Formafantasma is a research-based design studio investigating the ecological, historical, political and social forces shaping the discipline of design today. Whether designing for a client or developing self – initiated projects, the studio applies the same rigorous attention to context, processes and details. Formafantasma’s analytical nature translates in meticulous visual outcomes, products and strategies.

Hella Jongerius is one of the world’s leading designers, known for her research-driven approach and vigorous work on uniting craftsmanship and industrial production, infusing mass produced objects with imperfection, sensibility and character. She founded her Jongeriuslab design studio in 1993, and has worked on commissioned projects for Vitra, Maharam, the interior design of the Delegates’ Lounge of the United Nations Headquarters and the cabin interiors for the Dutch airline KLM. Jongerius’s work can be found in the permanent collections including the MoMA, the Centre Pompidou, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Die Neue Sammlung and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. Originally from the Neatherlands, Jongerius has lived and worked in Berlin since 2009.

Mariam Issoufou is the founder and principal of architecture and research practice, atelier masōmī. The firm tackles public, cultural, residential, commercial and urban design projects. It is headquarted in Niamey, with a design studio in New York. The firm’s completed projects include the Hikma Community Complex, which won two Global LafargeHolcim Awards for sustainable architecture and Niamey 2000 Housing project, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. Issoufou is a professor of Architecture Heritage and Sustainability at ETH Zurich.

Brendan McGetrick is a writer, designer and curator. His work has appeared in publications in over thirty countries, including The New York Times, Wired, The Financial Times, Art Review, Der Spiegel, Domus, and Vogue Nippon. In 2014, he co-curated Fair Enough in the Russian pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. From 2015-2019, McGetrick served as Director of Global Grad Show, an annual exhibition of graduate projects from the world’s leading design and technology schools, held as part of Dubai Design Week. Since 2019 he has served as Creative Director of Museum of the Future in Dubai. Brendan McGetrick is the Creative Director of Museum of the Future in Dubai.

Gurmeet Sian is an Architect the founder of Office Sian Architecture + Design, with work that has been recognised in local and national awards. He is passionate about collaborating with communities to understand how places can be improved through the built environment and design, and to benefit the well-being of people from all backgrounds of society.
Gurmeet is Chair of the London Borough of Southwark Community Design Review Panel, is a Design Review Panel member at the London Borough of Redbridge, Camden and Harrow, and is a Design Council Expert. He is a winner of the RIBA London Project Architect of the Year award.

The inaugural curator in charge of contemporary art and programming at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Claudia Schmuckli is also a co-founder of the San Francisco Bay Area Collective Art+Climate Action dedicated to building a sustainable art world. Since 2020, A+CA unites and supports museums, galleries, and artists in their efforts to understand and address the art sector’s climate impacts while supporting and generating exhibitions and programs that address the climate emergency. At the Fine Arts Museums, Schmuckli has curated several important exhibitions concerned with the intersection of environmental and social justice, including Specters of Disruption in 2018, Uncanny Valley: Being Human in the Age of AI in 2020, Wangechi Mutu: I Am Speaking, Are you Listening? in 2021, Judy Chicago: A Retrospective in 2021, and most recently Lee Mingwei: Rituals of Care in 2024.

Ilze Wolff is the co-director of Wolff, a design studio concerned with developing an architectural practice of consequence through the mediums of design, advocacy, research and documentation. The work of the practice has also been included at various international exhibitions including, the Venice Architecture Biennale, Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, the Chicago Architectural Biennale, the Sao Paulo Biennale and the South American Architecture Biennale. Ilze Wolff received a Mphil in Heritage and Public Culture, African Studies Unit, UCT. She also co-founded Open House Architecture in 2007, a transdisciplinary research practice which she continues to direct parallel to Wolff.

CG Foisy makes audio + visual work. Through a range of influences, including Jill Freedman, Brian Eno, Erroll Morris and Chris Marker, hee has sought to develop a style that combines his interests in time capsules, retro-futurism, decisive moments, duck-rabbits, uncanny valleys, Gödel sentences, and prog- rock troubadouria. CG's work has appeared on stage at Symphony Space, 92Y, NYC River to River Music Festival, CMJ Music Marathon and the Guggenheim Museum. On screen his work has been shown at the Tribeca Film Festival, SXSW, Houston Cinema Arts Society, DOC NYC; in-flight with Delta Airlines and even in orbit aboard the International Space Station. He enjoys experiments with archival materials and has done collaborations with NYC’s venerable programmers of media ephemera (Cinema 16, WFMU radio, Anthology Film Archives). He works as an adjunct faculty at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books.

