Super Local - Using design and creativity for the good for 90% of the world
Holy Crap - waste collection system - Nepal project - Milano design week
Super Local is a design studio that believes in the power to create social equity and human dignity to improve lives, build stronger communities and unlock human potential.
What world would you like to hand over to the next generation without guilt? We got under the skin of Super Local and spoke to both Dutch co-founders Luc van Hoeckel and Pim van Baarsen of how they went from designing high end “crap” for 10% of the world, to uncovering a simple solution that solves social and cultural issues through design for about 90% of the world. Using design and creativity for the good became their personal and professional mantra.
Read more about how Luc and Pim are looking for solutions at local level to get us closer to a circular economy and a simple system that respects people.
1. The world needs to hear about your vision, which has true purpose deeply embedded and touches circular economy to ethical supply chain through to craftsmanship and empowering communities to strive. What and who is Super Local?
Super Local is a design studio that was born from both passion and personal frustration at the same time. As traditional educated designers we found ourselves stuck in designing unique pieces for the happy few. We caught ourselves creating “problems” so we could solve them with a design solution and by doing so, we created the biggest crap and unnecessary products. In the very beginning it was fun and we honestly hoped we would become the next famous star designer. But soon we realised that this work wasn’t satisfying us at all.
On a certain point somewhere in our 3rd year at Design Academy Eindhoven we realised that only 10% of the world population does have the financial capacity for our traditional designs - made in exceptional materials or with outstanding techniques. We got obsessed with the search for the other 90% and got lucky with the opportunity to do research in Nepal and a design project in Malawi. There we learned how to use our creativity in a problem-solving manner and found out that the remaining 90% can be found all around the world. What characterizes this large group is the lack of financial capacity to buy design with a capital D. But like any other human being, they do have the need for insightful solutions and well designed products. And voila: We had found our lifegoal, our north star.
Using our creativity for the good became our personal- and professional mantra. Without really understanding we created our niche in a design market that was saturated with designers and very much focused on unique objects.
Just by diving head first into different projects all around the world, we developed an understanding of the context the 90% is living in and came up with methods to use our creativity to make a difference in the world and real impact on local level.
We never had a proper business plan and developed Super Local basically on the go. Now with the worldwide COVID-19 crisis, we decided to use this time and take a few steps back and reinvent ourselves and our work. The coronavirus pandemic has made us realise there’s many more ways we can use design as a tool to solve social and cultural issues and currently we are, like many others, evaluating what we do and aim to better future proof ourselves and drive scalability.
We think big but always start small on a local level and work together with local communities.
During our studies we struggled with the traditional approach of design and missed the meaning in our work. We are striving to create quality products and services centered around research so it will improve lives. Everything we do comes from our belief in a more just and inclusive world in which everybody has access to well-designed products and insightful solutions.
Iriza Ntako Heritage, dying process of sisal fiber. Bugesera furniture collection designed for the new build Institute for Conservation Agriculture.Commissioned by MASS Design Group – Rwanda. Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
Bugesera furniture collection designed for the new build Rwandan Institute for Conservation Agriculture.Commissioned by MASS Design Group - Rwanda
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
Pendant lights made from up-cycled empty bottles - bottle up foundation on Zanzibar Island.
Photo credits: Jeroen van der Wielen
2. One of the key projects you have shone a light on and help bring to life is The Care Collection in Malawi. Taking waste material and turning it into useful but also incredibly aesthetic hospital equipment, which is now a successful business across the country. Tell us a bit more about how you fuse design with respecting the local culture and craftsmen skills.
We believe that we can make the biggest impact by working as locally as possible and prefer making long-term and life changing impact for a few people rather than moderate and negligible impact for a big group of people.
But first things first. After we get invited by a local organisation, a project starts with extensive research. Who is our local partner, what are the available materials and techniques and what is the target audience? Our aim is to make an impact along the entire process and make sure everything we do is good, clean and fair.
What we basically do is connect the dots: We look for new applications for traditional crafts, local techniques and materials and try to solve a problem by implementing these ingredients in a contemporary way. As designers we know something about designing stuff, our local partner knows everything about local materials and techniques. And that’s where the magic happens! By adding a touch of creativity to the process, new possibilities arise and by working together in an equal way, everybody feels responsible and stakeholder of the end result. Every project is an exchange of knowledge and skills.
Eventually we try to make ourselves unnecessary and hand over the project to our local partner, by making sure the manufacturing and production process is as accessible as possible Since they were involved from the beginning, they feel excited to continue.
Glass polishing. ’Trending Terrazzo' collection that recycles empty bottles at Zanzibar Island. Commissioned by the bottle up foundation – Zanzibar.
