Eyes on the Prize: Exchanging skills and culture for sustainability

Eyes on the Prize

The Eco Design initiative is an action-orientated skills development and culture exchange between designers for sustainability from across South Africa and Sweden. The Eco Design Initiative will host the Fresh Talent Workshop and the launch of Sustainable Design Showcase at Cape Town City Hall and the social design intervention at Sakumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha between 7 – 16 March 2012.

The “Fresh Talents” are finalists of this year’s competition, “Home is where the heart is” and their sustainable design concepts and prototypes will be featured at the Sustainable Design Showcase. This exhibition will also proudly present global good examples of sustainable design, courtesy of the INDEX: Awards, as well as some local good examples. Open sessions at the City Hall will cater for public participation in a series of sustainable design presentations and stories (7 – 10 March 2012.) 

A team of Sustainable Design Ambassadors from Sweden will meet the Fresh Talent team SA in a design collaboration that will address the needs of children and their direct environment and community living in Khayelitsha.  The children will present to the designers a list of challenges to investigate, which this creative team needs to find the most sustainable and best practise solutions. They will also receive other relevant information, tools and a “surprize supply” of environmentally friendly and “waste” materials as their building blocks to create and implement design solutions in only 10days.

Cape Town, the host city for the Eco Design Initiative’s 2012 cycle of events has recently been awarded the very prestigious title of World Design Capital 2014. Under the banner “Live Design, Transform Life” Cape Town’s bid is to showcase and develop socially responsive design, positioning the city as a global hub of innovation, creativity and knowledge. This biennial title is awarded by Icsid - the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, to cities that are committed to using design as an effective tool for social and cultural change and economic development.

South Africa is also the current host to COP17, 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference underway in Durban. This international recognition and responsibility follows hot on the heels of the FIFA World Cup 2010, which was the start of the country’s momentous twirl under the limelight.

As a proudly South African organization these spectacular achievements come as no surprize to the Eco Design Initiative. South Africa’s got talent – and lots of it! People-centred solutions, ingenuity, resourcefulness and innovation are quintessential African traits.

Yet although the country can proudly take prize position on the world stage, the social, economic and environmental challenges cannot be overlooked. It requires committed attention and determined action.

The Eco Design Initiative is the pioneer South African organization, working to equip youth with a set of sustainable design skills that will amplify opportunities and sensory awareness towards people, planet and the economy. It is about empowering the future workforce with abilities, knowledge and network opportunities that will enable them to confidently deal with future challenges. It is about facilitating youth’s self-realisation and the awareness of their ability to influence change, improve their own lives and the lives of others.

After all, HOME is where the heart is.

Eyes on the prize!

HIGHLIGHTS                     

INDEX: Design to Improve Life®

The Eco Design Initiative is proud to announce a partnership with the world’s leader organization that works tirelessly to promote and apply design and design processes that have the capacity to improve the lives of people worldwide. INDEX: is widely recognized for the global biennial INDEX: Award, which is the largest cash design prize in the world worth a whopping €500,000!

The collaboration is founded on a basic agreement in their mission to promote design as “the human capacity to shape and make our environments in ways that satisfy our needs and give meaning to our lives”.

INDEX: is participating in the Sustainable Design Showcase where they will present global good examples of design to improve life. The exhibition will be launched at the Cape Town City Hall on 7 March and will be open to the public until 16 March where after it set to travel to Durban and Gauteng in 2012.

Social Design – Saku-kids getting involved

Young learners at Skumlandela Primary School in Khayelitsha are actively involved in the planning, preparation and execution of the social design intervention, which is part of Eco Design’s Fresh Talent Challenge 2012 activities.

Armed with an “investigative toolkit” the young learners have been documenting information about their lives at home, school and in their communities, with the support of specially designed exercises facilitated by the Earth Child Project team. The tasks included photography assignments, written diary entries and a story-telling theatre.

These details and perspectives will inform the Sustainable Design Ambassadors’ 2012 team, a talented group consisting out of innovative leaders from Sweden and South Africa that are invited to lead the Fresh Talent Challenge in March 2012

Fresh Talent meet their Mentors

The Eco Design initiative has been matchmaking. Fluttering about the sustainability and design industry, the finalists of this year’s Eco Design Competition, themed “Home is where the heart is” have been matched with mentors that will be able to facilitate and support the designers’ development and production processes of their prototypes. These concepts and prototypes will be exhibited at the Sustainable Design Showcase, which launches in March  and is set to travel South Africa and Scandinavia in 2012.

Eyes on the Times

6 – 16 March 2012: Fresh Talent Challenge at Cape Town City Hall & Sakumlandela Primary, Khayelitsha

7 March 2012: Vernissage: Sustainable Design Showcase at Cape Town City Hall

7 – 10 March 2012:  Sustainable Design: Open Sustainability Sessions & Knowledge Exchange at Cape Town City Hall.

12 March 2012:  Fresh Talent / Mentor Mingle at City Hall

16 March 2012: Social Design: Handing over to Sakumlandela Primary, Khayelitsha

16 March 2012: Sustainable Design Awards Ceremony & Fresh Talent Wrap Party at City Hall

For more information:                         www.nokak.com