some quite astonishing input and insights.

One of the entrances to the New Central Bus Station has never been used and is now one of ONYAs notable urban gardening sights.

Exploring vacant areas of the New Central Bus Station.

Left: Glimpse at a graffiti gallery. Top: One of the very few occupied floors of the New Central Bus Station. Bottom: Resting spot made by the ONYA Collective.

Der Beitrag ONYA Collective erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

IOTA

Dorit Chesler — Mon, 23 Jan 2017 10:00:47 +0000

Credit: Ronen Mangan

Facts

Designer: Tal, Dorit and Lion
Label: iota
Field: Social business, social design, handcraft
Foundet: 2014
Location: Tel Aviv, Israel
Website: iotaproject.com

iota is a social brand designing beautiful handmade objects for the interior while creating jobs for otherwise unemployed people worldwide. iota’s foundations are based on three fundamentals: the use of handmade elements to create new, unexpected designs; the usage of luxurious bespoke yarns and materials; and being a social business. Our collection gives stage to our unique textiles which we develop and design and is based on the technic of Crochet knitting. Our products vary from rugs in different sizes to poufs, stools and benches, pillows and swings, everything textile oriented, some with complimentary materials or structures. We design our products respectively to our vision so they can be crafted in the homes of otherwise unemployed women whom we train and groom. All our products are handmade by these women who create knitted elements in the comfort of their home and then send them over to our studio to be assembled into the final products. Our name has a meaning: ‚iota‘ stands for „a bit“ in Latin and as it is, little by little, from a single element to the final product, from the individual to the global, we aspire to make an impact on the lives of our clients, our employees and our community.

The vision behind ‚iota‘ is to establish a movement that allows different people from around the world to learn the technique of traditional hand-craftsmanship, to provide them employment and allow them to earn an honest living. This idea contains a social responsibility and a way to maintain traditional arts by extenuating the importance of knowledge and skills. It also portrays the belief that regardless of the infinite possibilities that technology offers, people still seek for a personal and unique hand print.

The main concept in our design is creating innovative products from a traditional starting point, and changing the perception of what can be done using hand techniques. As they are conceptually built up from pieces, our products have a tactile nature which calls to create playful contact and combinations between shapes, colors and textures. iota’s products fit into the “in-between” spaces of our lives, filling emotional and practical needs by creating beautiful objects which also carry a social cause. The search for products and materials is done by physical research. We learn old techniques combined with modern knowledge and come up with new strings in colors that are unique for us. All these create a new textile language that combines various materials into unlimited products. We make tradition contemporary.

Credit: iota project

iota was founded in 2014 by Shula Mozes, a social entrepreneur who had a dream to utilize the craft of knitting, which she loves, into a social opportunity. Knowing there are countless communities of women worldwide who are not able to work outside of the home, she felt that a design brand based on knitting could offer a solution for them and simultaneously be a platform for exciting and bespoke design. Shula reached out to Tal Zur, an Industrial designer with an inclination to crafts and an understanding in textiles, to be the creative mind behind the project. Tal fell in love with the idea, and together they set to build up their dream.

Today, iota first of all is a social-business, both ecologically and socially conscious, with a commitment to sustainability and community support. The majority of profits from iota’s product sales are invested in welfare and educational programs worldwide. We aim to work within communities with high rates of unemployment, and provide mentoring and training programs for women. We work with people with no prospect of employment, giving those opportunities as we invest in their training and mentorship. We give our employees the option of working from home and reward them with fair pay, while creating a sense of community and empowerment. Our production process is completely transparent, and we absolutely condemn child labor and sweat shop environment.

We teach methods of re-appropriating traditional craft techniques, which requires teaching of skills. We believe the importance of skills does not lie only in the final product but rather in the process. The process of hand craftsmanship, which necessarily requires time and attention from the craftsman, creates an emotional connection between him and the final product he created. This connection creates emotional products. The products embody the craftsman’s unique finger print and thus making him an inseparable part of the final product. As opposed to a machine which creates anonymous products, our handmade products have a past, a background and a memory.

A skill, if utilized, can have rewarding qualities; rewarding to the product that is created as a one of a kind element; and rewarding to the craftsperson, whose skill makes him an expert, and therefore meaningful. This empowerment, deriving from owning a skill, is what we strive to preserve and enhance.

