NEB Prizes 2022: All Applications

VITAL PIRINEUS is a brand that expresses the ancestral culture of the Pyrenees in austere, sustainable and responsible products with the territory and the history of the place using natural fibers and materials such as wool, linen or wood.

Vital is a brand inspired by pastoral culture of the Pyrenees, where the mountain is the central axis. Vital is a frugal brand that looks towards the past to bring to the present principles such as respect to tradition, natural materials and rural aesthetics

By reducing its CO2 emissions by 60% compared to current standard methods, Swedish pre-school Hoppet challenges the construction industry to raise its standards for sustainability. The fossil-free ideals, enshrined in its construction process, are included in the pedagogical mission of the pre-school to encourage children to learn how to reduce their own carbon footprint. In this way, Hoppet seeks to instil values of sustainability early on in childhood education.

The “Hébert kub” project is a public animation space, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. The building is based on a subtle calibration between transparency and opacity; mineral constancy and vegetable variation ; durability and temporary. The architecture is clear, timeless, attractive with restraint in order to arouse curiosity, arouse envy among young people, residents and staff and constitute the socio-cultural heart of the district, a dynamic intergenerational meeting place.

„Auf die Plätze…“ developed and activated participative installations for young people in public spaces as part of outreach youth work. Three pop-up-actions discovered their needs, interests, conflicts and potentials in public space in new ways and supported this group in representing their interests and claiming a part of the space for them. At the same time, the installations and the generated exchange helped to collect ideas and impulses for district-related work and urban planning measures.

The Faro Living Street project was implemented during 2021 in the city of Faro, at Rua Caldas Xavier, and consisted of the transformation of a space that until then was used exclusively for car parking. The objective was to remove most of the cars from this place and return it to citizens and residents permanently, making it a leisure space that would allow the experimentation of public space, the promotion of neighbourhood relations and the feeling of belonging.

The Connector is a simple barrier that enables a safe gaze, a relaxed discussion and even touch between two users while keeping them both in their respective epidemiological bubbles. It has changed the everyday of many elderly that have been socially isolated in nursing homes during the covid-19 pandemic. The object demonstrates that even an urgent temporary measure can be conceived in a way that adds and even cultivates space.

In these years, where books and culture are undergoing a bad spell, in which printing is thought to be dead and everything becomes “light”…  we wanted to start anew from Venice, Italy, gifting a new identity to books. A new look and a new function. In order to introduce you to a new concept of books. A book which isn’t just made up of stories, characters, actions, but… a book which is made of glances. Stares, understandings, moments… spent together. 

VEXTRE is an interoperable data based electronic art project by Maite Cajaraville,  From an exhaustive investigation of socio-economic datasets of the municipalities of a rural region, she generates physical and virtual three-dimensional sculptures of the territories, shaped by data and municipalities locations. VEXTRE encourages the co-design of a new rural identity by incorporating citizen digital tools and community mediators to engage people in a conversation about rural culture.

How about a parliament for the river ?

This is the unifying idea behind the Loire parliament approach. For the past 3 years, POLAU organized hearings (led by Camille de Toledo, writer), public events, arts&sciences residencies to imagine a fictitious institution representing both humans and non-humans.

This pioneer initiative involves a large community to the river’s stakes, to a legal status for elements of nature. It participates in turning around methods of territorial engineering.

EXPÉ[Le Mans] is jointly organised by West Creative Industries (WCI) in partnership with two institutions of higher education: Le Mans University and Ecole supérieure d'art et de design TALM-Le Mans. This interdisciplinary challenge engages students in designing and prototyping innovative solutions for the region and its future needs. It resulted in the creation of a heritage sound trail promoting the historic city centre of Le Mans.