Joseph Zeal-Henry is a designer, curator and writer whose work attempts to bring the world of public policy and cultural production together in the practice of city-making. He is currently the 2024 ArtLab Loeb Fellow at Harvard University and co-curator of “Dancing Before the Moon” at the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2023. He is co-host of SOUND ADVICE and previously held roles at City Hall in London and specialised in the development of cultural infrastructure for the Mayor of London. Joseph has written for TANK magazine, Dezeen and Casbella and is a trustee of UD Music, a charity supporting the next generation of talent in British Black Music.

A nationally recognized design leader, researcher, prolific writer, and educator, Katie Swenson is a Senior Principal at MASS Design Group, where she leads the Advocacy team with Amie Shao. Katie’s work explores how critical design practice can, and should, promote economic and social equity, environmental sustainability, and healthy communities. She has over 20 years of experience in the theoretical and practical applications of design thinking and is a talented global public speaker and thought leader. Katie teaches at the Parsons School of Design at The New School and lectures extensively on sustainable community development and affordable housing. Katie was awarded a Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 2019.

Dong-Ping Wong is an architect and Founding Director of Food Architects, an international environmental design practice located in Chinatown, New York.

Justin McGuirk is the director of Future Observatory, the UK's design research programme for the green transition, and the former chief curator of the Design Museum. A writer and curator, he has produced numerous high-profile exhibitions and publishing projects. In 2012 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture. He is a regular speaker at universities and conferences around the world, and his writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the Guardian, e-flux and numerous art and design journals. He is the author or editor of several books, including Radical Cities (Verso, 2014), Waste Age (2022) and Ai Weiwei: Making Sense (2023).

LI Hu and HUANG Wenjing are founding partners of OPEN Architecture, Kenzo Tange Design Critic in Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, visiting professors at Tsinghua University and China Central Academy of Fine Arts.
Led by LI Hu and HUANG Wenjing, major projects by OPEN include: UCCA Dune Art Museum, Chapel of Sound, Sun Tower, Tank Shanghai, Shanfeng Academy, Shanghai Qingpu Pinghe International School, Pingshan Performing Arts Center, Tsinghua Ocean Center, Garden School/Beijing No.4 High School Fangshan Campus, and Gehua Youth and Cultural Center.
OPEN’s work has been widely recognized, with recent awards including the AIA International Design Awards Honor Award (US), Arcasia Awards Gold (AS), LEAF Awards (EU), AR Future Project Awards (UK), P/A Awards (US), Civic Trust Awards (UK), and Iconic Awards Best of Best (GER), among many others.

Cambodian-born Malika Leiper is a writer and cultural strategist. After receiving her master's in urban planning from the Harvard Graduate School of Design she joined the industrial design studio Stephen Burks Man Made as the director of cultural affairs. There, she helped launch the studio's traveling solo exhibition "Stephen Burks: Shelter in Place" synthesizing the last ten years of practice uniting art, craft and community. In parallel she was an inaugural fellow of the Het Nieuwe Instituut's Design Drafts program for emerging design writers and her work has been published in places such as Domus, Disegno Journal, and The Architect's Newspaper.

Katie Treggiden is the founder and director of Making Design Circular an international membership community and online learning platform for environmentally conscious designers, makers artists and craftspeople. She is also an author, journalist and podcaster championing a hopeful approach to environmentalism. With more than 20 years' experience in the creative industries, she regularly contributes to publications such as The Guardian, The Observer, Crafts Magazine and Dezeen. She is currently exploring the question ‘can craft save the world?’ through her sixth book, Broken: Mending & Repair in a Throwaway World (Ludion, 2023), and podcast, Circular with Katie Treggiden