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
Shape and recipe studies of glass terrazzo. ’Trending Terrazzo' collection that recycles empty bottles at Zanzibar Island. Commissioned by the bottle up foundation - Zanzibar
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
3. Can you share some experiences with us that you will never forget from your business journey and how they have impacted the communities you have worked with.
MALAWI - One of the first and most memorable projects we took on was in 2012 for the social business Sakaramenta in Malawi, a collaboration with a small but progressive manufacturer. As students we came over to design a collection of playground equipment. We wandered around the local markets until we discovered old car parts at the scrap yards. These parts became the main ingredient for the collection since they are affordable, super strong and widely available. We designed several products and just one month before the end of our internship we were commissioned to design a complete playground for the orthopedic hospital in town. This turned out to be the best possible way to directly implement the freshly designed equipment. Inspired by kids playing in car wrecks on the side of the road, we decided to look for an old ambulance to use as a centerpiece. With a roof rack, climbing rack, vuvuzelas, and fireman pole the wheelchair accessible ambulance in the middle of the playground quickly became a clubhouse for the kids.
Two years after finishing the collection playground equipment, Sakaramenta contacted us to design a second collection: Local made hospital equipment! It turned out that they were selling several playgrounds which allowed them to now budget for and pay us a design fee and compensate our accommodation. The Care Collection became a great success and Sakaramenta sold over 400 pieces in the first year only.
We went back a third time in 2017 to help Sakaramenta upgrade their workshop and improve the existing products where possible.
The fact they were able to hire us two times after having successful product sales which we had helped design shows the power of combining design, purpose and local expertise. It’s a scalable process which can be applied everywhere in the world. The great story behind products like the Care Collection is that Sakaramenta, their employees, the doctors, hospitals, patients and Super Local benefits from the project!
We saw our colleagues improve in their work, grow in their private life and become more prosperous between the first time we worked with Sakaramenta and the last (third) time.
Locally made hospital equipment for the Malawian market. Commissioned by Sakaramenta - Malawi
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
‘Ambulance Playground’ at BEIT CURE orthopaedic hospital in Blantyre Malawi. Collection of low-tech and locally made playground equipment from old car parts.
Commissioned by Sakaramenta – Malawi. Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
NEPAL
Our current collaboration and newest project is with Sagarmatha Next and takes place in the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal. Tourists in Himalaya National Park bring great benefits and generate income for many people. Unfortunately there is a big downside to the growing number of people visiting the area. The small population living in the park doesn’t have a manufacturing industry and is not able to supply enough food for all visitors in addition to their own community. The result is that everything that visitors eat or drink is carried up the mountain by carriers and yaks but due to the cost to remove it, it’s stays there and never leaves the mountain area ever again.
Waste is preciously separated in burnable and non-burnable waste resulting in daily fires in waste pits along the mountain slopes. Just far enough from the tracks to stay undiscovered by the tourists.
We are now working together to tackle this environmental issue with the local waste collection service “Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee” and our local partner Sagarmatha Next, a foundation responsible for big scale cleanups in the Himalaya area including Mount Everest and Basecamp.
Together we developed the highest plastic recycle workshop in the world. Using open source “Precious Plastic” blueprints to build a low-tech injection machine. Plastic collected in the mountain area is brought to the Sagramtaha Next workshop at 4000 meter altitude, shredded to granulate and injected into an aluminum mould. The products will be sold to tourists as souvenirs, giving them the privilege to pay for their own waste!
From some of our other past projects we learned that a few well-designed objects do make an impact and generate awareness, but when executed on a small scale, cannot solve the entire problem. That’s how we came up with a system to motivate tourists to bring (their own) waste back to Kathmandu. Result is a service that provides tourists with 1kg pouched with shredded aluminum or PET plastic. Hikers and expeditions can decide themselves whether or not they want to carry one or multiple pouches back to the plane that will bring them to Kathmandu. Once landed in Nepal’s capital, the hikers leave their pouches at the Sagarmatha Next drop off from where the raw materials can be out into new production straight away.
The pilot of this last concept was a great success and hikers often take several pouches back to Kathmandu. The record is a guy who took back14 pouches of raw materials.
Covid-19 has put the project on hold, but we are currently finalizing the design hope to set up production in Nepal as soon as traveling and long flights are possible again.
Super Local - Design For the Win-Win!
Landfill river side at Bagmati River in Kathmandu. Self commissioned - Nepal
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
Waste pickers looking for valuable recyclable materials. 12 stories high landfill of Kathmandu - Nepal.
Self commissioned – Nepal. Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
4. You work with brands and organizations that understand what it means to impact society in a meaningful way that really positively impacts and changes lives for the long-term. What advice do you give to a business who would like to work with you in the future?