The photos from our visit are taken from Sabine Stein sabinestein.com

Der Beitrag IOTA erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

experiences / Impressions 2

Christina Schonefeldt — Wed, 14 Dec 2016 10:00:46 +0000

This is the second part of the reports from the participants of the ECO DESIGN FORUM. What happens when designers and artists from four different countries go on a trip together? The five-day programme with presentations, excursions and a good amount of exchange – first in Tel Aviv, Israel and then in Auja, Palestine – really made an impression on everyone and gave rise to a lot of questions.

Ruth after our workshop in Tel Aviv

A visit to a women’s cooperative in Jericho

Ruth

Recycling material expert / Tel Aviv, Israel

We had very broad topics: from the national aspects of sustainability to very specific topics like business models. I would like to have had more time for each thing, maybe one day. Then you are able to go deeper into the issues. The workshop “effectuation” was very helpful because it reflected the process I was just starting to make. This was the reason why I came, because I am in at a starting point. For this starting point I was looking for more input and people. When I was attending the workshop I could see something about the process I was going into: I naturally did a process which is established and it gives me a lot of confidence. It was also interesting to hear what other people had to say about their own experience and to hear the questions. Personally I enjoyed very much the way Christof did this presentation. I think his group managing qualities are very good and I really appreciate what he gives from his time and experience. It was nice.

If the next two days in Auja could go deeper into the subjects that are presented in the first two days, I think I would do everything to be there. Maybe this is something to think about for the next time. How to link everything together. That you can see, we got this presentation and what is the link between this presentation and this presentation. How can we develop something new from this information that came from the more educational part to the more social things. Because sustainable design goes through all aspects from society. It is in art and in culture, in community and design.

Annegret

Artist / Cologne, Germany

The workshop brought about such different and contrasting experiences! The sessions were very informative, especially the different aspects that are important here, became much clearer. The visit we made to the studios and production centres really made an impression on me. We were able to see how unused resources are taken on and used. The different, profound impressions that I will take with me will definitely find their way into my work, even if I cannot yet say how. My perspectives have widened and continue to develop.

I wrote down this spontaneous statement above just before we left Auja, the experiences were still very fresh. A few weeks later, all caught up in the daily grind, the great impression this trip has left on me have become clearer. The experiences and meetings have moved me so much that I want to share my experience with others. I have also started to inform myself more about the situation in Israel and Palestine. We were able to see how the geographic, historical, political, social and ecological conditions shape personal living environments in their complexity and plasticity. A truly sustainable workshop!

Adital in her studio telling the participants about her work with students in Tel Aviv

Dagmar and Christiane at IOTA in Tel Aviv

Dagmar

Graphic designer / Munich, Germany

I think the planning and organisation that had to happen to put together the EDF was amazing. So first of all I would like to compliment all of you!

On the first day, I found the personal introductions as interesting as they were important. I was impressed by what people have put together and the passion that they do it with. For example, the woman from Iota that works with Bedouin women, and on top of that, their products are incredible. I was just as impressed by our visit to the bus station. It was really interesting but it lasted too long. At that point, I had seen so much that by the time we got to Adital’s part, I almost wasn’t able to take in any more information. All in all, there were so many impressive things to take in from other people and their stories and of course from Tel Aviv itself. And that was just day one!
For me, the beginning of the second day was interesting, unfortunately, the lecture held via skype lasted too long. At my age, I have already been to a lot of workshops and training seminars, so a lot of the information wasn’t new for me. I found Pinar and Tuna’s work based in Istanbul very impressive. For me, their art and therefore their way of thinking are great.

Day three in Palestine… there was a huge difference to Tel Aviv. Like black and white. The artist really impressed me, his eyes lit up while presenting his products, which, by the way, were awesome.

To sum it up I can say that, for me, the opportunities you gave us to meet these people/artists and see these countries will have a lasting impression on me! I will always fondly remember the woman with the mosaics, for example. What a heart she has. And then Adital, from Israel, stood next to the woman from Palestine, what an incredible impression. And with that I must mention Pina and Tuna from Istanbul who put so much effort into changing things – which they surely do.

Specifically for my work as an editorial designer, there wasn’t really anything for me. Even the content of Christof’s presentation was more or less familiar to me. But I didn’t go into this with that expectation. I was interested in the people, their ideas and their work. And in that respect, the EDF really lived up to my expectations! The networking and these impressive people with their work, that really left a lasting impression on me.