Paulo Tavares is an architect, author, and educator. His practice dwells at the frontiers between architecture, visual cultures, and advocacy. Tavares’s projects have been featured in various exhibitions and publications worldwide, including Oslo Architecture Triennial, Istanbul Design Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, and most recently the Venice Biennale 2023. He is the author of several books questioning the colonial legacies of modernity, including Des-Habitat (2019), Lucio Costa era Racista? (2022), and Derechos No-Humanos (2022). The curatorial project Terra, was awarded the Golden Lion for best national participation at La Biennale di Venecia 2023. He was co-curator of the 2019 Chicago Architecture Biennial and was part of the advisory curatorial board of Sharjah Biennial 2023. Tavares teaches at Columbia GSAPP and at the University of Brasília, and leads the spatial advocacy agency autonoma.

Ana Gutierrez in the creator of Colombian-based research and community architecture practice, Organizmo. Her practice is informed by a view to making visible the abundance that exists in all territories. As a first approach, she obtained a BFA in Architectural Design at the Parsons School of Design in New York City and a Master's Degree in Interactive Telecommunications, ITP-from New York University. She found the power of doing and community construction by creating Organizmo-Research Center for regeneration and exchange of intercultural knowledge. Moved by the fragile strength of local knowledge and resources, she creates experiences around research for the development of Sustainable Habitats. In love with the earth as a construction material and aware of the need to recover vernacular architecture in rural areas of Colombia, she becomes an explorer and manager of possible worlds, creating new paradigms of spatiality where infrastructures are an invitation to the beginning of dialogues with the non-human and the creation of new rituals.

Dr. Sean Connelly is a Pacific Islander American artist born, residing, and working in Honolulu, Kona, Oʻahu. Sean's multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, installation, film, design, and cartography, frequently integrating experimental methodologies. Their work delves into the interplay with the built environment, intersecting oceanic intellect and futures in contemporary practice, spanning both tangible and theoretical domains. This exploration is informed by cultural, ecological, historical, material, water, food sovereignty, and land justice themes. In addition to their active art practice, Sean runs AFTEROCEANIC Built Environments Lab.

Rosario Hevia is the founder of ECOCITEX, a textile circular economy model based in Chile. Hevia studied industrial engineering while actively volunteering. After a finance career, her children's birth inspired a shift: in 2018, she founded TRAVIESO, a children's clothing exchange store with a charitable twist. In 2020, Hevia launched ECOCITEX. The company recycles 5 tons of clothing monthly, transforming it into high-quality threads while offering marginalized women jobs. Her initiatives combat textile waste, igniting global awareness.

Chicago native, Stephen Burks is an industrial designer, product development consultant, and educator whose innovative approach to design synthesizes craft, community, and industry. Independently and through association with various non-profits, he has collaborated with artisans and craftspeople in over ten countries on six continents. Stephen and his studio, Stephen Burks Man Made, have been commissioned by many of the world’s leading design-driven brands to develop collections that engage hand production as a strategy for innovation to express a more pluralistic vision of design. His socially engaged practice seeks to broaden the limits of design consciousness by challenging who benefits from and participates in contemporary design.

Suchi Reddy founded Reddymade in 2002 with an approach to design that privileges the emotional quality of human engagement with space. Guided by her mantra “form follows feeling,” Reddy’s architectural and artistic practice is informed by her research at the intersection of neuroscience and the arts. Working towards a larger idea of “design justice,” she is dedicated to expanding our notions of empathy, equity, and agency—where the importance of design is recognized as an asset for the benefit of all, not just for some.

Lagos-based Nigerian architect and designer. The founder and principal of Oshinowo Studio, which she formed in 2013, Oshinowo has worked on a number of civic, commercial and residential projects throughout Nigeria. She is renowned for her insights into socially responsive approaches to architecture, design and urbanism.

Documentary photographer from Mexico, who has built a body of visual work and campaigns around climate action and gender equality. Co-Founder of Climate Words, member of Latinas for Change and Young Climate Voice Winner of 2023.

World leading graphic designer, artist and photographer. He joined Pentagram in 2006 and works globally devising identities, installations, and books for clients as diverse as Guggenheim, Liberty, Abu Dhabi cultural quarter, PEN International and the UN.

