In Pristina, discarded building materials found a new use as public art, while young designers worked on ideas for greener, more welcoming spaces around the city. Both were part of Pristina Sustainable Design Week (PSDW) festival, which NGO DYVÓ organised with support from the European Union.

The festival is part of its wider work, supported by the EU, which provides DYVÓ’s core funding as part of a shared commitment to protecting the environment, building a sustainable future and giving young people in Kosovo more opportunities to use their creativity and play an active role in society.
The EU also helped establish the shared creative space - DYVÓLAB. It became Kosovo’s first and only accredited Fab Lab officially recognised FabLab - a shared digital fabrication laboratory where people share knowledge and use advanced fabrication tools & machines, to make and test their own designs. DYVÓLAB also provides machinery for working with waste and bio-based materials, giving young people and community members a chance to experiment with what might otherwise be thrown away.

Through the international FabLab network, people and their city administrations can exchange knowledge and experience with similar spaces around the world. DYVÓ also runs the laboratory as a public programme for the Municipality of Pristina, an important partner in its work and in this year's design week.

Held from 31 August to 6 September, the second edition of Pristina Sustainable Design Week explored the theme NEXT FUTURES. It asked a question that runs through much of DYVÓ’s work: how many futures are possible, and are we choosing the best ones for ourselves and the generations to come?

Across four pillars — SENSE, CREATE, ACT and NARRATE — the festival brought together designers, makers, students, institutions, businesses and the public for four thematic conferences, four practical workshops, three exhibitions and other activities. More than 489 people took part, from at least 14 municipalities across Kosovo, alongside regional and international guests.

During PSDW’s three-day Design Marathon, the Municipality of Pristina’s Directorate of Transformation brought six real urban challenges for participants to tackle. One result was a proposal for sustainable urban furniture that could improve local microclimates, extend greenery and create places where people can gather, work or rest.
Another result was dubbed New Beginnings: Re-Circle.

International Artist Francesca Pasquali in collaboration with architecture and engineering students from the University of Pristina, and volunteers from local Interact and Rotaract clubs turned 400 discarded façade panels from a local manufacturer into a permanent public artwork, inaugurated during the festival and donated to the city. The installation gives materials once treated as waste a new purpose in our shared public space, inviting people to think about what they choose to throw away.

This year’s Pristina Sustainable Design Week also marked a tangible step towards a goal that DYVÓ has been working on since 2021 Pristina Mayor Përparim Rama pledged to join the Fab City movement - an international network working towards cities that produce more locally, use resources more responsibly and share knowledge across borders. DYVÓ helped initiate Pristina’s involvement, while the Municipality, its main institutional partner, will be responsible for taking the city’s commitment forward.

Already, during the festival, Pristina welcomed representatives from Fab City Hamburg, Fab City Ljubljana and Hamburg’s New Production Institute, who shared their experiences of local production and sustainable design. Their presence demonstrated that cities do not have to navigate change alone, and that Pristina is fortunate to have such partners by its side.

This year, PSDW brought local creativity together with knowledge from across Europe, public institutions with young innovators, and ambitious ideas closer to practical action. With continued EU support and the festival’s inclusion in the international World Design Weeks network, those connections can grow beyond the festival itself.