NEB Prizes 2023: All Applications

Nature’s Library is a circular steel and chain installation designed for a courtyard in an Augustinian monastery in Vilnius Old Town. The structure will channel rain to modular plant beds that form its base, where residents will be encouraged to grow herbs, spices and local plants. The aim is to revive this derelict part of the monastery through community engagement, and make it a living natural library that will change with the weather and seasons.

In the current crisis of paradigms taken for granted, the peri-urban fabric represents the territory of rebirth, overcoming the globalizing and unifying vision to make room for a multiform logic capable of taking into account the diverse needs of the "peoples" who inhabit our everyday life. The constant and historical Human/Nature opposition loses its place in favor of a vision that takes into account what we thought was inert: in Gaia, the totality of these beings, finds its name.

The idea of Piss Soap is to offer a new place for waste and discarded material that we load in trash bags and dispose of. The project offers a new cycle of life to waste, creating a circular economy and production that contributes actively to reducing our impact on the environment, while benefiting directly our urban surroundings. Piss soap challenges our understanding of the binary of dirtiness and cleanliness and invites the maker and user to realign their vision upon discarded matter.

The project is a civic space that allows the Venetian public to express and enjoy various art forms, such as visual and performing arts. The theme is delineated by three basic needs of people living in a city like Venice: Rest, Culture, and Conviviality. All this is in a green and multifunctional space that allows the needs of those who want to express themselves with their art to be met. The aim is to promote encounters in an environment that welcomes culture and the beauty of conviviality.

The city conforms to green zones and urban zones. Green and nature are placed in certain places and buildings are discordant and individual riverbeds. "NEST" intends to recognize the possibility of dwellings, particularly of areas that offer openings to the outdoors ( balconies, gardens), to accommodate systems of interspecies and encounter, of care and sustainability by creating sustainable products that allow for the presence and coexistence of humans and non-humans.

A quiet durational resistance to the fast paced construction of infrastructure to inform slow regeneration

Zokhalo are vertical gardens made of ceramic for the care of urban biodiversity. Its brand purpose goes beyond integrating nature into urban buildings, since it is developed locally, by hand, with raw materials from the area.

How does one photograph radiation? Trauma? Or the resilience of communities forced to contend with both? Picturing the Invisible brings together seven celebrated photographers to examine the lasting legacy of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Nuclear Disaster, pairing their artworks with essays by policymakers, authors, academics, and activists. Exhibited at the Royal Geographical Society (2021) and TU Munich (2022) this exhibition is now travelling to the Heong Gallery, Cambridge (2023).

Introducing Soliloquy - a bold and innovative project led by a Polish-Łemko artist Monika Błaszczak. This project aims to unlock the full potential of movement as a means of responding to the critical issue of climate change. By exploring the depths of our bodily response to this issue through interdisciplinary art and accessible movement workshops, Soliloquy hopes to create a reciprocal relationship of mutual care with the land and make a real difference in the world through the power of dance.

We are a citizens' initiative that aspires to collectively redesign public spaces in Bolzano. The city is strongly focused on its centre, from which an entire neighbourhood is separated by a large wasteland. By inviting citizens to co-create interim uses for this abandoned area, we can revitalize these neighbourhoods and empower residents to address their own needs. In a city still grappling with hidden, historical divisions, we can create a welcoming place of community that ensures equal access