Graduate student at MIT, pursuing combined interests in urban research, product design, and computer science. He intends to acquire a robust, cross-disciplinary skillset to find innovative ways to contribute to the technology-driven world. Gao was part of the Young Climate Prize Cohort, 2023.

Co-founder and executive director of the Sweet Water Foundation, a nonprofit based on Chicago’s South Side that engages local residents in the cultivation and regeneration of social, environmental, and economic resources in their neighborhoods. Pratt was awarded the MacArthur ‘Genius’ grant in 2019.

Writer, entrepreneur and educator. Hunter is the founder of the London School of Architecture, which he conceived in 2010 as an alternative educational model to widen access into the architectural profession. He was executive editor of the Architectural Review and is cofounder of Citizen magazine.

Architect, climate organizer and teacher of Sustainable Systems at Parsons School of Design in New York. His work focuses on integrating climate knowledge into design, and documenting the evolving language of climate change. Co-Founder and Project Director of Climate Words.

Leading luxury fashion executive. Aboah's leadership has been instrumental in guiding renowned brands such as LVMH/Donna Karan, Alexander Wang, Urban Zen, and Atelier Jolie. Her multifaceted career underscores a commitment to excellence and social impact.

British design writer, editor, and consultant based who is responsible for the communications of The World Around. Dan works as an editorial, branding, and communications advisor for creative companies and regularly writes for titles including Architectural Digest, Interior Design, Sight Unseen, and Dezeen.

Associate Director of Sustainability at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Prior to joining the Guggenheim, Whitney practiced law for ten years with a focus on fashion and art industries. She founded Sustainable Brooklyn, a community-based consultancy and think tank dedicated to concretizing equity within the sustainability movement.

Utilizing his professional background as a scientist, Joseph Nguthiru created HyaPak, a startup that converts hyacinths -a highly problematic water plant- into a biodegradable material that can be used in place of single-use plastics, which are now banned in Kenya. His project therefore combats both plastic waste pollution and alleviates freshwater bodies of the invasive species, while also generating employment opportunities for those living near to infested waters. Nguthiru was part of the inaugural Young Climate Prize cohort and has, since then, become a fellow at the 776 foundation and an alumni of the Obama Foundation.

Namra Khalid was cycle 01´s YOUNG CLIMATE VISIONARY! Namra Khalid understands that redesigning the city of Karachi, Pakistán without fully understanding its current state and potential precarity "will only exacerbate dysfunctionality," so she is producing the first socio-climatic map of the urban area in its entirety through her project Karachi Cartography. This monumental task will uncover the evolution of the city through maps, and facilitate the creation of projections for its future. As said by the Jury: "Mapping and cartography are extremely necessary and essential in solving climate issues, particularly in Pakistan, where catastrophic flooding occurred just months ago. The immediacy of this issue is ever-prevalent, and makes Namra's work all the more urgent. Her project is clear in its intentions and is very promising on all levels." Khalid's Young Climate Prize mentor was Henk Ovink the Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Netherlands and Sherpa for the UN 2023 Water Conference. As former advisor for President Obama's Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Ovink is much familiar with the impacts of extreme weather that Khalid hopes to plan for.

Pamela Elizarraráz Actores was cycle 01´s YOUNG CLIMATE VOICE! Pamela EA is a documentary photographer and explorer from México who focuses on gender equality and climate justice, and aims to increase accessibility to literacy in the evolving field of climate education through her work. She is a co-founder of Climate Words, a growing database of climate lexicon and images, which was created to demystify the conversation around climate justice. Her project, Climate Words, is an online database building a lexicon to make climate literacy more accessible by inviting pioneers in climate discourse to define a word central to their work in their own voice. With a focus on design and storytelling, the project bridges the gap in climate knowledge, facilitating learning and inspiring new climate advocates to take action. As said by the Jury: "Super compelling, interesting, dynamic, and powerful. Finding the right words and common definitions for talking about climate change, and, importantly, educating around these terms, is an invaluable tool, since creating accessible language can and will lead to definitive action. Pamela's project has the potential to achieve great things beyond the world of art, and to become highly impactful in reality." Pamela´s Young Climate Prize mentor was writer and curator Mariana Pestana.

