In the past the Earth was a beautiful paradise of unspoiled nature. The man lived in harmony with it, yielding only what it was really necessary to exist without disturbing its balance.

The situation now is quite different.

Technological progress is the reason we do not see what is becoming increasingly evident to the specialists - the explosive growth of unfavorable natural factors, incompatible with the life on the planet. Why man has turned against the nature and made it a scapegoat of progress?

The most serious threat lies not only in the objective laws of human progress, which require more and more resources, but also deep into the human psyche: our propensity to sacrifice long-term prospects for quick profits threatens our very existence. In hectic times, human values seem to have been lost a bit. Everyone seems to be seeking only personal success. Man has become a materialist. In the name of an affluent lifestyle, convenience and over-luxury he is increasingly moving away from happiness. To achieve its objectives, the materialist steps over everyone in its path, who somehow forbids him.

Today, when we are looking for the cause of environmental degradation, we do not notice how we are the ones harming it. We need to think a little more. To look deeply into ourselves, into our souls and to make there a little nook. A place for the mother land, where there is love, there is conscience, desire, the feeling of closeness to nature. Nature is one of our biggest values, one factor without which the existence of the human species is so inconceivable - isn’t the nature ours? Mine, yours, our family’s, our children’s. People, animals, birds, plants - all are interconnected in a huge chain, we are all one. Human life is part of the life of the nature.

Nature is a miracle and a major driving force of life. She has grandeur, harmony, balance. Nature is like a painter with a playful color palette in hand. She elicits unique emotions, but often forgotten in our daily lives. Our environment can affect our emotions and mood through color. Colors are an energy carrier, and we feel them in their own individual way. Let us bring the nature into our daily lives and allow ourselves to light the colors, let us be better to each other.

Inspired by Nature.pdf

The Theme “Design for a better World” can be developed from a practical, comprehensive and sensitive point of  view.

The idea of my fashion concept comes from the sensitive way to look at it, focusing on the belief that the only one responsible for a better world to live in, is the man himself. It is he, who holds the key to make a better world. Beauty lives within him. He has been so bombarded with materialism, trivialities and false moral values, that he has forgotten about himself and what he carries inside.

“Aletheia of the Being” is aimed to unveil the essence of every human being searching in his  microcosm for his inner beauty, grabbing it and encouraging it to do the dance of life upon Earth. The way it used to be, the way it was meant to be, the way it should be, the way it will be…

My fashion concept will be developed by emulating the Lotus flower which rises up splendid and neat from the turbit and stagnant waters. The idea, is to unveil the essence of the Being through layers in a circular visual journey, expressing the infinite of the self and its evolution, carried out to a point where, for some reason, it gets stuck in the shape of continent/container, reflecting his continues imprisonment in an evolution/involution. Becoming conscious of his situation, he looks inside his essence, rescues and exposes it upon himself and finally, he embrace its luminescence, our greatest and pressures gift… the Being.

Every day it comes more evident, that our planet is being exposed to negative human impacts. Environment is changing for the worse and the first thing reflecting this fact is climate change.

Today Eco-Dwelling offers you accommodation of a new age which is auspicious both for human and environment. Such ecologically friendly house is built in accordance with several principles:

1) Location of eco-houses in green zones;

2) Implementation of vertical planting technologies;

3) Space flexibility inside the building;

4) Use of renewable energy alternatives (solar-, wind-, stream-power)

5) Special building materials which contain low-impact organic compounds and could be successfully recycled.

Eco-Dwelling is intended for one, two or more families on demand. Eco-house’s living space is not too large - it is efficient, relied on flexible design and multiple uses within the same place. Nevertheless the room will satisfy all the requirements of a family.

A new “Eco-Dwelling” trend which will help to overcome the shortage of green zones in urban areas is vertical greening. This means that walls, roofs, balconies will be fully or partially covered with plants. Vertical greening much differs from traditional gardening; it is presented by specially designed plant installations that cling to and curve around structures. Moreover plants grow on or into the building’s construction - organic substances are inserted up and down the walls, ceiling and other surfaces. The system will contain all required devices to irrigate, drainage and provide optimum growing habitat.

Eco-Dwelling.pdf

Bathing infants is a nightmarish task. It is a big problem for the amateur mothers. There has to be a better way for cleaning the baby.

The baby cleaning issue has been waiting for the appropriated design, which would be able to solve all the problems and response to all the subtle requirements. Most of baby bathing products have not provided for the essential issues, such as baby’s neck supporting, water splashing and slippery protection, hard to clean up, hazardous materials and so on.

The idea of flexible material is applied to this safety issue. EVA is soft material, non-slip and distinctive utility. Product life cycle is matched with baby growth (0-18 months). Product assembly are very simple, 12 pieces of die cutting EVA profiles are combined together by 4 extrusion cylinder rubbers.

