Riina O at Estonian Design Days in Mexico

Riina O was invited to participate in Estonian Design Days in Mexico, taking place at Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.

Estonia and Mexico have been finding a new partnership in envisioning a sustainable future through biodesign projects and circular economy initiatives.

The focus of the Design Days was on Biodesign, which offers a deeper collaboration with nature, a shift of vision from the Anthropocene to the Ecocene. Biodesign has been proving to work on a new scenario of connecting formulas, developing life-affirming strategies in an ecology of affection.

The week-long event included a Biodesign exhibition "Material II" featuring works from a number of Estonian designers, students from the Estonian Academy of Arts and a selection of Riina O SCOBY-compo handbags from the "Crafting Organic Waste for Fashion" collection.

Visiting designers were running a number of workshops for the university students, from biorobotics to upcycling and mending fashion.

Riina offered a workshop called "Design for the non-human audience", expanding the design focus to the needs of other species living with us on this planet and making biomaterials from the food waste. The workshop was very well received and will most certainly be repeated in the future.

Students came up with a number of structures for different species, ranging from stray cats living on the university premises, to bird shelters and constructions for spiders and other bugs. The workshop utilised organic waste found outdoors by the university and experimented with various biocomposite materials making sure the installations would be safe to decompose in the nature, nourishing the ground in the process.