Foday David Kamara was cycle 01´s YOUNG CLIMATE DESIGNER!
Foday David Kamara's project, Ecovironment, reflects and builds upon on his childhood "surrounded by plastic waste." The student-turned-entrepreneur originally from Sierra Leone, has turned his idea for reducing plastic pollution into a social enterprise in Rwanda. Ecovironment uses plastic extrusion technology to transform waste into bricks and paving tiles, reducing reliance on imported cement bricks. This aspect alone boosts inbuilt resilience in a community that can rely on itself for building materials, as well as addressing the environmental issues caused by post-consumer plastic waste and unsustainable building materials. Foday´s project, has so far created 60 jobs, recycled 460 tonnes of plastics, and used its profits to feed 1,500 school children. As said by the jury: "This project stands out not only for the idea of recycling plastic waste in a realistic and scalable way, but also for the emphasis on systems, training, and education, and the plan to embed these broader ideas into local communities. The project can also be applied to other countries and has the potential for truly global impact." Kamara´s Young Climate Prize mentor was Dominic Leong, a founding partner at Leong Leong,an internationally recognized architecture studio and co-founder of Hawai'i Nonlinear.

Aziba Ekio received a special Jury Prize on this year's Young Climate Prize!
Countering the statistical numbness of conversations surrounding the climate crisis, Aziba Ekio provides a vivid portrait of the "subtle, emotional, and social effects" of climate change on the Nigerian population through her writing. Her locality, Abuja, is already facing the effects of global warming that the majority of the global North is yet to see, and her poem anthology, The color, Green, is her "contribution to the fight for climate action. It contains 50 poems about the material impacts of extreme weather and pollution on her own life, and the lives of others who receive minimal media attention. As said by the Jury: "As one of the oldest tools of communication, poetry still manages to remain so powerful today, and helps to grow a collective weight around issues. Aziba's poetry is extremely stirring, uplifting, passionate, and moving, and her strong voice in the fight to tackle the climate crisis will undoubtedly be heard." Ekio´s Young Climate Prize mentor was founder and director of Counterspace and architect, Sumayya Vally.

Tackling issues of fast fashion, sustainable consumption, and empowering young people, Muhammed Dimma Mawejje’s project combines banana fibers and organic cotton with textile waste like fabric offcuts and second-hand clothes to create bags, earrings, dresses, and other fashion merchandise. The company, Mawejje Creations is based in Uganda and its profits are then used to promote his company’s social enterprises, which include teaching vulnerable young people the “hands-on skills” required for garment production.

By buying the banana-plant fibers, farmers receive extra income from what would otherwise be a waste product, and since they are processed using locally designed machines into an entirely biodegradable material, the project benefits both the community and the environment.

The city of Karachi, Pakistan is forecast to be entirely underwater in just 37 years. Namra Khalid understands that redesigning the city without fully understanding its current state and potential precarity “will only exacerbate dysfunctionality,” so she is producing the first socio-climatic map of the urban area in its entirety. This monumental task will uncover the evolution of the city through maps, and facilitate the creation of projections for its future.

Khalid's mentor is Henk Ovink is Special Envoy for International Water Affairs for the Netherlands and Sherpa for the UN 2023 Water Conference. As former advisor for President Obama’s Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Ovink is much familiar with the impacts of extreme weather that Khalid hopes to plan for.

Mangaliso Ngcobo is an architecture student whose “eye and pen have largely been informed by Johannesburg” where he grew up. He shares a passion for art and writing with his friend and fellow student Sam Harding. Together they founded TWI ST Magazine, a biannual publication that focuses on the environment and uses art “as an operating system for engaging with a world in crisis” through articles, photo essays and more.

Anushka Shahdadpuri grew up in a refugee colony in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, where the government failed to provide basic infrastructure, and developed ambitions to help others in similar situations access WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) services. Her project, Tanki, is a novel water distribution system, harnessing rainwater to bring one million liters of water a year to public toilets in the city, which has the potential to scale and provide access to clean running water for millions of people.

This is particularly important for girls and women in India. Decentralizing the water system could also prevent residents being unjustly charged to use services that are not properly maintained.

