On May 14, 2025, the sixth Kazerne Design Award was presented: an incentive prize for recent alumni of Design Academy Eindhoven. The jury honored the lucky winner with eternal glory, an exhibition of the nominated work and no less than 5,000 euros to boot. Courtesy of Rotary Club Eindhoven-Soeterbeek.
The nominees for the Kazerne Design Award 2025 were Katharina Ammann, Lilou Angelrath & Réiltín O’Hagan, Kiki Astner, Dana Elmi Sarabi, Kasia Łukaszuk, Céleste Muir, Jules Péan, Lotte Schoots, Antonia Vincenza Schreiber and Ieva Valule.
The jury consists of Anne Ligtenberg (Bureau AM), Annemoon Geurts (Kazerne), Jan Hoorntje (Rotary Club EIndhoven-Soeterbeek) and Daphna Isaacs (Daphna Laurens).
Winner Antonia Vincenza Schreiber | Local Shit
When life gives you shit and emission, make a rock-solid plaster
Local shit is a response to two pressing environmental issues: the current nitrogen crisis caused by livestock industry, and the cement industry’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Surplus cow manure, locally dug clay and sand are mixed into a weatherproof, sustainable plaster suitable for architectural applications, like facades, in wet climates. A renewed use of an acient technique. The installation showcases materials studies, feasibility studies and three possible flows of production on large scale, proving that the plaster may be a viable alternative to concrete. Sustainable, useful and feasible.
Katharina Ammann | The Solar Share
Sunlight as a source of growth: natural, stable and regenerative
Every hour more solar energy reaches the earth, than the world uses in a year. The Solar Share is a production lab for the growth of spirulina, an algae rich in vitamins, minerals and proteins. The spirulina algae make use of photosynthesis: converting energy from sunlight into nutrients, thus ensuring its own continuous growth. By growing, harvesting, trading and consuming the algae, The Solar Share offers a different perspective on energy, economics and ecology, with sunlight as the basis for truly valuable growth: natural, stable and regenerative.
Lilou Angelrath & Réiltín O’Hagan | Mnemotope magazine – (re)organising publishing
Writing, sharing, publishing – let’s do this together
Mnemotope magazine provides a wide and welcoming platform for the brilliant stories that traditional literature often overlooks. There is no theme, nor restrictions on grammar, writing style, language or form, allowing submissions ranging from essays and poetry to transcribed voice notes. As a result, it holds an incredibly varied collection of written and visual arts from all over the world. The installation gives a glimpse into the making process of Mnemotope magazine, inviting visitors to dive into the world of the project. Their enthusiasm illustrates the transformative power of the collective that Mnemotope magazine supports. The project calls for a for a more dynamic and inclusive industry, fostering the transformative potential of collectivity.
Kiki Astner | Tonne für Tonne
Yellow Pages for forest conservation across communities in Austria
Forests are the earth’s green lungs, as they absorb nearly 16 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. Unfortunately, this vital function has made forests into tradable assets for major greenhouse gas emitters. The logic: a ton of emissions can be easily offset by protecting or planting trees that naturally sequester a ton of carbon over a specific period. Kiki Astner critically examines the effectiveness of this ‘ton for ton’ method. She proposes an alternative conservation strategy based on scientific monitoring. In support of Austria’s approximately 140,000 small forest owners, she composed a ‘Yellow Pages’ book with contact details of people who can provide information on forest-related funding, education and counselling. Planned to be distributed through communities to act as an intermediary, it aims to foster a collective sense of decision-making through conversation.
Dana Elmi Sarabi | No Shoes on the Carpet
Reclaiming cultural heritage by turning pressure into pattern
Persian carpets are highly desired in European interiors, where they are treated as consumer goods: worn down, bleached and copied as monochro-matic machine-made versions. This contrasts sharply with the carpets’ revered status in Iran and its diaspora. No Shoes on the Carpet reclaims cultural agency of the Persian carpets from a diasporic perspective, inviting participation in the tradition of carpet making as a form of storytelling despite lost techniques and limited resources. It empowers the continuation of this ancient practice by any means available, including improvised materials and methods, as an act of cultural survival. Using materials from shoes – mesh, leather and laces – the project subverts the shoe’s dominance in Western spaces, transforming it into a canvas. Inspired by traditional Iranian carpets with symmetrical garden motifs, these works present carpets not as symbols of victimhood, but as acts of resistance, creativity and resilience.
Kasia Łukaszuk | The Trust Paradox
Can we build trust with ever smarter technologies?
Unlike human-human or human-animal trust, human-technology trust is new and evolving, and can be easily manipulated. The psychological video game The Trust Paradox explores the concept of trust between humans and advanced technologies. Based on the Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma, in which collaborating participants learn from their experiences, The Trust Paradox encourages players to critically examine their interactions with smart tech. The game challenges our sense of tech-trust in an age with ever-advancing AI and technologies.
Céleste Muir | Precious Little Rocks
What beauty lies hidden in hazardous waste?
The jewelry from Precious Little Rocks shows the beauty that is found in glaze waste in ceramic ateliers. Designer Céleste Muir explores these creative spaces as if they were a mine. Instead of discarding potentially toxic glaze remnants, Céleste carefully unearths, cuts, polishes and categorizes them as contemporary gemstones. Precious Little Rocks inverts our notion of ‘hazardous waste’ and celebrates its untapped potential, adorning jewels and other objects.
Jules Péan | New Rocks
From dust to stone
New Rocks are formed from sediments from inactive mines and quarries. Designer Jules Péan draws from craft to mimic geological processes such as crystallization, volcanic rock formation and erosion. The collection of rocks is made from industrial waste, such as leftover material from construction, natural binders such as mycelium, starch, and salt, and sediments from Luxembourg, including sandstone, dolomite, limestone and iron ore. The newly formed stones will eventually decompose back into sediment, as new rocks from old rocks.
Lotte Schoots | I Spy…
Why copy nature, when imitation can be supernatural?
People love the looks of wood in interior design. Subsequently, the tradition of wood imitation painting has evolved to an enchanting craft. Why would we try to copy wood, when an imitation has the potential to be something else entirely? In her unique process, Lotte Schoots adapted traditional wood imitation painting techniques to create gestures of knots and grains that are not found in nature. From layers of paint and varnish, occur depth and patterns as could-be imitations. Is it wood or is it gemstone?
Ieva Valule | Y’all got adHD
Who would not claim a disorder in an age of craze?
Y’all Got adHD explores the chaotic reality of InfoHuntress, a graphic designer self-diagnosed with ADHD. With the help of an ally named Freudly, she dives into a society obsessed with doom-scrolling and productivity. Together, they peel back the layers of a fever dream within the Cognitive Capitalism Company, an enterprise that turns life into a relentless game of maximisation and optimisation. The film invites viewers to see themselves in the caricatures formed by an algorithm that merges cultural symbols and psychological motifs. The narrative examines ADHD not as a personal pathology, but as a cultural marker, reflecting an era obsessed with efficiency.Lotte Schoots
Exhibition ‘Kazerne Design Award 2025’
Kazerne, Eindhoven
Until the end of September, 2025
Admission is free
kazerne.com
Photography: Dutch Design Daily