Christiane

Graphic designer / Munich, Germany

In my experience, it is very important to not only work on something theoretically, but to go somewhere, meet the people and find out about their ideas, viewpoints, wishes and dreams. That also means dealing with the respective problems and critical voices that come along with their situations.

The extreme contrast between the Israel and the West Bank and the very different life situations really left a lasting impression on me. It really made me think, maybe because of my own personal history (I grew up in the Berlin that was still divided into two parts by the German Wall). In addition to that, we were lucky to be part of a really great group of people from many different countries. That reminded me to step outside of my own comfort zone, and taking more time to communicate with other people really did good. And it made you reflect about your own little “luxury problems”.

In my job as a normal graphic artist/service provider, the workshop hasn’t yet had a big influence, except maybe with issues regarding how to deal with resources in one’s own project. I mean, Dagmar and I, as graphic designers working in the magazine industry, generally produce short-lived products that are quickly thrown away and use a lot of paper and other resources.

But I knew beforehand that the workshop wouldn’t have a direct effect on my work. I decided to join in on the trip for personal reasons. The exchange with other people from different countries, interesting projects and a fascinating place are always food for creativity.

A small product exhibit at Disarming Design in Ramallah

Aviya after our workshop in Tel Aviv

Aviya

Produktdesignerin / Tel Aviv, Israel

Participating in the workshop was a great pleasure. Meeting some great designers from different countries that are most importantly, interesting lovely people that I’m happy I have met. We had many opportunities to connect and getting to know each other and I think that just this, for itself, is an amazing opportunity.

In addition, It was pleasantly surprising, that although the workshop was held in my home city, ökoRAUSCH group found the way to expose us locals to some great content and experiences within our own city that we haven’t heard or seen before.

I personally think that as designers, everything that we experience is absorbed in our system and at the end comes out in our work in one way or another.

Der Beitrag experiences / Impressions 2 erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

experiences / impressions

Christina Schonefeldt — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 11:00:34 +0000

Going on a trip together is always an adventure and you experience a lot. What happens when designers and artists from four different countries go on a trip together? The five-day programme with presentations, excursions and a good amount of exchange – first in Tel Aviv, Israel and then in Auja, Palestine – really made an impression on everyone and gave rise to a lot of questions.

Marc

Upcycling designer / Cologne, Germany

I don’t know if I can even evaluate the experience already. There were so many different structures, levels and aspects that I have to process or that have to be reflected on. Besides the designer aspects of the experience, the input that we got in the workshops and the political conflicts were dominant. Even if it wasn’t my intention, conversations often turned political, regardless of where the person came from, be it Israel, Germany or Palestine.

The political conflict is really palpable and it definitely brought up a new dimension to design – at least to the way design is classically understood in Germany: Understanding is also a form of communication design that holds within it different levels in its many facets. In this respect, I gained a whole new field of experiences and other cultural influences, as is common on such a trip. But it will take some time to process everything, to understand the complexity of the conflict and be able to draw conclusions.

I definitely gained experience that I can use in my work back in Germany, where things just work differently because we live in different structures. Here is an example: at reditum, we design furniture from used material, so we upcycle. Therefore, we need access to the used material that would usually by recycled or re-used. That means that we often can’t access this material because the people that want to get rid of the material have signed framework agreements, even if upcycling is the most ecologically and economically practical solution in a lot of cases.

But in Israel, there isn’t a recycling programme. A lot of material just lands on the street. There is, however, an upcycling scene, which is very small because the concept isn’t very well-known. An Israeli participant told me the following story: “In my neighbourhood there are mounds of cans and some kind of wooden packaging that you could easily use again. But no one does. It just lands in some landfill.” By the end of the conversation we had already come up with some initial ideas about what to do …

I think the conversations that we had outside of the workshops were also often inspirational for both sides. In my opinion, one of the participants said it best: “It’s not about solving the whole problem all at once. It’s about creating moments of emotion and with that, repeatedly putting a positive emphasis on things.” This statement, which was in reference to the political situation, can be adapted to my creative work in a trivial way. A piece of furniture doesn’t have to be all-encompassing but it should definitely be functional and also help create great moments.

