NEB Prizes 2023: All Applications

Building a Collective Future is a design-build workshop aiming to support rural initiatives in transforming vacant spaces into communal and cultural spaces. Through methods like Co-Creation and Design-Building we’re inviting local communities to experience moments of self-empowerment and togetherness. Not only does our concept offer a sustainable approach to existing structures, it will also showcase how good design can greatly contribute to social change.

The streets and neighborhoods in Tirana are constantly changing ,so let's capture the frame in a piece of paper, as a memory, capturing moments that might soon be gone. Artists, students and everyone who sketch, draw or illustrate are going to walk through the city to draw and sketch Tirana in 2023. The main focus is to hold an art exhibition and from auction sales of sketches and donations, we can improve a neighborhood with a children's playground or other facilities .

Leisure center cañada, comes from an investigation on the social exclusion suffered by some areas in particular. Causing in them a lack of motivation and opportunities. The idea is to generate a series of spaces that manage to improve the quality of life in the neighborhood. With the prupose of build a leisure center with spaces that provide activities to meet the needs, desires and motivations of users and this achieve personal satisfaction and a transformation of themselves and things.

The competition proposal for the public library of the future in Lublin attempts to redefine the perception of the function of this facility in the light of current social needs. It is a synthesis of existing knowledge repositories and didactic spaces adapted to modern learning methods. The shape of the building aims to provide an atmosphere conducive to comfortable education supported by greenery and naturally illuminated rooms, in order to avoid the overwhelming fast pace of urban life.

Allotment gardens (AG) are an integral part of urban greenery which is why it is vital to prevent them form being urbanized. Opening them to urban space and redefining their function could encourage everyone to use them - the elderly, the socially excluded, people with disabilities and children as well. Proposed concept for 'Bielniki' AG in Poznan responds to the social needs with ideas such as horticultural therapy and local food production, all based on principles of sustainable development.

By assessing disaster risk from a community-based perspective and building on the traditional relationship of care between the inhabitants of the Misa river area (Italy) and their environment, now challenged by depopulation, this project aims to prevent the more and more frequent disasters affecting the area by empowering communities, promoting local skills and building networks that enable them to undertake locally appropriate activities that increase resilience and reduce vulnerability.

We're on a mission to change the way people think about cat beds. We are going to upcycle textile waste and plush toys into one-of-a-kind cat beds that are eco-friendly, stylish, and most importantly, comfortable for cats. This is a great way to give new life to old textile and plush toys. By supporting our project, you are helping to educate others about the importance of sustainability and the circular economy.

Utopias Lahti is a visual arts festival organised by a team of young artists in the city of Lahti, Finland since 2021. For producing the festival, the team has created a model with circular economy at its core in collaboration with local businesses and the public sector. All the festivals exhibitions are produced with a zero waste principle, all materials are first and foremost sourced through a network of local circular economy partners and cycled back into material streams after the festival.

If we make a product from polypropylene today, it will take 200 - 450 years to disappear according to the decomposition time estimation.
Industry produces about 300M tones of plastic annually. And the number is still increasing. Most of them are single use products mainly used as a packaging material. Unfortunatelly material recycling has its limits. I would like to introduce a project which aims to replace products made from plastic by home compostable biomaterial. How? Read attachment :)

Let it dRain proposes the integration of a rain garden into a neighbourhood from Timisoara, transforming an underutilised park into an urban greenery oasis, through participatory urbanism. This co-design process can result in several positive outcomes that include reconnecting people with nature, regaining local attachment, adaptation to climate change, biodiversity enhancement, community inclusion, and above all, the awareness of these aspects in order to reinforce these process outcomes.