Maggie’s Centres are a charitable initiative comprising a network of drop-in centres across the United Kingdom, which provide support, information and practical advice to people coping with cancer and their loved ones. Founded by and named after the late garden designer Maggie Keswick Jencks, who passed away from cancer in 1995, the centres continue her legacy and embody her life-asserting belief in the infusive power of architecture in times of distress. The buildings that house the centres are designed by internationally acclaimed architects and as well as practices known for their passion for architecture.

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Educating children in developing countries is not only about gaining knowledge and skills. It helps reduce poverty and offers a safe environment with supervision and support. In such countries, schools can even be a place for children to receive life-saving vaccines, fresh water and nutrient supplementation.  Hundreds of architects from all over the world participated in a design competition for a project of a secondary school in Benga Parish in Malawi, the project aiming to provide a better education to the youngest citizens of the country by giving them the opportunity to access a decent secondary school infrastructure.

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Recycling is not the only way to give disposable items a new life. Repurposing can be an even more satisfying process which can be done at home. Your Grandma probably remembers pouring her milk from a bottle that she would later use as a vase and drinking it from a glass that once contained jam. “Why not use the same principle for single-use PET bottles, the world’s most popular packaging that has a devastating effect on the environment?” – is the question asked by product designers featured in our article. Of course, you will not clean the planet by repurposing just one bottle, but it can surely be a first step towards environmentally friendly lifestyle.

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Ever get the feeling that someone, somewhere is watching your every move? The rise of modern technologies of surveillance is often overlooked, however, many people believe it can pose a threat to our personal liberties. Contemporary designers opposed to this invasive technologies develop devices and accessories to prevent the society from ending up as a dystopian militarized environment.

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We normally think of paper as something frail and flimsy. However, architects all over the globe have been experimenting with it, to prove its versatility as an environmentally friendly material. Paper is readily available, consistently low-cost, recyclable and biodegradable. Besides, paper can also be surprisingly strong to be utilized as a construction material, proving that the strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material it was built from.

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Should jewelry be a synonym of luxury burdened with negative connotations of over-exploiting natural resources? Contemporary jewelry designers find new unconventional ways to create their items via repurposing and recycling the most unexpected materials. The resulting recycled jewelry pieces promote circular economies, help save endangered species and bring wearers closer to nature – and even give food for thought about our own mortality and vulnerability.

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One of the most direct and common ways of expressing artistic ideas is through site-specific public art installations on the terrain of shared community spaces. Public installation art is an effective way of grabbing attention, simultaneously showing a visible social message. Such artworks invite the audience to take a closer look and participate in order to decipher the meaning of work. Many cities all over the globe have bespoke art installations woven into their urban fabric and cultural memory.

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The last of the five prizes in the “Second Life of Things in Design” international student competition organized by BE OPEN and Cumulus in support of the UN’s sustainable goals has been announced. Founder of BE OPEN think tank, entrepreneur and philanthropist Elena Baturina has selected a project to be awarded €2,000 for its system multi-aspect approach to the immense problem of packaging waste

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The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to influence many aspects of our daily lives and establish new behavioral patterns within shared public areas. While social distancing and hygiene remain the strongest recommendations against the novel virus, there is a general concern that airplanes are not the best examples of these. This makes the airline industry to investigate how it can ensure safe and fearless traveling. They commission designers to work out solutions that would offer future passengers more personal space, not only from a comfort perspective, as it was before, but mainly from a health and safety standpoint.

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An online vote has defined the winner of the Public Vote Award in the “Second Life of Things in Design” competition organized by BE OPEN and Cumulus. The public voting did not only bring another young talent a prize, but helped thousands of people see the remarkable creativity, awareness and responsibility of the younger generation.

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