Pinar

Designer, change agent and creative facilitator / Istanbul, Turkey

It was a great experience regarding different people from different cultures. Designers coming together and having a lot of exchange. It was a very interesting experience for us to meet in a conflicting environment, because as designers we are thinking in different ways: we can see the problems and we can think about creative solutions. It gives us the possibility to look deeper into the issues around. As designers it is interesting to observe different cultures especially in a conflicting environment. It was great to visit different places in Israel and Palestine and we have seen how people and designers interact with their problems. This was a very good experience for us.

We have a lot of issues in Turkey, too. They are considered not only by the government and it is obvious to see that the political party and the political stakeholders are coming short to build solutions. Designers can see a lot of problems and think creative. It is inspiring to see here relationships between social and environmental issues and how designers can take part in these. This is something what we will take with us from now on. Also the environmental psychology lecture was great and I was impressed and we can take that concept more into our work, because there is a great area where people are making research and have some results and we can use these scientific findings in our work as well. We always have these questions why people are behaving like this. What we take back with us is also about having courage as designers.

Tuna

System designer and sustainability strategist / Istanbul, Turkey

I have seen a lot of trash on the streets, especially in the Palestinian part. But the trash is not a result of what we are expecting of eco-sensitiveness, it is a result of something much deeper. It is a social issue, because there is no alternative, there is no hope for these guys. And when you see the interaction of ecology and society, then you can easily figure out what are the sustainable points. We are not talking about ecology, you cannot separate it into one room, ecology cannot be fragmented. It has to be considered in a context and that context can be created by a society or a culture or whatever. This experience we had was possible with ecolised workshops. We have been able to know some people from both sides, excellent personalities, great friends and I think big designers and artists. We have seen their work and it’s amazing what they are doing here under these circumstances. And also the Israeli part. They are doing their best to create a new culture, a new paradigm. Thanks for the opportunity to make all this possible. We are glad to be here.

Adi

Head of design / Jerusalem, Israel

I had a very good time participating in the ökoRAUSCH ECO design workshop that took place in Israel, October 2016. It was very nice and uplifting to meet other designers and artists dedicated to the issues of ecological design. Seeing the same issues brought up to discussion around the world gives me some hope regarding our joint future. Looking back at the different aspects of ecological design discussed in the workshop, two specifically interest me as they also relate to research I am conducting as part of my MA studies at Tel Aviv University.

1) What is eco design? As the term ‘ecological’ is very wide, there are several interpretations to this issue. These vary from reuse of artifacts and the reduce of consumption to full system designs based on a cradle to cradle ideology. When thinking of these on the spectrum, I always try to consider if all have a positive result towards the environment. As Laura Henn suggested in her talk, people engaging in miner actions towards the environment may feel the little they are doing is more than it actually is and therefore they may not continue towards the larger and more important issues. Interviewing designers in Israel, I many times hear about manufacturing plants that recycle their waste while the products themselves are very wasteful. As these designers do recycle their waste, they feel like they have done enough and therefore do not try to reduce any further. As this is the case, I cannot stop the thought that maybe doing a little good is actually doing a lot of bad. So should we only aim to maximize our actions towards a cradle to cradle system? Many will say that we cannot do all at once and the change must be gradual. I agree with this statement but feel that we are not progressing fast enough. I feel we must take the ecological discussion one step forward and start designing smarter, inclusive systems with the environment in mind.

2) Do we, as artists/designers have enough power to make the change by ourself? This is the second issue that intrigues me when it comes to designers/artists and the environmental challenges that we are facing. Many times, we, as artists/designers, along with our creativity, think we have the ability to make the change by our own. Unfortunately, again and again we find the boundaries of our culture, education and economic systems. I believe we need to act in this field but cannot do it alone. We need to also include education, regulation and legislation. We must find ways to work with all of these together in order to make a real change to our system.

I want to thank the organizers of the workshop for the opportunity to deepen the discussion in this field and will be happy to participate in future events.

Der Beitrag experiences / impressions erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

Eco Design Forum – Impressions

Dunja Karabaic — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 12:00:50 +0000

Design, Art and Sustainability

We’ve recently returned from our first workshop and networking event, the ökoRAUSCH ECO DESIGN FORUM International! Here is a photostory of our trip to Israel and Palestine at the end of October 2016.

