Welcome

Welcome to our site! This is the homepage for a Design Challenge taking place in 2020, in which different schools of Art & Design will participate to create solutions inspiring people to engage more deeply with their natural environment, be it in the city or in the countryside.

We need more awareness of the places we inhabit

In an age of distraction, consumerism and digitalisation our connection to the place and the natural environment we live in is often taking second place in our attention. We lose our “sense of place” and our connection to Nature. In a situation of climate emergency, however, new contingencies apply regarding our commitment to our environments: A deeper and more meaningful relationship to Nature surrounding us as well as to our built environment is necessary.

Through this Design Challenge we want to create solutions that motivate people to (re-)discover places and to (re-)create feelings of empathy and agency with Nature – so we can move forward as individuals and communities.

About

“Sense of place” (SoP) is a Design Challenge scheduled to take place at the end of 2020 in Switzerland. SoP is interfacing with scientists and practitioners from different fields to explore the personal room for manoeuvre regarding climate change – and more specifically – regarding nature in the city and beyond.

SoP aims at developing, testing and refining different solutions that inspire “a sense of place” in individuals, that connect these individuals to like-minded people or communities to act in the field of preservation of biodiversity and natural resources.

A “sense of place” might be the starting point to (re-)create a relationship to nature in city or in the city-country link. Solutions are developed in co-creation with stakeholders from city planning, nature development services, etc.