Scraps, offcuts and material residues are generated in many industrial production processes. What properties do they still have? Can these properties be observed and analysed in order to reintroduce the residue by suggesting new materiality? The purpose of this project is to analyse the waste generated during the paper production process with the aim of finding an application for design pieces.
Brewer's spent grain is one of Europe's most overlooked resources. Italy alone generates 346,000 tonnes per year, yet strict food certification rules prevent its use as animal feed, leaving it as an environmental liability with no clear recovery pathway. Buoono Farm targets this failure: establishing a circular, city-embedded production system that transforms industrial organic waste into premium, accessible nutrition, grown where people live, for the people who live there.
BioCactus is a nature-based water treatment concept designed to improve access to safe drinking water in semi-arid regions. It uses natural biopolymers extracted from cactus species such as Opuntia ficus-indica. The cactus mucilage acts as a bioflocculant, binding suspended particles and reducing water turbidity. This low-cost and locally available solution offers a sustainable way to improve water quality, support water security, and strengthen community resilience.
The Missing Tiles of Porto is a participatory placemaking concept engaging children and families in reimagining urban public space through art- and design-based co-creation. Implemented in the gentrifying Ribeira district, the project explores how small-scale artistic interventions can act as micro-resistance to tourist-driven urban transformation. By empowering children as spatial actors, the concept strengthens local democracy, intergenerational dialogue, and the right to the city.
Live Love Agora is a participatory democracy initiative that builds a living bridge between urban and rural communities. Through both digital platforms and in-person gatherings, it brings together citizens, local actors, and institutions to exchange ideas, share local realities, and co-create more inclusive, fair, and responsive public policies for their territories.
Signal Garden Tower transforms invisible radio and mobile signals into ecological processes. Reused antenna towers harvest and store rainwater, activating a vibrating system that moves water through the structure, nourishing climbing plants and supporting urban biodiversity. The tower invites visitors to climb, observe, and interact with natural phenomena, turning electromagnetic signals into visible and tactile environmental experiences—creating a playful and resilient urban ecosystem.
ReCoral is a locally printable, deployable 3D habitat system that emulates the ecological role of reef-forming organisms: creating shelter, settlement surfaces, and flow-buffered microhabitats that increase biodiversity in stressed marine sites like sea walls. Our startegy to combine robotics and biomaterials makes us unique, as ReCoral is formulated to avoid introducing foreign synthetics into marine habitats, using marine-compatible materials such as calcium carbonate, alginate, and cellulose.
CrowdMap transforms how citizens participate in urban governance. Through an integrated digital ecosystem (mobile app + public web portal + management platform), residents geolocate neighborhood issues, creating visible, structured knowledge. Unlike scattered complaints, data becomes collective intelligence accessible to communities and institutions. Developed in Rome by a youth group of friends, piloted in Municipio XII with 100+ active users.
Imagine gifting an entire village! Andarurales is a digital gift card platform that revitalizes rural economies. Unlike generic gift boxes, we ensure 100% of tourist spending stays in local shops and restaurants. Launching in Cabra, Spain, our tech connects urban visitors with authentic rural experiences. By empowering small businesses risk-free, we combat depopulation and build a sustainable, circular economy to keep the beautiful heritage of our European villages alive and thriving.
In the High Tatras of Slovakia, a profession now practiced nowhere else in Europe is kept alive through a unique bond with nature. Mountain porters supply chalets with loads often heavier than their own body weight, carried on a simple wooden frame. Portapeso is a system designed to accommodate the variables at the interface between body and load and to become an open-source system, available for local production across Europe. Tradition sustained through translation, not preservation alone.