Drawing parallels between hot money and financial liquidity, and the warm, wet climate of the tropics, Alfonse Chiu’s Thermotropicana is a long-term art and research project that plots the pathways of capital in and out of the tropical regions. The writer, artist, and curator – who is also the founder of the Centre for Urban Mythologies – has so far produced several “chapters” of their project, including Glossaries for Unwritten Knowledges, an exhibition exploring the survival of indigenous culture in Malaysia, in collaboration with local non-profit GERMIS and indigenous practitioners.

Another chapter, Fruit Atlas, is a knowledge-sharing and production platform that imagines and tests how alliances within the tropics could occur, taking inspiration from the circulation of tropical fruits. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Alfonse is being mentored by MoMA’s senior curator Paola Antonelli.

Hannah Segerkrantz, a product designer from Estonia, is exploring how to use the CO2-absorbing material hempcrete as a design tool.

Segerkrantz has so far been examining the unique properties of hempcrete at furniture scale, using fabric to create formwork for pouring and setting the hempcrete, and combining volumes into a variety of different forms. She then shares her own instruction manual “Hemp-it-Yourself”, so that others can create her designs, creating an open-source library accessible to anyone that empowers a network of global makers.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Hannah is receiving mentorship from Wael Al Awar. Wael is a co-founder and principal architect at waiwai. Waiwai presented their innovative material research project WETLAND that shows radical alternatives to concrete at The World Around Summit 2021.

After 24-year-old Joseph Nguthiru’s boat became caught in water hyacinths in the middle of Lake Naivasha, Kenya, he began to devise and experiment with solutions to combat the wider issues caused by this aquatic plant – which blocks waterways used for trade and transport, and damages ecosystems.

Through his project HyaPak, Joseph decided to tackle two pressing issues at the same time by creating a biodegradable alternative to plastic using hyacinths. Joseph is being mentored by Jan Boelen, a curator of design, architecture, and contemporary art, and artistic director of Atelier LUMA.

Pamela EA is a documentary photographer and explorer from México who focuses on gender equality and climate justice, and aims to increase accessibility to literacy in the evolving field of climate education through her work. She is a co-founder of Climate Words, a growing database of climate lexicon and images, which was created to demystify the conversation around climate justice. With a focus on design and storytelling, the project bridges the gap in climate knowledge, facilitating learning and inspiring new climate advocates to take action.

David Andrés Vega Monsalve, from Bogotá, Colombia, has created an immersive digital environment in which a user can experience first-hand the potential devastation caused by extreme weather. Wearing a headset, they are placed in areas of Pakistan shown as they exist today; then shown imagery that depicts how these same locations might look in the future after being ravaged by catastrophic climate events.

As one of our 25 under 25s, David is being mentored by Camila Marambio, a self described “curator, private investigator, permaculture enthusiast, amateur dancer, and collaborative writer”. In 2010, she founded the research programme, Ensayos, based on the archipelago of Karokynka/ Tierra del Fuego

The acidification of the Mediterranean Sea has led to a decrease of fish in the area. For cities like Port Said in Egypt, that depends on the fishing industry, this is not only a climatic disaster but also an economic one.

When architecture student Moemen Sobh, whose family have been fishing in Port Said for generations, discovered that tonnes of fish “waste” was thrown to the Mediterranean Sea every year, he considered turning the unwanted fish skins into something useful. This led to the creation of “Visenleer”, a fish-skin leather that makes use of this byproduct and allows fishermen to make more money per fish sold. Sobh’s vision for this biomaterial ranges from producing clothing items to tents. He also uses the project to teach school and university students about sustainability goals and best practices. Nelly Ben Hayoun is Sobh’s mentor, an artist and experience designer based in London. Among her diverse achievements are the foundation of NASA’s International Space Orchestra, and collaborations with the likes of Noam Chomsky and Kid Cudi. In 2022, Nelly launched the Tour De Moon – a lunar-inspired programme of live events and immersive experiences all across the UK.

oung Climate Prize finalist from Nigeria, Stanley Anigbogu, created a system that recycles e-waste into solar-powered lighting solutions when combined with locally sourced materials and called it LightEd. LightEd’s program “The Light for Peace” has already provided over 22,000 internally displaced refugees and 500 students with clean energy sources to replace kerosene lamps and candles.

