Upcycled Playground in Malawi's hospital by Sakaramenta

Sakaramenta is a social enterprise producing push and bicycle carts. It is based in Blantyre, Malawi, and founded in 2009. Sakaramenta produces 5 different carts to transport patients, goods and other supplies behind the bicycle. The bicycle cars are designed according to high Dutch quality standards, at the moment 21 people are employed. The reason to start up this business, is a believe in creating employment, stimulating entrepreneurship and local production in the best of way of bringing development to a country. Getting things from A to B is not always easy in Malawi. The weather, shortage of fuel and quality of roads make carrying goods and people a though job. Sakaramenta takes the challenge to solve these problems. Furthermore they...

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Support Hariyo Chowk, a urban garden and outdoor community space in Kathmandu

The Sattya Media Arts Collective are creating a collaborative movement to transform the rapidly urbanizing city of Kathmandu, Nepal, with Urban Farming and Environmental Education. They have set out to transform a vacant site into a modern adaptation of a traditional chowk, or town square. Dubbed Hariyo Chowk which means, "Green Commons" in Nepali, the project has served as a place to learn and share tips for urban greening and ways to create a socially sustainable future for Kathmandu. Hariyo Chowk has been made possible with a multifaceted team of passionately dedicated people knowledgeable about sustainable architecture, design, organic farming, photography, and media. The 'green square' has come into fruition with help from...

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"Examples to follow! – expeditions in aesthetics and sustainability" arrives in Sao Paolo, Brazil

After stops in Mumbai, Addis Ababa and Beijing, the exhibition "Exemplosa Seguir! Expedições em estética e sustentabilidade (Examples tofollow! – expeditions in aesthetics and sustainability)" is coming in Sao Paulo, Brazil which marks its 10th venue since originating in March, 2010 in Germany. The exhibition will open on 21th February at Galeria Marta Traba,Memorial da América Latina, it brings in Brazil unprecedented exhibition, whose theme is the depletion of energy, climate change and the imminent decline of biodiversity in the world. The exhibition is a "cry" of consciousness for humanity, especially after the poor results of Rio +20. Examples to Follow! aspires to encourage awareness of the cultural and aesthetic dimensions...

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Announcing the Economics of Happiness Conference 2013 in Byron Bay, Australia

After the success of the first conference held in March 2012 in Berkeley, California, the not-for-profit organization ISEC - InternationalSociety for Ecology and Culture - is hosting the second international Economics of Happiness Conference in Byron Bay, Australia - March 15-17, 2013. The conference is an annual event of the global grassroots movement whose mission is to promote systemic solutions to today’s environmental, social and economic crises led by ISEC, which has also led to the production of the corresponding documentary in 2011. "The Economics of Happiness conference will focus on the multiple benefits of localisation, an economic strategy that can take us away from jobless growth towards sustainable livelihoods; from giant, unaccountable...

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A dialogue between architecture and nature, in interaction with the Northern Lights

The Northern Lights Cathedral (Norwegian: Nordlyskatedralen - AltaKirke), situated in the Norwegian Alta Municipality approximately 500 km north of the Arctic Circle, was even before the inauguration perceived as a symbol and an architectural landmark for the entire area. It appears as a solitary sculpture in interaction with the spectacular nature. In 2001, when the architecture competition for the Cathedral was arranged, the city council in Alta did not just want a new church: they wanted an architectural landmark that would underline Alta’s role as a public venue from which the natural phenomenon of the northern lights could be observed. The church was built in 2012-2013, it was consecrated on 10 February 2013. It is the latest...

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Baguette table by Studio Rygalik

Two days ago was pubblished a post about the start-up Culinary Misfits, today take again the topic "food waste" with Studio Rygalik of Warszawa, Poland. They realized a new project, the starting point is a statistical fact: food thrown away in Vienna could feed half of the population of Graz. This was presented for the first time at the Vienna Design Week. "It was also to show that the materials to build from are all around us. The tables were made from stale baguettes that were supposed to be thrown away". These bread structures were part of a "bread experience" created by Gosia and Tomek Rygalik, the founders of the Studio, at the Design Week Laboratory, where people were surrounded by bread, eating bread dishes from bread tables. In their...

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Sunday's Tale - Kaarina Kaiakkonen: memorable suspended clothes installations

Sunday's Tale: a post from the past Using hundreds of second-hand shirts Finnish environmental artist KaarinaKaiakkonen creates site-specific installations suspended above roadways or inside large warehouse spaces. Her last work “Are We Still Going On?” was conceived in 2012 at Collezione Maramotti, a private collection of contemporary art in Reggio Emilia, central Italy. The large installation follows and accompanies the compositional structure of the building, a former clothing manufacturer Max Mara now the seat of the collection, an interesting example of brutalist and organicist architecture from the 1950’s. The artwork involves hundreds of children’s shirts hung in rows, it consists of two symmetrical structures that evoke the skeleton...

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