[New Delhi, 17 January 2024] — What Design Can Do (WDCD) is proud to announce the launch of the Redesign Everything Challenge, its fifth Climate Action Challenge in collaboration with the IKEA Foundation, set to kick off on 17 January until 13 March 2024.
The challenge will be released and executed in India by local amplification partners Unbox Cultural Futures and research partners, Quicksand Design Studio. The country partners will invite creative entrepreneurs to submit innovative solutions to rethink how design can be seen as a catalyst for a circular society.
WDCD invites innovators from every corner of the globe to submit ideas that radically redesign our world — from products and materials to stories, systems, services, and spaces. This call for creativity extends to all aspects of our lives, emphasizing the need for circular and regenerative solutions. The challenge seeks to answer the question: What role can designers play in the transition to a fair and circular future?
“Redesigning everything is first and foremost a call to action,” Richard van der Laken, co-founder and creative director of What Design Can Do, expressed. “It’s also an invitation to think laterally about how our world should be redesigned, in ways both big and small. Now, more than ever, there is an urgent need for inclusive and circular solutions, and for the transformative and disruptive power of design.”
“We’re finally coming around to the idea that there’s a responsibility that comes with design. After all, design holds the transformative and disruptive power to drive real change. We’re proud to bring the Redesign Everything Challenge to India and encourage creators, thinkers and changemakers to share their bold ideas around designing for a circular future”, said Ayush Chauhan, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Quicksand Design Studio & Unbox Cultural Futures.
The Time to Redesign Everything is Now
Today, signs of climate breakdown are everywhere. The stark reality of having just endured the hottest recorded year yet serves as a wake-up call, as extreme weather events, rising sea levels, and disruptions to ecosystems become more pronounced. The adverse consequences are not confined to distant futures; millions of people are already grappling with the immediate, tangible effects of climate change, from extreme heat waves to devastating natural disasters. However, experts say we still have time to act —a critical window of opportunity in which we must reduce carbon emissions to avoid the worst scenarios that loom on the horizon.
To make this change, we’ll need creative circular solutions of every scale and in every sector. Many of the problems we currently face are deeply—and increasingly—interconnected, whether we are talking about heat waves across India, extreme weather conditions and its impact on agriculture, our changing relationship with food waste, marine and air pollution as well as pollution caused by single use plastic, tourism degrading Indian mountain ecologies to increasing textile waste in landfills. It follows then, that the best solutions are too. That is why this year – as the planet enters an era of global ‘boiling’ – WDCD is throwing the door wide open and launching its most expansive challenge yet.
Design as a Catalyst for a Circular Society
Tackling the climate crisis means changing how our economy works (and how it doesn’t). No sector can do this alone — but designers can make an impact by shifting from linear to circular ways of making, using and living. Next to this, the most important role of design is that of radical imagination: seeing what does not yet exist, making ideas real, and forging ahead with optimism. That is why for this competition, WDCD are looking for creative climate solutions that cut across various sectors and disciplines. This includes new ideas and existing enterprises for how we might reduce the overall impact of our industries: from food, fashion and packaging, to mobility, electronics, digital services and construction.
Come meet us on 20th January in New Delhi to learn more!
On 20th January, we’re taking over New Delhi’s iconic Triveni Kala Sangam to launch the 2024 ‘Redesign Everything Challenge’. To redesign everything, we need everyone. That is why this challenge is open to all designers, students and creative entrepreneurs from around the globe. Visit the exhibition and learn more about the challenge and local urgencies and share your ideas and perspectives around what you would redesign to combat climate emergencies.
Date: 20th January 2023
Time: 10 am — 5 pm
Venue: Amphitheater at Triveni Kala Sangam
HOW TO APPLY FOR REDESIGN EVERYTHING CHALLENGE
Participants are invited to submit their project online from 17 January 2024 to 13 March 2024 via the Challenge website: redesigneverything.
The Redesign Everything Challenge seeks creative climate solutions across five main disciplines: products, materials, communications, spaces, and systems & services.
In April 2024, a jury of leading experts in design, social impact and climate action will select a minimum of 10 winners. Winning ideas are turned into reality with €5.000 in funding and a global development programme, which includes online training, mentoring sessions and a bootcamp. This programme will support the winning teams in further strengthening their projects and propelling them through 2024 and beyond. As part of the WDCD Challenge network, winners will have the opportunity to appear in global publications and opportunities to speak at WDCD events.
For more information and to participate in the Redesign Everything Challenge, please visit the website.
ABOUT WHAT DESIGN CAN DO
What Design Can Do (WDCD) is an international platform that advocates for design as a tool for social change. Since 2011, we have undertaken numerous activities to promote the role of designers in addressing the world’s most pressing societal and environmental issues. WDCD has hosted 15 successful conferences in Amsterdam, São Paulo, and México City. In 2016 WDCD launched an ambitious design challenge programme that engages the creative community with urgent societal issues such as the well-being of refugees and climate change. To see previous Challenge winners, visit www.whatdesigncando.com/
ABOUT UNBOX CULTURAL FUTURES
Founded by Quicksand Design Studio, Unbox Cultural Futures offers a space for experiential learning that builds on emerging contexts and cases of multidisciplinary, creative collaborations that are rooted in people-centric approaches. A Quicksand Design Studio venture, it has prompted new thought and partnerships at the intersections of design, art, culture, social transformation and enterprise and has spawned cultural festivals, arts & design residencies, social innovation fellowships, pop-up exhibitions, public art installations and open innovation challenges. For more information, visit http://quicksand.co.in/unbox
