About Creative Changemakers

We understand creativity and design as a fundamental problem-solving activity. Problems are multi-faceted, with different elements interdependent of each other. Therefore approaches to solutions have to be multi-faceted as well.

Creative Changemakes is the space where inspiration happens. It brings fresh viewpoints and imagination to the engagement in order to co-create, to share ideas and to create solutions.

At Creative Changemakers, ideas meet to shape new perspectives.

“Most companies are long on accountants and short on artists”
-Gary Hamel

What we do

We bring specialists of different disciplines together to work in collaborative teams on real-world problems and challenges and inspire them to let their thinking and creative processes cross-pollinate.

Innovation programs

We help you to identify areas of opportunity and to turn them into transformative products, services and business models.

Workshops

We offer a range of workshop formats based on the Creative Changemakers Method to innovate, prototype, test and implement.

Product and Service Development

A product or service is never a solo player. It exists in a larger system, including the semantics of its brand, its visual language, the experience it conveys, in a communication space where many compete. We help you to see new opportunities and to lay out possibilities for future development.

How it started

History

The idea for Creative Changemakers started back in 2008 in Doha, when a group of global designers, architects, city planners and engineers gathered to work on the development of ideas, blueprints and guidelines for a fully sustainable, energy-independent community in desert climates.

Future City

FUTURE CITY is a new project to exemplify the philosophy of the Creative Changemakers initiative. It brings together creative people representing different disciplines to create awareness and to offer possible solutions for the issues urban centers will face in the future.

“What surrounds you, what is at your disposal, what affects your mental well-being; the way you go from point A to point B – all these factors change the quality of your life.”
- Arturo Soto

In the not too distant future, how will we get from home to work? How will we dress and express ourselves? How will we nourish ourselves? In fashion, we have to move from conspicuous consumption to conscious clothing. In food, we have to offer new modes for sustainable, yet enjoyable nourishment. In transportation, our mode of thinking has to change from ownership to usership.

The fashion industry is not only influential in affecting our behavior, attitudes, and the way we interact with others. It is currently also the world's second largest polluter after the oil industry. We need a new vision for the fashion industry. Fashion artist Noki is a pioneer in sustainable fashion upcycling, making his creations exclusively from textiles which had been thrown away and which otherwise would end up in landfills.

Food is the number one external factor for our health and well-being. Artist Kristiane Kegelmann works with organic ingredients in the public space, inviting participants to interact with her sculptures in order to create awareness on sustainable food and nourishment.

In 2030, there will be 49 megacities with a population of over 10 million each. By 2050, there will be 9.8 billion people on the planet, and 2 out of 3 will live in cities. Current modes of transport with predominantly fossil-fuel driven private cars are unsustainable and will not be able to process the increased transportation requirements of the future. Architect Dr. Sachin Anshuman from Arup will make a case for seamlessly integrated, flexible and ecological public transport.

Designer Mario Gagliardi will present a design study for sustainable autonomous transport. If 50% of surface transport in the US would be autonomous, each year there would be 1.9 million less car crashes and 9.600 lives would be saved. Current private cars are used only 5% of their time; one shared autonomous pod could replace 10 private fossil-fuel driven vehicles.

Future City: Future in progress

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Future city: Overview

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Process

Gathering

Depending on the aim of the project, we bring specialists of different disciplines together.

Co-creation

Working in cross-disciplinary collaborative teams with a systemic viewpoint, we develop a solution space.

Presentation

We present the results of the co-creation: research findings, approaches, ideas, and solution proposals.

Implementation

We help to make insights into catalysts to drive positive change.

Workshops

Workshops to shape new perspectives and to make change happen.

Design Futures Workshop

Lifestyles are changing fast, with wide-reaching consequences for your products and services. With design futures (speculative design) we build insights into possible futures to inspire different thinking.

Problem Solving Workshop

A problem is always more than just one problem - it is connected to a multitude of factors which make up a problem space. In this workshop, we work to expand your solution space.

Business Design Workshop

How to design the internal conditions and drivers that enable innovation and transformation? How to design aspects of your organizational culture, roles, responsibilities, structures and reward systems? In this workshop, we work with you to build a solution space to inspire organisational innovation.