CHALLENGE 1: BACK TO THE FUTURE: CRAFTING OBJECTS FOR A NOMADIC WORLD

International Mentor: Anna Resei, Product and Textile Designer (Germany, Austria)
Rog mentors: Uroš Topić (Textile lab) and Gregor Stražar (Metal Lab)
Labs: Textile Lab, Metal Lab, FabLab

Challenge Description:
In an era marked by climate instability and displacement, the way we inhabit space is rapidly evolving. More people are living on the move—whether by necessity or choice—reshaping our understanding of home, shelter, and belonging. Designers are therefore challenged not only to solve problems but to anticipate new relationships between materials, humans, and the planet.

This challenge invites you to design for a nomadic life in a world in flux.

How can objects adapt to multiple environments—indoor and outdoor, private and public, fixed and mobile? How can design respond to the needs of travellers, nomads, or anyone transitioning between spaces?

Challenge Objectives:
Design a multifunctional object that serves at least two purposes—such as spatial, bodily, social, or symbolic. The object should be portable and adaptable, blurring the boundaries between furniture, tool, garment, or shelter. Incorporate both metal and textile in unexpected ways to challenge conventional material roles and explore new relationships between them.

Materials: Selection of metal and textile waste/leftovers

CHALLENGE 2: HYBRID CONSTRUCTIONS: COLUMNS AS LIFE SUPPORT

International Mentor: Igor Siddiqui, Architect (USA, Croatia)
Rog mentors: Jaka Oman (Wood Lab) and Maruša Ramšak (Green lab)
Labs: Wood Lab, Green Lab, Metal Lab

Challenge Description:
With natural resources dwindling and waste multiplying, traditional material categories—like natural/artificial or temporary/permanent—no longer suffice. Architecture must evolve by reimagining materials as layered, hybrid systems that respond to environmental challenges. This challenge focuses on the architectural column, an element rich in both function and meaning throughout the history of architecture, from structure to representation.

Inspired by diverse references—from engineered wood to natural structures like ant towers—you will explore new material combinations through hands-on, full-scale experimentation. The goal is to create innovative column prototypes, inviting you to rethink it as a hybrid form that supports both structure and life.

Challenge Objectives:
Design and build a self-supporting, full-scale column at least as tall as you. Your design should blend materials and functions, expressing hybridity in form and meaning. Finished columns will be displayed together to explore their spatial and environmental impact.

Materials: Scrap wood, metal, found materials, mycelium blocks, plants, insects, bacteria

CHALLENGE 3: BIO FABRICATION: FROM WASTE TO WONDER

International Mentor: Virginia San Fratello, Architect (USA)
Rog mentors: Tauan Bernardo (FabLab) and Tomo Per (FabLab)
Labs: FabLab, Green Lab, Ceramic Lab

Challenge Description:
Every year, over 1 billion tons of food go to waste—nearly a fifth of all available food. But what if yesterday’s leftovers could power tomorrow’s innovations? This challenge flips the script on waste by transforming kitchen scraps into biodegradable products through 3D printing.

We’ll explore the untapped potential of food waste as a manufacturing material, using both direct printing and mold-based methods. Blending design, material science, and sustainability, this interdisciplinary challenge is meant for anyone excited about turning trash into treasure. Participants will develop functional, eco-friendly products that reduce pollution, support a circular economy, and lower our environmental footprint.

Challenge Objectives:
Design and fabricate a functional domestic object using provided materials—dehydrated and pulverized food waste. Your creation should demonstrate innovation, sustainability, and practical everyday use.

Materials: Dehydrated and pulverised recycled food waste

CHALLENGE 4: MODULAR INTERVENTIONS: CRAFTING URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE

International Mentor: Alberto Gianfreda, Sculptor (Italy)
Rog mentors: Brigita Gantar (Ceramic Lab) and Metka Mikuletić (Jewelry Lab)
Labs: Ceramic Lab, Glass Lab, Jewelry Lab

Challenge Description:

As cities become more uniformed and industrialised, handmade materials and unique designs can help bring back a sense of identity and community. Ceramics—solid, earthy, yet fragile—and metal—strong, flexible, and instrumental—together offer the potential to create urban furniture that transcends mere function, inviting social rituals, imagination, and play.

This challenge invites you to rethink public space and explore how everyday urban elements—such as benches, trash bins, stands, drinking fountains, or street lighting—can become something more: tools for connection, sources of inspiration, or even monuments to local identity. How can materials and form express belonging, and help shape community spaces that resist uniformity?

Challenge Objectives:

Design a piece of modular urban furniture (e.g., bench, table, stand, trash bin, drinking fountain, street lighting) that integrates ceramic and metalworking techniques. Your piece should go beyond standard utility to carry symbolic, cultural, or sensory meaning. Aim to create an object that becomes a gathering point, a playground for the imagination, or a quiet invitation to pause and reflect within the rhythms of everyday urban life.

Materials: using discarded ceramic pieces (cracked plates, mugs, tiles) and waste metal (copper, brass, wire)

CHALLENGE 5: OBJECTS OF CARE: DESIGNING FOR SOLIDARITY

International Mentor: Annelys de Vet, Designer (Netherlands, Belgium)
Rog mentors: Nuša Jurkovič (FabLab), Vita Ivičič (Textile lab)
Labs: FabLab, Textile lab, Wood Lab

Challenge Description:
In a time of growing global inequality, environmental collapse, and social fragmentation, how can design cultivate solidarity, care, and resistance? This challenge draws inspiration from Disarming Design from Palestine, a platform co-founded by Annelys de Vet, which uses thought-provoking design as a tool for social justice and cultural expression.

Participants are invited to explore design as a political act—developing everyday objects that speak to shared struggles, mutual support, and alternative forms of value. Think, for example, of the pillowcase that protects your dreams (Poetic Nights), the baby blanket that sings silenced songs (Lullaby), the alternative chess set (Watchtowers and Watertanks Game), or the brush that erases checkpoints (Checkpoint Brush).

This challenge invites collaborative work and critical questioning of the politics behind everyday objects: Where do the materials come from? Who makes them—and under what conditions? Who benefits? What stories do they tell—and how do they shape us in return?

Challenge Objectives:
The objective is to explore how everyday objects can act as conversation starters, disarm or provoke, serve as calls to action, offer gestures of mutual aid, or disrupt established norms. Participants are encouraged to think beyond individual contributions and consider how their work can form a collective narrative—where the collection becomes more than the sum of its parts.

The ultimate goal is to create thoughtful, well-crafted objects that challenge dominant systems, carry critical stories, and serve as tools for solidarity, resistance, and empowerment.

Materials: Found materials, textile, thread, wood, 3D printing and love