In 2018, Barcelona Centre de Disseny (BCD, Spain) hosted an exhibition entitled “BASICS: a path to question ourselves”. One of the key exhibitors was Sameera Chukkapali.
She told the World Design Organization about the exhibition, the organization she founded, NeedLab, and her vision of a human-centered design that aims to explore the interaction between nature and technology, between traditional crafts and digital fabrication.
Basics: a path to question ourselves
Credit: Barcelona Design Week (Flickr)
The objective was to expose the things around us in a new way and rethink society with a more sustainable model through critique and collective awareness. The topics addressed by the exhibition include responsible consumption and production, more inclusive, safer and more sustainable cities and communities, universal access to water and clean energy, the effects of climate change and the preservation of maritime and terrestrial ecosystems.
BCD central topic was “revaluation” and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals such as responsible consumption and production, more inclusive, safer and more sustainable cities and communities, universal access to water and clean energy, the effects of climate change and the preservation of maritime and terrestrial ecosystems.
The exhibition was co-curated by Sameera Chukkapali and Alfonso de la Fuente of Pichiglas and was made up of five installations that create an open park in which you can walk and ask questions about how each of us can positively contribute towards an individual and collective revaluation.
We return to the basics, such as water, air, land and those main elements that we need to live: food, a house and living in a community.
Needlab, a human-centered design organization
Needlab is a design research organization based in Seoul (South Korea) aimed at solving sustainability issues for communities using human-centered design strategies.
With the ideology of “think global, act local”, we focus on unveiling new ways of creating a dialogue between local materials, social customs, cultural heritage, and the environment.
Needlab aims to develop self-sufficient communities that are globally connected. Part of this involves encouraging urban communities to adopt a circular economic model that reduces the reliance on imported goods, food and resources while increasing the use of local and recycled raw materials.
The secret to a more sustainable city relies in circular economies
Communities will be able to resolve local issues if they use locally available resources instead of centralized solutions, if they tackle problems at the grassroots.
Creating circular economies at the local level and involving the conversations about the role of energy, education, environment, economics and emotion in design solutions is our mission.
Building vertical urban gardens using bamboo in Ho Chi Minh
Credit: Needlab Barcelona
In Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam), density has increased so much that there are about 2 sqm of green space available per person (instead of a minimum of 9 sqm). Needlab decided to increase the amount of green space through a bamboo structure that consists in a vertical garden for the typical tube houses of Vietnam. This structure can grow food for the community (including the people who built it), each of them can get a complete meal from their vertical rooftop garden.
The funding for the project was sourced from Vietnam and was invested back into the project: buying local material, training local workers and helping urban communities to grow their own food.
From the start of the project, the community was involved in creating a solution with the Needlab researchers that used readily available, natural materials and that which would be easy to replicate. It was an opportunity to train unemployed youth and provide them with skills to become independent at solving problems.
Barcelona Design Centre promotes design as a strategic element for business excellence and as a key factor for innovation, and as a discipline that can improve people’s quality of life. The first promotion centre of its kind to be set up in Spain, BCD has evolved in line with changes in the economy and society from the first, constantly adapting its philosophy and activities to the specific needs of the moment. BCD currently develops projects and activities in the following areas: Design Policy, Business Growth and Creative Entrepreneurship, and Promotion and Internationalization. BCD is a member of the World Design Organization.
More information on Needlab on:
Watch the Rethink video by needlab