This access to consistent light has huge social and economic benefits: enabling students to extend their working hours, small business owners to lengthen their trading hours, and making rural areas more safe and accessible.

Supporting Anigbogu as a mentor is Harry Pearce. Pearce is a graphic designer, artist, and Pentagram partner. Pentagram is an independently owned design studio, where the 22 partners are the owners and the creators of the work. Pearce has worked on design identities for clients as diverse as Liberty, Thames & Hudson, Abu Dhabi cultural quarter, and Pink Floyd.

Nastia Volynova interrogates the modes through which work can be made more equitable beyond nation-state systems through her Terra-Collar Work project, which spans the fields of economics, design, environmentalism, and infrastructure. The project has grown to acknowledge all of the different actors that contribute to the maintenance of current systems of work, and has come to a necessary intersection with the climate emergency.

Based in Russia, Volynova’s work has been exhibited in Amsterdam, Cambridge, Glasgow, Lisbon, London, and Venice among others. Her project manifests itself as workshops, lectures, seminars, and other collaborative modes of sharing knowledge.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Nastia will receive mentorship from Carson Chan, the inaugural director of MoMA’s Emilio Ambasz Institute for the Joint Study of the Built and Natural Environment.

in Gao, originally from China, gathered research on bees in high-altitude Bogotá, and used his findings to design a low-cost monitor that can be installed into a standard beehive. This allows beekeepers to perform remote inspections, rather than causing disruption to the hives prematurely, and maintain the health of the species. Alongside the monitoring system, Gao suggests environmental improvements to the hives, including how some can be insulated to help raise survival rates of their inhabitants in a changing ecosystem.

Alder Keleman Saxena is Gao’s mentor during the three month period of the Young Climate Prize. Alder is an environmental anthropologist who carries out similar work that Gao has spearheaded with SmartHive, drawing connections between locally specific ethnobotanical and biocultural practices and larger political-economic contexts. Alder is a co- editor of Feral Atlas: the More-Than-Human Anthropocene @feralatlas who participated in The World Around Summit 2021.

Originally in local schools and campuses around India, Sahithi Radha and her team hold “awareness sessions” to educate students about the dangers of electronic waste. In collaboration with recycling partners, they also safely recycle and refurbish items collected from these sessions, as part of her project E-Cycl.

Sahithi is being mentored by Cyra Levenson, the Guggenheim’s deputy director and head of Education and Public Engagement Department. Through this role, Cyra aims to reach out to a broad audience through programming, content development, academic partnerships and community.

At age 12, Joshua Keghnen Ichor, now an innovator and Geoscientist, became seriously ill with Typhoid Fever, a disease caused by water scarcity and pollution that almost took his life. He now dedicates his practice in Nigeria to developing technologies that could help prevent these issues, which are ever-more prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa’s rural communities as a result of climate change.

Ichor will receive mentorship from Max Fraser, an independent design commentator who works across books, magazines, exhibitions, video, and events to broaden the conversation around contemporary design. Fraser is the author of multiple design books and contributes articles to a wide variety of publications around the world.

Esther Oluwabunmi Olalude is the CEO of Venille @venille_ ,a company that is tackling both period poverty and sustainable product development in Nigeria. She has created an affordable and biodegradable alternative to traditional sanitary pads which feature an absorbent core derived from a wool-like material made from broken-down banana stems.

As part of the Young Climate Prize, Esther is receiving mentorship from Etta Madete. Etta is a Nigerian architect and the founder of BuildX Studio and BuildHer Collective; through them Madete advocates for the sustainable use of cross-laminated timber and encourages women into the world of construction, design and questions of land ownership.

In Indonesia, where the government is failing to seriously discuss plans for a future in danger of disappearing because of climate change, Raihan Rabbannee Hendrawan is utilizing creative storytelling and a passion for climate justice to educate his peers through his project Ketika Kita Muda (When We Were Young).

Raihan is mentored by Emma Osore, founding member of BlackSpace, an urbanist collective formed of Black planners, architects, artists and designers. Raihan is also participating in The World Around´s Design Academy, an ongoing series of exclusive workshops for our Young Climate Prize finalists.

