It was not a hackathon, it was a think-athon! A 2-day Design Thinking workshop where young people put their heads together with selected researchers to re-think and build ideas towards sustainable futures in Luxembourg.
The workshop, organised by Art Square Lab, was hosted by the city of Esch-sur-Alzette between the 22nd and 23rd of October. The creativity space at Kulturfabrik offered the participants the space to build the prototypes in their vision. Asking – What kind of communities do we want to live in? How can we be protagonists of change? And finally: Where to start?
The answer was: Let’s start with proactive input from those who can share the knowledge – the researchers! Thanks to fantastic input from the researchers of LIST: Dr. Elorri Igos (LIST), Dr. Andras Kozma (DESA) and Dr. Stan Schymanski (LIST) and their guidance, young people were able to frame their ideas and be well prepared to achieve a solid foundation for a project that could be developed after the workshop.
And indeed, the project was just a first step to spark the first solutions for the following 3 challenges:
How Might We raise awareness about water resources among the citizens?
How Might We inform the public about circular buildings and encourage them to reuse building materials?
How Might We encourage people to use second-hand (clothes, materials, etc)?
Next steps of the project the participants will be offered:
- A webinar session with Mrs Nadine Linden, from ANEFORE, about possibilities for developing their youth projects with European Solidarity Corps (5th November).
- A guided tour with Mr. Michel Grevis in Esch-sur Alzette to inspire and provide connection between the past and present of that great city (20th November, 10.00-13.00) – more info at magdalena@artsquarelab.net
- Design Thinking coaching session with Art Square Lab designers for those teams that wish to develop the projects and present them in the ‘Pop-Up Shop’ in Esch in 2022
The project is implemented with great support of Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Andre Losch Foundation, Ville Esch-sur-Alzette and Kulturfabrik who offered us the great location.
Special thanks to Mr Martin Kox from Ville Esch and our Jury:
Mme Cecile Delunoy, Facilitiec
Mr Michel Grevis, SNJ
Mme Nadine Linden, ANEFORE
Mme Daniela Ragni, Losch Foundation
As well as our inspiring speaker Andrew Vorster for his fantastic speech about bringing ideas to reality!
Contact us for more information about this project: magdalena@artsquarelab.net