Instead of using a standard adult bath, which requires you to kneel or lean awkwardly over your baby and gives you less control over his movements, it was designed for an adult. It makes sense to use the kitchen sink or a small plastic baby bath. Moreover, it would be more functional if the design could facilitate all of living contexts, really. Is it possible that baby and mother are bathing together at the same time?

The product was designed to be a tool that helps amateur mothers for bathing their baby more easily. Baby Sec-Stripe’s materials are soft and flexible. It is very safety product for the baby. From the critical reasons, the most important thing for baby product is safety factor.

In terms of product using, Baby Sec-Stripe will be the best answer for safety issue. The baby is protected by this flexible bath during bathing time. It is not necessary to use that much water with the baby. No splashing, no slipping and it is safety.

Baby Sec-Stripe*.pdf

The main topic to be approached for this Project is to create a tension between some characteristics of Slow Fashion and Eco design, which is industrial design.  For the use of textile made of less conventional material, versus the use of ordinary textiles to create a wardrobe.

Utilizing recycled material of environmentally strong impact, such as polyethylene, along with fabrics with a percentage of cotton.

The use of materials of high environmental impact, is in fact, used to make a product that decreases residuals through textile, but those that are harmful to the environment, whereby in wardrobe, when one refers to the conscience design, it is used as an organic term in textiles.

Consideration is taken by the tendencies in the 1940s and the initiation of recycling, thereby maintaining the silhouette.

Every piece of garment will be presented in containers made up of a surplus of textile material.  At the same time, they will have tickets where the productive processing of the garments will be shown, along with a remittent for it to be shipped back for reutilization once it becomes useless.

Furthermore, in order to charm the spectator through a wardrobe rich in texture, resulting from a fusion of plastic bags by way of heat, along with the use of friendly colors, being vital and vigorous, such as red tones and its complementary colors like turquoise, green and blue.

RE GENERATE.pdf

African cotton’s fabrics are wonderful for their rich colors.

The textile production is a great part of African’s economy.

Mostly of the people employee in this sector are woman.

Who buy this kind of product are mostly african citizens.

Africa is like a huge warm heart in the middle of the planet earth. Even suffering all kinds of cultural prejudices, africans still kept some of their rich customs. Despite all social problems, unique geographic bounds, tribe and religion issues, aids, violence against woman and kids, hunger, the list just goes on and on; Africa has your own look.  All the big names of social actions has a great plan to save Africa and all the greatest fashion designers had at least once found inspiration in African colors and nature. Yves Saint Laurent in the past had compare Africa with a painting full of love and hate, he was one great buyer of African art.

Africa has a great capacity of production and the typical african fabric is made of good natural cotton and it is really cheap.  Fabrics have a different name that change according to its use and place.

“African for all people” is a concept made for big magazines as Benetton, H&M, Zara and many others fast fashion stores. The main idea is a collection with fabrics made in Africa but with design. Trendy pieces as pleated skirts and dresses, classic tailoring for urban woman. Only Africans wear kangas and kitenges,  it is made only for typical garments. Everyone loves African prints, bring it in a wearable and desirable collection ready-to-made and that’s it. In other hand of all the big companies that now a days produce everything on China, using African fabrics you are going to improve African economy and of course African life been.

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It is made of wood, a warm, environmental friendly material that does not oxidized. In addition, it can be recycled and it is easy to manufacture. Though my table chess may not be of any help to growing surviving skills, it contributes to improving peoples’ lives by providing contact and entertainment through the excitement of a chess match.

The table-chess legs are made of wood carved hourglass that stands for the time each player needs to decide the next move.

The battle takes place on the top of the table, where the chessboard is, colored not in black and white- an antiracism tribute-but in brown shades.

Two different kinds of wood are used, each making a completely different sound, enabling the players to recognize by the different sound each wood makes,  in which color their pawns have moved.  In addition white -beige in our case- blocks have scabrous surface, whilst the black -brown in our case- are glabrous. Walnut tree wood is chosen for the dark blogs with density 0,64 gr/cm³.  Fort the light colored blocks I chose aspen wood. Its less density 0,35 gr/cm³ makes it easy to tell them apart from its different sound.

Round that table there the letters that describe the position of each square are embossed. The players can feel them and know at each point of the game their pawns’  position.

In both sides of the table -chess there are two wooden boxes used for storing the pawns. Instead of knobs, there are letters from the Greek alphabet :  M for black pawns (mavro) and L for whites (lefko).

Chess is not a lucky game; it is based on techniques and strategy and has equal rules for both players.

