British Council Creative Economy

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2 December 2018

Meet the Southeast Asian makers exploring the future of making

We profile the six makers from Southeast Asia investigating circular design challenges as part of our Circular Futures Lab programme

British Council

Circular Futures Lab is a new programme developed in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to support a more positive and circular future for the making and design sectors globally.

Meet the six makers and designers who have been selected to take part in this week-long programme of workshops around circular design challenges.

Nicholas Sheum, Malaysia

An architecture graduate, Nicholas is currently the Head of Design and Project Manager for Biji-biji Initiative - a social enterprise that champions sustainability in Malaysia through placemaking, alternative energy installations and art installations. He works in close proximity with Me.reka Makerspace to prototype creative solutions as well as leading reading sessions to understand visual culture in relation to the politics of space with CounterCartographies.

Passionate on elevating the public’s perception on a particular subject, he is interested in tackling the global consumption habit of coffee drinking, specifically the ignorance to unseen waste that go off tangent from farms, roasteries and cafes.

Kamonnart Ong, Thailand

Kamonnart is a Bangkok-based fashion and textiles designer, researcher & creative strategist advocating to infuse the sector with sustainability and innovation. Driven by a passion to improve social and environmental issues with design, her practice spans across different sectors, from fashion and textiles, to future living and wellbeing. Her work has been featured on WGSN, Bloomberg London Headquarters, and won London Design Awards 2018. She received an MA in Textiles from Royal College of Art in London, and a BA in Fashion from Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts, Chulalongkorn University, where she is currently a visiting lecturer.

In 2018, she became Fashion Revolution Thailand Country Co-ordinator, and co-founded Moreloop, an online platform that helps industrial garment manufacturers digitise their surplus fabric data, and allow designers and the public to access and utilise these resources with an aim to make circular economy a reality.

Mai Nguyen, Vietnam 

Mai is currently at the helm of INGO, a social venture helping young Vietnamese re-discover their cultural heritage through re-imagined hands-on experiences.

A maker at heart, Mai has actively supported Fablab Saigon - Ho Chi Minh City’s first makerspace to grow from a weekend club to a host of the 4th Fablab Asia Network Conference. Mai holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from National University of Singapore. She enjoys working at the intersection between arts, technology and social innovation, taking inspiration from nature, craftsmanship, indigenous materials and processes to create sustainable developments.

Ignatius Susiadi Wibowo, Indonesia

Ign. Susiadi Wibowo, or known as Adi Wibowo is an architect and community designer who is an enthusiast in using design and materials as mode of production of social and cultural space.

Through his studio, LabTanya which was founded in December 2014, he developed various initiatives in the form of research and experiments involving communities and public, such as No Trash City, Material: Life After Event, Inheritance/Treasure of Our City, and A[Park]ment. For him, design should be inclusive and also an open end process, where the end of one work cycle is the beginning of another. Through this perspective, he believes design has the power to (re-)connect many things: people to people, community to community, people and community to the planet

Irene Agrivina Widyaningrum, Indonesia

Irene Agrivina is a creative technologist and educator. She is founder of all XX Lab female collective and co-founder of The House of Natural Fiber (HONF), a Yogyakarta-based new media art laboratory. Irene runs HONF's 'Education Focus Programme' (EFP), which focuses on collaborative, cross-disciplinary and technological action-responses to social, cultural and environmental challenges

She graduated in Computer Graphics at the Academy of Design Visions in Yogyakarta, and holds a BA in Graphic Design and a Master’s in Cultural Studies.

Carlo Delantar, Philippines

Carlo Delantar is an award-winning social entrepreneur working at the nexus of environmental opportunities and challenges in the Philippines. Co-Founder of Altum, a sustainable manufacturer of furniture and interiors which is built on Circular Economy principles, Carlo collaborates with hotels, retailers and brands to bring designs from concept to form.

Looking at the possible waste his country has, he applies creative entrepreneurship and collaboration to create new designs through circular materials and processes. 

Circular Futures Lab is developed by the Creative Economy and Architecture Design and Fashion teams at the British Council, in collaboration with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.