Aida Namukose “fell into climate storytelling by mistake,” yet beautifully documents the lives of women in Uganda most affected by the impacts of climate change through photography. Pairing words and imagery, she illustrates the stories of women in the food industry, aiming to combat the “lack of empowerment” among these communities of women by sharing their experiences through her art. This photo-journalistic approach uncovered stories of community resilience that would otherwise go untold.

As part of the Young Climate Prize program, Aida is mentored by José Esparza Chong Cuy, a curator, writer, and architect from Mexico, currently serving as the Executive Director and Chief Curator at Storefront for Art and Architecture.

Gabriela Angelina Bernal Ibáñez has an innate passion for change within the building industry, and full confidence that her self-started project, Gama has the potential to revolutionize the way we build and develop. Through one-on-one mentorship sessions Gabriela is receiving guidance from architects Antón Garcia Abril and Débora Mesa, founders of Ensamble, who participated in The World Around’s 2021 summit. Their work innovates typologies, technologies and methodologies to address issues as diverse as the construction of the landscape or the prefabrication of the house; this innovative spirit is shared with their mentee. We are proud to connect Gabriela and Ensamble for the Young Climate Prize.

Countering the statistical numbness of conversations surrounding the climate crisis, Aziba Ekio provides a vivid portrait of the “subtle, emotional, and social effects” of climate change on the Nigerian population through her writing. Her locality, Abuja, is already facing the effects of global warming that the majority of the global North is yet to see, and her poem anthology, the color, Green, is her “contribution to the fight for climate action.” As part of the 25 under 25, Aziba is receiving mentorship from architect Sumayya Vally, founder and director of Counterspace.

Covalence (now Covalence Global @covalenceglobal ), is the brainchild of Sophia Tabibian and Lulu Goulet-Hofsass, who began with a group of 10 picking up 500 pounds of trash. Learning more about the scale of the climate crisis, Tabibian then considered how to connect those leading important work in their local areas to foster a global community. Covalence Global has since built “covalent bonds” with youth leaders on five continents.

The group recently held a three-day virtual conference, where 10 youth speakers and three climate-focused organizations discussed myriad climate-related issues. Next, the network is developing a Young Climate Change Curriculum, with the view to increase climate literacy around the globe. A chapter program also honors the work of Covalence San Francisco, and allows local youths to continue organizing events.

Sophia and Lulu are being mentored by the iconic designer Bruce Mau, a former speaker at The World Around who has worked as a designer, innovator, educator and author on a broad spectrum of projects.

Foday David Kamara, one of our 25 under 25s, uses plastic extrusion technology to transform waste into bricks and paving tiles, reducing reliance on imported cement bricks. This aspect alone boosts inbuilt resilience in a community that can rely on itself for building materials, as well as addressing the environmental issues caused by post-consumer plastic waste and unsustainable building materials. Ecovironment, Foday´s project, has so far created 60 jobs, recycled 460 tonnes of plastics, and used its profits to feed 1,500 school children.

Faced with dire unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic, young people from Shariffa Amolo Anguria’s village in Kenya turned to gold- mining jobs, which led to mercury and cyanide exposure and mass deforestation in the area. So she founded Gold 4 Climate Action, in partnership with Rising to Greatness, a female-led community organization where she acts as an outreach officer. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Shariffa is attending The World Around´s Design Academy, a series of workshops designed to support the process of the cohort.

In Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America, there's only one garbage processing plant, no recycling facilities, and voracious winds that regularly exceed 62mph. This means that plastic waste, much of which is carried there by ocean currents from other countries and deposited on the shore, ends up being blown all over the picturesque island. Marilita Quintana Molina, from the indigenous Selk'nam community, collects this waste and uses it in her art to shed light on the magnitude of this issue.

“To clean up nature is to clean up our home,” she says. As part of the Young Climate Prize, Marilita is being mentored by Abraham Cruzvillegas, a visual artist from Mexico. Since 2007, he has produced a body of work he calls “autoconstrucción”. Taking inspiration from his hometown, a village built through collaborative construction with recycled and found materials, Cruzvillage’s sculptural installations are often playfully composed from inexpensive materials.