My colleagues Christina Schütz, Isabel Oestreich, Tatjana Krischik and I have brought back a number of special stories about the designers from Israel and Palestine that participated at the ECO DESIGN FORUM (EDF). They are all the creators of innovative green ideas, projects and products that bring with them a great deal of inspiration, courage and creativity! The success of the EDF was due in large part to the intercultural exchange and international sustainable art and design networking between Palestinian, Israeli and German designers from the partner cities Tel Aviv, Bethlehem and Cologne as well as the Turkish and Spanish partners from Istanbul and Barcelona.

Day 1 | We started the EDF at the Heinrich Böll Foundation Israel, Tel Aviv
with presentations of all our cooperation partners and ökoRAUSCH who gave insights into the design, arts and cultural scene of their countries

Tel Aviv / Israel
Adital Ela, designer and lecturer for sustainable design, CEO of criaterra Design

Auja / Palestine
Malek Abualfailat, Palestinian Project Manager Friends of the Earth – Middle East

Istanbul / Turky
Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar, project leader of Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainability

Barcelona / Spain
Maria Paz Montecinos, art director and cultural manager, designer for Drap-Art

Cologne / Germany
Dunja Karabaic, project manageress of the ökoRAUSCH Think Tank

In the afternoon we were going on a field trip to meet protagonists of the local deisgn, art and sustainablity scene of Tel Aviv:

IOTA
A social project striving to design beautiful handmade objects

ONYA Collective
Creating positive spaces and natural hosts of people in the city

CRIATERRA
Living artifacts that create a unique natural sense and presence in any environment.

[foogallery id=“1878″]

Day 2 | ALMA Home of Hebrew Culture, Tel Aviv
Panel 1 Creative Industries
Keynote speech and Workshop
Authentic Business Models for Sustainable Design
Christof Schreckenberg, Feldstärken GmbH

Panel 2 Education, Social Design & Arts
Keynote speech (via Skype)
A Short Trip into Environmental Psychology Laura Henn

Best Practices
Global Learning and Upcycling Tatjana Krischik, ökoRAUSCH Think Tank
Art & Dialogue Isabel Oestreich, ökoRAUSCH Think Tank
Co-designed processes Pinar Öncel
Earth Based Art Daphna Yalon

[foogallery id=“1879″]

Day 3 | Travelling day
On our way to the second EDF international location, Auja, we went on a field trip to Battir and Ramallah to meet up with protagonists from the local design, arts and sustainability scene.:

Battir Landscape Ecomuseum

Qalandiyainternational

Disarming Design

[foogallery id=“1880″]

Day 4 | EcoCenter Auja
Project presentations of scenes of sustainable design
by Adital Ela, Mahmoud Driaat, Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar, Maria Paz Montecinos and Dunja Karabaic

Guided tour through the EcoCenter, fild trip to Jericho, where we met protagonists of the local design, art and sustainability scene

[foogallery id=“1881″]

Day 5 | EcoCenter Auja
Panel 1 Creative Industries
Keynote speech and workshop
Christof Schreckenberg, Feldstärken GmbH

Panel 2 Education, Social Design & Arts
Best practices
Workshop building an oven out of self-produced mud-bricks Ahmad Ameen Attyat, EcoCenter Auja

[foogallery id=“1882″]

Merken

Der Beitrag Eco Design Forum – Impressions erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

Malek Abualfailat

Malek Abualfailat — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 10:00:33 +0000

The Team from EcoPeace Middle East is our host for the second part of the ECO DESIGN FORUM. We are happy to visit the EcoCenter in Auja and to get insights into the work of EcoPeace. We will meet Malek at this very special place.

Malek Abualfailat is a Project Manager at EcoPeace ME based in Bethlehem and he resides in Hebron.

Malek has been at EcoPeace for the past 6 years, first as the Palestinian manager of the project Protecting Ground Water (PGW), which aimed to improve and enhance the institutional capacity to rehabilitate and protect trans-boundary ground water in six districts across the West Bank.

In his second period of EcoPeace ME he managed Auja Environmental Education Center. The Center aims to increase the awareness of trans-boundary water issues, renewable energy needs, alleviation of pollution, adaptation to climate change, and sustainable agriculture in the area, in addition to promote eco-tourism.

Recently, Malek has become the Good Water Neighbors project manager. This project is considered to be the umbrella for all EcoPeace projects.

