Redesign Everything Challenge announces 33 nominees
What Design Can Do (WDCD) has announced its shortlist for the Redesign Everything Challenge. From 557 entries worldwide, 33 projects will now move on to the final round of the competition. The Challenge, launched in partnership with the IKEA Foundation in January 2024, asked designers and innovators for creative climate solutions to radically redesign the world we live in through a circular and regenerative lens. The nominated projects include a wide range of ideas and start-ups, from neighbourhood initiatives to rejuvenate local food systems to solar-powered innovations designed for communities in need.
As many as 17 countries are represented in this year’s shortlist, including Japan, Turkey, India, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, the UK and the Netherlands. All applications were reviewed by a Selection Committee of 28 circularity and design experts worldwide, including Taina Campos (industrial designer), Amit Gupta (Founder and Editor, StirWorld), and Coen Persijn (Programme Manager, Stichting DOEN). The nominated projects won over the Selection Committee by exceeding expectations across the competition’s five criteria: impact, creativity & design, feasibility, scalability, and teamwork.
A focus on livable cities, mobilising people and working with nature
Some of the most notable nominated projects found value in social design to make cities more livable in the future. Greenfluidics (Mexico) transforms urban spaces into sustainable ecosystems with innovative solar biopanels that purify air and generate clean energy, to provide urban lungs for cities. Similarly, Breathe Easy (India) highlights the importance of reframing the question around what a city needs. The project revives traditional building techniques to relieve indoor air pollution in low-income Delhi homes.
Another common thread is a focus on education and awareness campaigns to encourage climate action. The Revival (Ghana) integrated awareness campaigns and upcycling initiatives to divert over 1 million garments from landfills and oceans. Similarly, Captain Fanplastic (South Africa) aims to raise environmental literacy that drives behavioural change in order to connect more youth to their environment, prevent plastic pollution and manage waste better.
Other projects focused on learning from nature as well as how to restore and regenerate it, such as Fabulous Fungi (the Netherland) which offers a solution to one of the major problems in the fashion industry; the use of synthetic textile dyes. The project uses biodegradable fungi-based pigments as alternatives to synthetic textile dyes. Textile Agroforestry (Brazil) showcases how people can reconnect to nature through agroforestry. The project collaborates with smallholder farmers to produce cotton with agroforestry, which combines a diversity of species to collaborate with each other, enhances ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and water availability.
What’s next for the nominees?
All 33 nominated projects can now be viewed online via the Challenge platform. Over the next month, an international jury will review their projects and announce 10 winning projects across all categories on 28 May.Winners will receive €5.000 in funding and launch into a full-steam-ahead development programme, which includes the opportunity to present their projects at the upcoming WDCD Live event in Amsterdam.