We believe that creativity can be a tool to break barriers, unlock human potential and create a world that’s inclusive and just. Giving everybody access to well-designed products and insightful solutions has the potential to make this world fair and clean.
Collaboration is key and teaming up with like-minded people will create strong concepts. It’s about getting the most out of your own expertise by exchanging knowledge and skills with others. Adding creativity to the table can help to make ideas truly human centered and make products and services that make a real impact in all facets of its process. Think big but start small, and always on a local scale.
If you are willing to invest in a better world and make a positive impact, then you should join forces with us!
Team brainstorming. Project about up-cycling of empty bottles at Zanzibar Island. .
From left to right: Elisabeth van Doorne, Tom van Soest (StoneCycling), Oskar Peet & Sophie Mensen (OS∆OOS), Klaas Kuiken (Studio Klaas Kuiken) and Ward Massa (StoneCycling).
Commissioned by the bottle up foundation - Zanzibar
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
Bugesera woven furniture collection designed for the new build Institute for Conservation Agriculture.
Commissioned by MASS Design Group – Rwanda. Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local
5. Luc and Pim, you are the two co-founders of this inspiring business. But we want to hear more about you personally.
Luc, what is your personal purpose?
My personal and business purposes are identical; building a better world through design.
I believe solutions are always found in the community itself. We often look too far or to other people when it comes to solving problems. It gives satisfaction to solve problems yourself within the community and it makes us happier- and empathetic people.
In Rwanda we saw how one community day a month keeps the streets clean and connects people from different levels of society with each other. People feel responsible for themselves, their surroundings and their community. I think in both my work as well as private life (very intertwined) I’m looking for ways to unlock human potential and create an equal starting line. I believe that people with high potential are born in all levels of society, but for many reasons mostly the higher class eventually becomes “successful” and utilizes their potential. It’s weird that the environment you grew up in, has such a big impact on who you become eventually. I believe that everybody has the ability to become the best version of themselves.
Combining creativity with local available knowledge and skills is one way to add value to a community. Giving a creative workshop to high school kids is another one.
It doesn’t really matter what kind of projects I do, as long as I can collaborate, exchange knowledge and skills and make stuff for the good. Creating that equal relationship- and starting line is always the higher goal!
Pim, what gets you out of bed and is your purpose as an individual?
I believe nature is endless and the perfect circular system. As humans we once started in balance with nature and in harmony with our surroundings. However, driven by personal interests and in our hunger for more, bigger and better we build a world that stands so far away from its origin and nature. I decided to dedicate my life to build a fair and clean world I would like to live in and which can be handed over to the next generation without guilt.
The solution lies in going local. Globalization brought us a lot but also carries risks.
We want constant growth, we want it big and we want it now. The world became inpatient and is always looking for more. Globalisation unlocked new markets and endless possibilities and serves the one with the money in the pocket. However, the real price is paid on the side of the manufacturers and producers. If we would look for solutions and possibilities at local level, we would get closer to a circular economy in which waste and useless doesn’t exist anymore. If we would appreciate the knowledge and skills we have around us, we might come closer to a simple system that respects people.
It’s insane that we accept that many of our products are manufactured in places where people work as modern slaves and the environment is emptied and polluted. The big distance is the reason we can live with this. It’s too far from our bed to make us worry about it.
Things happen too far away, and our hunger for more and cheaper makes us immune and we all see images and videos that proof this issue every day.
Again it’s about scale and location. Things will be different if they were from our direct surroundings. My wish is to add value to local available materials and techniques to show what’s possible when you combine creativity with what’s available in our direct surroundings.
Super Local is a tool to show the world the beauty of a simple solution that solves social and cultural issues.
6. We admire your belief in a just and inclusive world and how you strive for access to good design that changes lives in a sustained way with respect to people and the environment. If we look 5 years ahead, what does success look like for you at Super Local?
Our hope for the future is to continue improving our community involvement and reach. Becoming a bigger studio doesn’t necessarily sound like the answer to greater impact, but becoming better listeners and collaborators definitely does.
The secret to future success might be investing in an even more multidisciplinary approach and collaboration with other platforms to build a strong network of like-minded people.
Growing our team will help in collaborations with larger more global clients, on the other hand staying small will keep us flexible, nimble and enhance the personal approach.
We hope to be able to work with people who dream about a world that’s good, clean and fair. People that want to partner up and work hard to achieve a higher goal that’s beyond personal interest and profit. People that can see that small light in the distance and although we don’t know what the best way will be, are willing to make the step and work for the good.
Sketches and new concepts for up-cycling project of empty bottles at Zanzibar Island.
Commissioned by the bottle up foundation - Zanzibar
Photo credits: Pim van Baarsen - Super Local