The Czech design studio NOVAVITA will participate in this year's ECO Solidarity Editorial 2024 at the Javits Center in New York. The studio will be represented by one of its founders, Dagmar Zvoníčková Fredholm, who will be one of the guests on a panel discussion on the ethics of material use in the context of today's global challenges. The event is part of the ICFF at WantedDesign Manhattan design fair. ECO Solidarity, a collaborative project by EUNIC NY, introduces European designers and studios implementing sustainable solutions in modern product design and architecture.
Venue: The Javits Center, OASIS Space, 429 11th Ave, New York, NY 10001
NOVAVITA is an award-winning laboratory, focusing on research, development and manufacturing of different types of sustainable materials made predominantly from waste and recycled ingredients. The laboratory materials are inspired by nature and aim to mimic different types of natural stones. To learn more, please visit novavita.design.
ECO Solidarity is a multidisciplinary hybrid project, an initiative and a movement developed with WantedDesign which seeks unity and solidarity through design and architecture focused on ecology, climate change, the key concepts of the Green New Deal, sustainability, public well-being, public health and their social implications in public spaces.
For this year’s ECO Solidarity Editorial 2024, we bring back selected design studios and invite new participants to present and discuss new recuperative solutions, to tackle the ethical use of materiality in design and architecture, and to restore sustainable balance in urban habitats with empathy for natural environment and human health.
Creation of an aesthetically alluring functional design form made with sustainable methods of production, healthy materials, local resources, and with consideration of end of use is a challenging mission. The design process must be approached holistically from concept research, material sourcing, methods of production, to final product circulation, consumption, and recycling. ECO Solidarity continues to investigate how design directly affects human wellbeing and to demonstrate that sustainability is not just a branding term, or a trend but a practical recuperative solution in response to the world’s most pressing conditions, from global environmental challenges to humanitarian crises.
More in this year's ECO Solidarity Editorial 2024 here.
Since its founding in 2020, ECO Solidarity is co-curated by Odile Hainaut, brand director of ICFF and co-founder of WANTED, and Izabela Gola, Visual Arts and Design Curator at the Polish Cultural Institute NY, in collaboration with European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) to address the imperative need for human-centered design in response to humanitarian and public health crises by focusing on ecology, the climate emergency, public health, wellbeing in public spaces. This year's EUNIC partners include: Czech Center New York, Polish Cultural Institute New York, with generous support of Consulate General of Portugal New York, and promotional support of the Spanish Consulate General of New York.
ECO Solidarity has been sustained for two consecutive years (2022-2023) with the EUNIC Cluster Fund Award granted by EUNIC Global.
ECO Solidarity 2023 was honored with ICFF Editors’ Award for the Best Booth in 2022. In 2023, the exhibit was recommended by trendsetting Dezeenas one of the “12 Things to See and Do” during Design Week in May 2023, and Sixty-Six Magazine included ECO Solidarity in their “Best of NYCxDesign”.
The name of this initiative was inspired by the Solidarity (Polish: Solidarność) social and political movement which led to the collapse of the Soviet Union, setting the nations on a course toward democracy. The year 2020 marked the 40th anniversary of its formation. More at IP NY
About ICFF – 35th anniversary