EcoPeace Middle East (formerly Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME))

EcoPeace Middle East is a unique organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian, and Israeli environmentalists. Our primary objective is the promotion of cooperative efforts to protect our shared environmental heritage. In so doing, we seek to advance both sustainable regional development and the creation of necessary conditions for lasting peace in our region. EcoPeace has offices in Amman, Bethlehem, and Tel-Aviv.

Auja EcoCenter

The EcoCenter is a place where you can get in touch with the valley, the history, the people and the ecosystem. You can stay in the guesthouse and explore the whole region. The mixture of the very traditional food they serve in the restaurant, the people they live in the valley, the nature and the program makes it to a great spot.

Auja’s Environmental Education Center is one project of EcoPeace Middle East. In the afternoon of day 4 we will get a tour around the center and the village. EcoPeace is there developing a program of journeys to help explore the landscape, politics, and culture of the Jordan River Valley. Rather than relaying facts, these journeys are designed to help environmentalists, journalists, students, and travelers to gain real insight into the valley’s history and environment.

The Auja village, located north of Jericho in the Jordan Valley, West Bank, is a small community of 4,500 residents and is famous in Palestinian society due to the nearby Auja Spring, where an estimated 9 million cubic meters of water annually flow out of the desert rocks. The oasis created by the Auja Spring attracts thousands of visitors each year, and is one of the Neighbors Path stations.

Understanding the unique potential of the area and the need for educating visitors of the importance of the site, its connection to the Jordan River and Rift Valley, and the need to both protect the nature reserve and wisely utilize scarce water reserves, FoEME developed a Jordan Rift Valley Center for Environmental Education and Eco-Tourism Development, located in Auja, with land donated by the local municipality.

Auja’s Environmental Education Center is already a focal point for environmental awareness on the importance of the Jordan Valley by teaching visitors and students about the geology, fauna, flora, water resources and cultural heritage of Wadi Auja and the Jordan Valley as a whole.

„We envision the Jordan River Valley and the Dead Sea as a healthy ecosystem – one in which the water is shared in a just and equitable way between the people who live in the valley; in which the aquifers, rivers, and springs that support all life here are used in a sustainable manner; in which the cultural heritage is protected; in which biodiversity thrives; and in which human communities flourish.
We contribute towards this by inspiring and educating people about the history and value of this landscape; by promoting a vision of the valley a whole and interconnected system of ecology and human culture; by generating income and employment for local people; and by advocating for the rehabilitation of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea.“

Find this and more information at

foeme.org
aujaecocenter.org

Der Beitrag Malek Abualfailat erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar

Pinar Oncel — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 09:00:49 +0000

Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar are cooperation partners from Istanbul / Turkey. They will give us a special view on the scene of sustainable Design in Istanbul. Both are joining the ECO DESIGN FORUM for the whole time and enrich our journey.

Profile

Pınar is a designer, a change agent and creative facilitator. She focuses on developing collaborative projects for local initiatives, companies and any organization pursuing resilience and transformation. She designs and facilitates sustainability trainings, co-design processes and capacity building workshops for multi stakeholder groups.

She co-initiated the Sustainable Living Film Festival and Surdurulebiliryasam.tv to raise awareness about sustainability challenges of our time and inspire individuals to become change makers. She is the CEO of Sarıyer Entrepreneur Women Cooperative; which supports women in the region with various projects. Pınar graduated from Industrial Design Department of Middle East Technical University and holds an Msc in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Tuna is a systems designer and a strategist for sustainability, focusing on how systemic thinking perspective could shape design & innovation for a better life on this planet. Being aware that creativity is crucial for change, he is focusing on creative design and innovation projects with a systemic approach; using design and creativity as leverage for sustainability.

He co-initiated Sustainable Living Film Festival in 2008 and Surdurulebiliryasam.tv (a web portal for documentaries) recently to raise awareness about the complex systems behind global problems and to find out creative local solutions from all around the world.

Tuna graduated as an industrial designer from Middle East Technical University. He holds an MSc in Environmental Control and Building Technology from Istanbul Technical University and another MSc in Strategic Sustainability Leadership from the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden.

