NEB Prizes 2022: All Applications

Mirador Slow Studio aims to create a complex experience and educational service that simultaneously focuses on the importance of sustainability, personal- and social well-being, and (re)connection to nature. In the group sessions through involvement of art therapy practises participants can create design products using materials only from sustainable sources. The studio is located in a wonderful, inclusive countryside environment, where the sessions take place in a meditative manner.

a circus is a space on the move. It opens the play between inside and outside,its context determines the content.Related to its temporary nature,it unfolds its tent, shortly reveals a fantastic world and then moves on. It becomes a placemaker,a forum and theater-it is a laboratory for sustainable urban development where different actors come together. Not only in its temporally limited experientiality, but also after its moving on,the fantasy of the possible remains attached to that very place.

The world’s resources are limited. Innovative designs for reuse contribute to social awareness and serve as a catalyst for new aesthetics in architectural language. This project chooses roof tiles as a tangible case study for value enhancement. Modifications in the roof tile design allow unconventional and multifunctional reuse purposes. Together with high-tech solutions, a more efficient and scalable process design can push reuse architecture from the pioneering field to a general activity.

Serea is a navigation device that allows its users to be present in-the-moment, and re-experience the green in their urban surroundings during their commute in a new way using a dynamic soundscape. Serea consists of a cardboard-made horn holding a smartphone, which generates a soundscape that seduces the user to follow the direction in which it increases in intensity. These directions do not lead directly towards the destination, but rather aim to let you wander on your way. 

The Village as a House is inspired by the residents of Topolò, whose homes were designed for a past lifestyle led mostly outdoors, and lack space and infrastructure. Residents use empty places scattered around their village for everyday tasks, as if each small house was a room in a bigger shared house, the village itself. This solution provides a model to revive rural areas: instead of transforming each home, unused spaces in villages can be converted into communal facilities, which satisfy modern day needs, establish a strong sense of community and could attract new residents.

A professional training for educators engaged in higher education (e.g. university teachers, researchers and staff) providing deep experiences around sustainability learning and that shall lead to a transformative international community of practitioners to regenerate higher education in Europe. The transcending rationality for this holistic experience is inspired by the Schumacher College (UK) that provides education for head, heart and hands, and will grant innovative educational practices.

Entitled (t)rhypark, this project proposes reflections on the Rhine territory and its ecological balance. The river which flows through this territory unites France, Switzerland, and Germany at one specific point: the tripoint. We believe that the landscape is no longer defined solely by administrative boundaries, but rather by the inherited context.

This is where the (t)rhypark takes place, an architecture at the service of its territory, establishing the foundations of a poetic geography.

inBetweens presents a building prototype that is inspired by the survival traits of plants that grow in their respective biomes. It generates infinite design solutions that follow the bio-inspired design principles from physiological and morphological perspectives. Each design grows within pre-specified constraints and adapts to its climatic conditions. It is a data-driven workflow that optimizes daylight and energy use through a unique genetic algorithm, which mimics plants evolution in nature.

“Plastic Hearts” is a concept that focuses on two main ideas: the importance, in the Design Industry, of sustainability, and the possibility given to any designer, especially the rising ones, of adopting an ethical and conscious behavior toward Nature. The collection propones a series of creative, ironic but above all wearable accessories, made with simple yet commonly understated techniques, demonstrating that fashion can be fun even (and mainly) while prioritizing sustainability and ethic.

The city of riders is a research that investigates a new notion of the city prompted by an urban population that lives and works in the contemporary metropolis in an uprooted way: riders. They bring new meanings and practices to the places they inhabit, and generate a new urban geography and new demands for the city. This research has led to a project, which aims to meet the needs of these new citizens, representatives of the contemporary condition, as well as those of the permanent inhabitant.