from food waste to fashion, next gen design 2025 competition winners redesign tomorrow

A NEW WAVE OF YOUTH-LED INNOVATION REDESIGNs TOMORROW, TODAY

What Design Can Do, together with four other leading European design festivals, proudly announces 50 winning projects of the Next Gen Design 2025 competition. Themed ‘Redesign Tomorrow, Today,’ the competition’s selected works represent a powerful wave of young creative minds stepping up to design a better future, showcasing a strong trend toward circular systems, community empowerment, and regenerative practices. From fungi-based pigments, upcycled fashion collectives, and ingenious food waste solutions to modular furniture systems and bioacoustic sensing devices, these youth-led initiatives offer tangible visions for a more sustainable and equitable tomorrow amid Europe’s pressing challenges.

all images courtesy of What Design Can Do

WHAT DESIGN CAN DO DRIVES EUROPEAN COOPERATION

The Next Gen Design 2025 competition marks its milestone in a three-year initiative by Mikser Festival, What Design Can Do (WDCD), designaustria, Barcelona Design Week, and Skopje Design Week. This collaborative effort, supported by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Commission, exemplifies a new model of European cooperation – decentralized, inclusive, and fundamentally youth-driven. 

Launched in 2024, the open call to the competition attracted over 200 applications from talented designers aged 18–35 across 29 countries, culminating in the selection of these 50 standout projects for their ingenuity, visionary approach, and potential for systemic change. An international jury of design professionals and cultural leaders, including designboom co-founder Birgit Lohmann, selected the winning concepts, focusing on circularity, feasibility, creativity, and social impact.

a selection of 50 standout projects exemplify the potential for systemic change

SHOWCASING NEXT GEN DESIGN 2025 WINNERS

The journey for these young innovators is just beginning. Each of the 50 selected designers has the opportunity to participate in the exclusive Next Gen Design residency program, hosted by the five partner organizations. As part of this program, which provides invaluable professional mentorship and unparalleled networking opportunities, the best residency project at each festival will be honored with the prestigious Next Gen Design Residency Award, accompanied by a monetary prize of €2000. Beyond that, all 50 winning projects gain significant visibility through the Next Gen Design traveling exhibition. This showcase tours major design events across Europe – from Belgrade to Amsterdam, Vienna to Barcelona, and Skopje – throughout 2025 and 2026. 

The exhibition serves as a powerful platform, bringing the winner’s solutions to a broader audience and inspiring further dialogue and action, proving that design can be more than aesthetics – it’s an instrument of solidarity, systems change, and ecological regeneration. To give you a glimpse into the work being recognized, we’re highlighting 12 selected projects from the Next Gen Design 2025 winners that offer a compelling look at design’s transformative potential. 

To view the full list of winners and learn more about the initiative, visit nextgendesign.eu.

Tarnur – Multifunctional Set by Emina Murtezić

Tarnur is a modular system designed for toddlers that adapts to their changing needs, ensuring long-term use, sustainability, and flexibility through a multifunctional and user-driven design philosophy.

designer: Emina Murtezić

country: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Edible Okara spoons reduce plastic waste and sugar intake by upcycling soy byproducts into flavorful, compostable utensils that enhance the taste of unsweetened foods — merging sustainability with healthier eating habits in one simple innovation.

designer: Jan-Elias Kronberger

country: Austria

Amber Grain Embroidery: growing folklore elements by Barbara Rakovská

Amber Grain Embroidery explores the intersection of bio-design, folklore, growing textiles from roots, waste wool, and digital fabrication to create sustainable, tradition-inspired garments that challenge conventional materiality and celebrate nature’s invisible craftsmanship.

designer: Barbara Rakovská

country: Czech Republic

Fabulous Fungi pioneers sustainable textile dyeing with fungi-based pigments, eliminating toxic chemicals and water waste while promoting circular fashion. The innovative bio-based approach redefines color in fashion, fostering a regenerative and eco-conscious future.

designer: Ilse Kremer

country: The Netherlands

Ruhsack by Florian Steidl

The beanbag Ruhsack combines social and ecological requirements through the self-empowerment and support of young people left behind, who independently produce a versatile seat cushion from discarded and recycled textiles in an artisanal process.

designer: Florian Steidl

country: Austria

Focused on circular economy practices, KTR transforms cable trays into a modular shelving system, advocating reuse, reducing waste, and driving systemic change in the construction industry.

designer: Jasmin Bermadinger

country: Austria

Bias-Unbias by Federica Breedveld Bortolozzo

Bias-Unbia’ is a collection of five interactive furniture pieces that challenge gender inequalities, inviting people to question societal norms through playful engagement and design.

designer: Federica Breedveld Bortolozzo

country: Italy

Solo is a user-centered, fully personalized bike helmet produced using additive SLS 3D printing and a parametric design approach.

designer: Nils Sorger

country: Germany

Handrail Series by Kerstin Pfleger and Peter Paulhart

The Handrail Series transforms industrial stainless steel components into sculptural design objects, showcasing how rethinking purpose — not material — can lead to new forms without requiring new resources or manufacturing.

designer: Kerstin Pfleger, Peter Paulhart

country: Austria

Environmental protection needs reliable data, especially in remote areas that are difficult to access. The bioacoustic sensing device SONO enables cooperation between science and volunteering in the collection of environmental and biodiversity data.

designer: Konstantin Diehl

country: Germany

The Green Book of Plovdiv by Nadezhda Karidova, Mihaela Angelova, Pavel Pavlov and Sofia Petrova

A playful, illustrated book of 52 weekly eco-challenges that reconnects citizens with their city and nature, inspiring a greener, more sustainable urban lifestyle through creativity, curiosity, and community action.  

designer: Nadezhda Karidova, Mihaela Angelova, Pavel Pavlov and Sofia Petrova

country: Bulgaria

A frugal cleaning kit for reusable menstrual pads washed with 500-700 ml of water through buoyancy force. The complete set, made with polypropylene plastic and bamboo fabric pads, costs around £3-5.

designer: Cheuk Laam Wong and Margaret Wu

country: UK

project info:

name: Next Gen Design 2025: Redesign Tomorrow, Today
organizers: What Design Can Do | @whatdesigncando; Mikser Festival | @mikserbalkan; designaustria | @designaustria; Barcelona Design Week | @barcelonadesignweek; Skopje Design Week | @skopjedesignweek