Sustainable Living Film Festival

The biggest project of Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar is the Sürdürülebilir Yaşam Film Festivali (Sustainable Living Film Festival) which they are organizing together with Gamze Selçuk as the Sürdürülebilir Yaşam Kolektifi (Sustainable Living Collective). They are showing 30 films simultaneously in 20 different cities and districts throughout Turkey as well as hosting speakers, dance and musical performances all for free. this very unique festival will be bringing important issues such as climate change, water, energy, agriculture, transportation and the fashion industry to the forefront while introducing some of the country’s leading pioneers in the sustainability movement.

„Since 2008, we have been organizing the Sürdürülebilir Yaşam Film Festival as a collective with hundreds of volunteers. We first began organizing film showings, discussion meetings, university seminars and workshops. However, since 2011, we have been solely working on organizing a film festival each year,“ Tuna says.

(…)

Read the full article about the festival, the idea and motivation here:
dailysabah.com

https://vimeo.com/145386623

Der Beitrag Pınar Öncel and Tuna Özçuhadar erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

Adital Ela

Adital Ela — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 23:25:36 +0000

Profile

Adital Ela is a sustainability designer and entrepreneur incorporating indigenous knowledge into sustainable design. She dedicates her professional life to develop designs that can enable the realization of new and inviting life habits that can thoroughly reform the encounter between man, object and environment.
Founder and CEO of CRIATERRA, Sustainability design lecturer at the social-environmental design study program at the Faculty of Design at HIT, a TEDfellow.

See Adital’s TEDtalk about the first phase of the research and a visit to Adital’s studio.

A cup of chai inspired my 100% sustainable designs. Here’s how.

I remember the moment I knew what my life’s work would be. I was traveling in rural India, and my bus had stopped in the middle of nowhere, next to a very humble chai vendor. I got off the bus and bought some chai, feeling hesitant to drink from his funny clay cups. Still, I was absolutely fascinated by the way the locals gulped down this delicious hot beverage — then tossed the empty cup onto the ground, as if it were the most natural thing to do.

Turns out, it was! The cups, made from sun-dried clay, blended back into the earth again within minutes. In this moment, I knew that all I’d ever studied about sustainable design paled in front of this ingenious invention. I had to find a way to make contemporary industrial products to come from dust, so that they could be returned to dust — just like these magical cups.

For more than ten years, the idea haunted me. I searched everywhere for techniques that might take me there, but I had to be patient. Then, one day, I found my next inspiration: an image of women in India creating soil surfaces — handmade from earth and natural fibres — to be used for wall-mounted furniture. I also began researching ancient Middle Eastern techniques of building with soil — practiced in Persia, Iraq, Palestine. I traveled to those countries to collect the appropriate materials.

Having been trained as an industrial designer, I now found myself evolving into a designer-gatherer — exploring ancient techniques, mixing them with contemporary ones, and coming up with old-new materials and methods to create a future of truly organic products. Everything began falling into place, and I was invited to present my work at the Design Museum Holon, where I would produce my very first stools made of earth.

When my father saw my work in preparation for this exhibition, he said, “You know, your grandmother used to build ovens from earth in Iraq.” That’s how I found out that my family had lived in an earth house—and I heard, for the first time, stories of how my aunts used to help my grandmother renew the coating of their home every few weeks. This traditional technique requires plastering the outer walls of the home with mixtures of local earth and sand or limestone, whenever the coatings deteriorate due to exposure to sun and rain. It was, of course, the women’s task to replaster the entire home by hand.

I was floored. Here I was working on this project feeling I was bridging ancient history, when this knowledge was right here in my family, a single generation away!

So what’s the difference between what my grandmother did back then and what I do today? Through my company CRIATERRA, I’ve created a material, technology and production process that allow the mass production of deeply sustainable products that are literally made from dust, and will return to dust as nutrients. My very first earth stools took several days to produce — very much like my grandmother’s oven. But three years of R&D and 1,000 lab-tested material samples later, our current products are manufactured in 8 minutes!

It was a long and systematic process that required tons of determination, as the core aim of our R&D was to enhance the properties of natural resources via a chemical process to allow them to replicate what cement does. CRIATERRA’s products hold the compressive strength of concrete, yet they are 100% natural, 100% degradable and recyclable. They create 2% of the environmental impact and 0.1% of the emissions of fired clay. They are made up of 70% remains from industrial diggings, and promote zero-impact local production in a circular economy.

