WDCD Announces Winners of the Redesign Everything Challenge

Launched in January, the challenge received more than 550 submissions from designers worldwide, with a jury of experts in social impact, design and climate action whittling the entries down to just 11 winners. These innovators will each receive €5,000 ($5,420) in funding and mentorship through the platform’s accelerator programme to realise their ideas.

“Now more than ever, there is an urgent need for circular, regenerative and inclusive solutions, and for the transformative, disruptive and healing power of design,” said WDCD. Working to the brief of radically redesigning the world in which we live, the winning projects feature innovations across products, materials, communications, spaces, systems and services.

Looop Can, a portable cleaning kit for reusable bamboo sanitary pads by London-based Cheuk Laam Wong aims to alleviate period poverty in areas of water scarcity and limited sanitation facilities, such as refugee camps. Costing £3 ($3.80) to £5 ($6.40) and designed to last up to five years – as well as reducing sanitary waste – Looop Can and Looop Container kits work to reinforce the dignity and fundamental human rights of menstruating people in cultures where tampons and menstrual cups are considered taboo. Discover more period-positive developments in Empowering Women with Emancipating Products.

Designed to detect forest fires at their earliest stages by using sensors and machine learning to accurately distinguish different kinds of smoke, ForestGuard by Suat Batuhan Esirger (Turkey) allows for continuous monitoring of wooded areas. Providing air quality measurement and toxic, flammable and explosive gas detection, with one device placed per 16 hectares, the ForestGuard avoids hindering tree growth by using an elastic strap that’s fixed on tree trunks three metres above ground.

Fostering economic, environmental and social wellbeing, The Revival by David Yayra (Ghana) addresses global textile waste as a community-led sustainable design NGO. Having already reached more than 2,000 people worldwide via free online courses and collaborations with London’s Central Saint Martins, the V&A and the Royal College of Art, it integrates education, awareness, job creation and art through pioneering recycling and upcycling initiatives and has diverted more than a million garments from landfill and oceans while reducing air pollution by preventing the illegal burning of discarded garments.

Biomaterials were a common theme among the winning entries, including Celium – a premium biotextile by Gabriela Irastorza Dragonné (Mexico) – and Cellsense by Aradhita Parasrampuria (US/India) – algae and cellulose-derived bio-embellishments that provide an alternative to traditional beading and eliminate the use of microplastics and unethical labour. Additionally, Co-Culturing Rituals: Biosoothe by Namita Bhatnagar (UK/India) researches the material capabilities of bacterial cellulose and microalgae, with applications in skincare and wound healing. Electric Skin by Paige Perillat-Piratoine (France) investigates the development of organic electronics derived from bacteria that naturally produce electrical proteins. Aiming to restore coastal environments with biocement reef structures, Reef Rocket by ReefCycle/Mary Lempres (US) mimics naturally occurring oyster reefs, offering a cheaper, cleaner and more durable alternative to industrial cement.

Other winning projects include BreatheEasy by Alankrita Sharma (India), which resurrects long-lost building techniques to combat air pollution in Delhi’s homes, Germinatorium, by Brazilian designer Daniel Caballero – a nomadic nursery and community educational programme that restores native plant populations in and around São Paulo – and Carla Rotenberg’s (Germany/Spain) A Bite of Extinction, which rejuvenates Madrid’s food systems through the rehabilitation of the city’s Legazpi produce market, with a focus on restoring culinary memories and biodiversity to the community.

Read more on planet-friendly innovations in Product Design Sustainability Round-Up: November 2023 and our upcoming cross-industry report series Solutions for the New Climate Era, publishing on June 3.