Haenke x Designblok 2021
Nature by Design: Achieving (Worldwide) Happiness through Sustainable Practice
Thursday 7 October, 16:30 CET | online
This year's Designblok's main theme is HAPPINESS. But in the midst of the pandemic aftermath and the ongoing climate crisis, what does it actually mean to be happy? And more importantly, what WILL that mean in a few years' time? This panel unites artists and creatives from architecture, design and fashion, who introduce their practice - in which they embrace sustainability, circular economy or nature-based solutions - and discuss how sustainability in design could help overcome current global challenges.
Guest speakers:
Jan Boelen (Atelier LUMA, France)
Alexandra Georgescu (KOGAA, Czech Republic)
Nienke Hoogvliet (Studio Nienke Hoogvliet, the Netherlands)
Gaja Meznaric Osole and Andrej Koruza (Trajna, Slovenia)
Plants Make People Happy, Kind Of
Friday, 8 October 2021, 16:30 CET | online
In the recent years, house plants have made a spectacular comeback to our interiors, only to appear on our Instagram feeds to be compared to those of others. A popular hashtag online reads, plants make people happy. But do people make plants happy as well? What lies behind this global trend that got even bigger during the covid pandemic? What is the role of plants in interiors and how has this reflected in design throughout the years? In this talk, we will cover all that and more with journalists, authors, botanists and designers who reflect this topic in their practice.
Guest speakers:
Miranda Janatka (BBC Gardeners World Magazine, UK)
Laura Drouet and Olivier Lacrouts (studio d-o-t-s, France/Italy)
Julia Löffler (HAW Hamburg, Germany)
Michal Matlon (The Venetian Letter, Austria/Slovakia)
Nature Inside: In Conversation with Penny Sparke
Saturday, 9 October 2021, 11am CET | online
Penny Sparke is a British writer and academic specialising in the history of design. She has been Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London, since 1999, where she is also Director of the Modern Interiors Research Centre. She has given keynote addresses, curated exhibitions, and broadcast and published widely in the subject of Design History, with a special interst in the areas of interiors, identities, gender and taste. My publications include Italian Design from 1860 to the present (1989); The Plastics Age (1990); As Long as It's Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste (1995); An Introduction to Design and Culture, 1900 to the present (3rd edition 2004); Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration (2005); The Modern Interior (2008) and Nature Inside: Plants and Flowers in the Modern Interior (2021).
Current Trends in Sustainable Practices in Design: Focus on Czech
Saturday, 9 October 2021, 16:30 CET | Reflex Stage (Gabriel Loci, Prague) and online
This talk is offline and explores the work of eminent Czech designers and creative practitioners through the lens of global trends related to circular economy, sustainability, and plant-based solutions.
Guest speakers:
Tereza Rosalie Kladosova (TRK, Czech Republic)
Jakub Pollág (zeitgeist.limited, Czech Republic)
Darina Zavadilová and Jan Kloss (PÁR Prague, Czech Republic)