Table Chess.ppt (download)

I divided the project into three mayor branches: social-economic framework, artistic inheritance and Eco friendly production.

Social-economic framework:

On February 2009, Ecuadorian government by a law restricted the importation of 627 products, shoes were one of those. Due to this restriction the amount of shoes in the market reduced to 50% and the price per pair of shoes in the best scenario grew at least $10 per pair. This reduced significantly the sales of imported footwear, but created an enormous market place for national footwear. Up to august the production of artisan footwear grew 40%. The timing is perfect for this project to succeed.

Artistic inheritance:

For me a very important part of being a designer is to be connected with our past, with our roots. Ecuadorian art is characterized by its colorful culture and this begins from ancient traditions.  The skills involved are passed from generation to generation.  Among the local people there is hardly any difference between the fine arts and crafts. That is why most of the Ecuadorian art are not only beautiful, but also has a practical use.

Some of the most popular art products are woven crafts as the very popular Panama Hat and clothing and bags made the same way from hundred of years ago, of plant fibers and alpaca wool tinturated with natural plants. Some of the earliest forms of art we found were from the Pre-Columbian period. From my point of view cultures such as the Valdivia, Chorrera, Quitus, Caras and Canaris that ended with the Inca period, all were the milestones  that made what we Ecuadorians are today.

Eco friendly production:

Combining this idea to a Eco friendly project was a challenge for me. I am no Eco friendly expert, so I began researching deeply about it, I found something that caught my attention. Eco-friendly shoes need to respect 5 basic premises.

Handmade GREEN.pdf

- It’s a problem that has existed since the beginning of humanity

- Various reports: Biblical, famous historic figures and others not so famous

- Graphic and oral testimonies

Epilepsy has been attributed to multiple causes such as:

• - Divine origin
• - Devils origin
• - Stigmas

- Two percent of the world’s population suffers from this condition.

- Epilepsy does not affect specific age, social status, income or religion groups

- There are many kinds of epilepsy

THE SOCIAL PROBLEM

- When people witness a crisis involving convulsions, it creates impact

- Good vs. evil

- Hereditary

Due to all these misconceptions, the patient may suffer the following economic and social consequences:

- Can’t study

- Can’t work

- Forces another member of the family out of work due to the attention required

- Medical and drug costs

Seventy percent of the patients can control their condition with medicine and have a NORMAL LIFE; however, most of them don’t have access to neither doctors nor medicine.

FUTURE

Its important to ensure that people with epilepsy, as well as the general population, learn more about this condition, so those who live with it can be able to live a regular full life.

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One of the compulsory things for a better world is the happiness of people. The more the people are happy, the more it’s a better world. For this project I wanted to focus on a product design that solves some problems and makes people happy.

Inspired by the Moon texture, ironically this lounger is a reflection of the Sun. Its’ form and material serves for the best comfort of sunbathing. All transparent structure, easily manufactured, solves some of the problems of todays’ loungers and adds more functions.

Advantages of Moon SunLounger:
- Filled with water, the bottom part reflects sunbeams perfectly to the back of the body, tanning front and back at the same time.
- Water vaporizes over time, cooling the air around the body.
- The different size holes can hold any kind of glass, beverage.
- With the bottom shape and water weight, after a small nudge, it acts like a cradle swinging from side to side.
- With it’s aesthetic form, it’s a conversation starter.

What happens with an ordinary sun lounger?
The first problem is, you have to turn your body over and over again to get a perfect tan. 15 minutes this side, 15 minutes that side. It’s exhausting!
If you fall asleep, half of your body is sunburned! Drinks, your belongings should be on a table which you can’t always control or find so if you fall asleep or get distracted, maybe your bag won’t be there.

What happens with Moon SunLounger?
With a diameter of 186cm (6.1 feet) it’s comfortable for anybody.
Transparent, anti-sweat material (polycarbonate composite) is used, manufactured by termoforming. Without the need of a towel, water inside the Moon vaporizes over time, exits from the holes both on your side and nano-holes below your body, cools the air around you and your body!
No matter what the angle of the sun beams are, it always reflects the beams to your back.

Instructions:
- Fill it with water just to the level shown on the sides. Don’t be shy, you’re surrounded by water
- Then you lie on it, put your drink, bag, etc. right beside you. The water and the reflective material at the bottom reflects sun beams back so you are tanned on both sides! Water vaporizes slowly, cooling the air around you.
- Water level line on all sides prevents the water to spill from the holes. If you give it a nudge, weight of the water swings the body from side to side. It’s like a rocking chair, it’s like a baby cradle, only cooler!

It’s functional, aesthetic, comfortable, desirable.
It’s never been seen before…
It’s from the moon…

Moon Sun Lounger.pdf