We’re now establishing our first industrial production line, which should be ready in 3 or 4 months. Our first collection includes furnishings and decorative products, such as tiles and side tables. We also produce Earth Pieces, ornamental bowls that are designed by the natural flow of earth using a unique process. (See video above.) But furnishings are just the beginning. I see great potential for this material in the green building industry, where it may be used to create both interior and exterior structural products.

Today, 15 years after my magical chai moment, I can easily see this journey extending for at least another 15 years. We are only starting to unveil the potential of these incredible technologies. I truly believe that the key to a deeply sustainable circular economy is by enhancing the natural capacity of ancient indigenous methods and materials with up-to-date science and technology. From dust we create, to dust we shall return.

Der Beitrag Adital Ela erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.

Maria Paz Montecinos

Maria Paz Montecinos — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 21:22:02 +0000

The first expert of the ECO DESIGN FORUM in Israel and Palestine we want to present to you is María Paz Montecinos. She is based out of Spain and will give us great insights into sustainable design in Barcelona. At the moment she is working for Drap Art designing the graphic and audiovisual material for the festival.

She also does workshops incorporating new technologies, transforming city waste into raw material for designers / artists to create their works, which are to be produced in 3D printers. You can read more about this project below.

Profile

Maria Paz was born in Santiago de Chile and is an art director and cultural manager. She studied in Barcelona, Spain, where she presently resides.

She has gained a lot of experience in projects in development cooperation and has worked in projects in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, United Nations, Unicef, UNDP and the IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), among others.

She has participated in diverse art projects and projects dealing with environmental sustainability, such as Drap Art in Barcelona, Arte Cien in Latin America and the Re:NEW Festival in Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

She works in research and creative projects that are focused on the observation and reflection of territory from a landscape perspective together with the historical and social contexts in order to create an artistic exchange between artists in different parts of the world.

The main focus of her work covers culture as a tool for intervention and social transformation, working on artistic projects that are accessible to everyone, for example in public spaces or bringing projects to extreme geographical areas where access to culture is limited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HC7DSA9IjZg

Drap-Art

Drap-Art is a platform for artists who work with recycled materials. It is also an awareness raising campaign to inform the general public about the use of waste as a resource and about more responsible and sustainable consumer behavior.

Drap-Art’s general acceptance is increasing because people have started to worry about environmental issues and they feel understood in their concerns when they see artists working in this field. It is also something fun to recognise objects that had a specific use for which they are no longer suited and which you would normally throw away, transformed into something else, for instance designer objects or jewelry.

Imagination is the first creating force; without it there would be nothing. So I say that artists have a lot of imagination.

Association

Drap-Art is an association of artists who have chosen trash to be their material and/or conceptual resource. Drap-Art promotes a new trend in visual art that has its origins in the movements of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, such as Arts and Crafts or William Morris. In Catalonia these ideas were promoted by artists such as Santiago Rusiñol and Ramon Casas. One of their utopias imagined a world without large concentrations of power, but distributed in small economic units, in which human beings, with their creativity fully developed, worked independently in their workshops, both in free creations and commissioned works, designer objects or hand crafted products.

Activities

The label Drap-Art is doing a handful activities to fulfill the idea of the association. Drap-Art’16 arrives at its 14th edition and celebrates 20 years organizing festivals. The event will be developed as usual in eight modalities that show us the possibilities of creative recycling: group exhibitions of art and designer objects made from recyclable materials, interventions in public space, a space for thought and discussion, participative workshops, performances, audiovisuals and environmental cinema, but it will substitute its traditional Xmas Fair with a weekend of live creation, in memory of its first festival the Maraton of Art & Recycling in Barcelona. The festival also takes place in Uruguay and the Pittsburgh, USA.

Place

Drap-Art’s headquarters is a studio in Barcelona. It is the centre of operations of the association and the International Festival of Recycling Art of Catalonia. The studio is an exhibition space, specialised in recycled art, where four exhibitions are shown every year and where the artworks of Drap-Art’s members are also on permanent display. It also hosts art, design and crafts from all over the world, created from waste materials. Furthermore, workshops are offered at the space and it also has a documentation centre, provided with literature about Art Brut, and recycled art, the social history of trash and other related topics.

drapart.org

Drap Art artist Marcel.lí Antúnez at ReNEW:Festival Pittsburgh

Der Beitrag Maria Paz Montecinos erschien zuerst auf ökoRAUSCH.