#BeOpenNEWS #BeOpenART
BE OPEN Regional Art 2026, an initiative by Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN, supports emerging artists whose work reflects regional, cultural, and ethnic identities. From September to December, the competition focuses on artists from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, and Taiwan, with 20 artists featured each month in the BE OPEN Art online gallery. Public voting and the BE OPEN art community select monthly winners, culminating in a €500 Artist of the Region award and a €300 Founder’s Favourite prize.
BE OPEN Regional Art 2026, an initiative by Elena Baturina’s BE OPEN, supports emerging artists whose work reflects regional, cultural, and ethnic identities. From September to December, the competition focuses on artists from Japan, Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macau, Mongolia, and Taiwan, with 20 artists featured each month in the BE OPEN Art online gallery. Public voting and the BE OPEN art community select monthly winners, culminating in a €500 Artist of the Region award and a €300 Founder’s Favourite prize.
#BeOpenDESIGN
Tbilisi-based XYZ Integrated Architecture’s Water Glasses reduces eyewear to lenses and paracord, eliminating conventional frames, hinges, and rigid arms. The design treats the cord as both structural connector and retention system, allowing the lenses to remain attached to the wearer when not in use. Pierced directly through the lenses, the cord and knots become visible elements of the construction, emphasizing material economy and assembly. Available in configurations of one to three lens sets, the project shifts between functional eyewear and wearable sculpture, combining optical precision with a deliberately minimal construction.
Tbilisi-based XYZ Integrated Architecture’s Water Glasses reduces eyewear to lenses and paracord, eliminating conventional frames, hinges, and rigid arms. The design treats the cord as both structural connector and retention system, allowing the lenses to remain attached to the wearer when not in use. Pierced directly through the lenses, the cord and knots become visible elements of the construction, emphasizing material economy and assembly. Available in configurations of one to three lens sets, the project shifts between functional eyewear and wearable sculpture, combining optical precision with a deliberately minimal construction.
#BeOpenNEWS #BeOpenART
BE OPEN Art announces Karolína Amálie Šimková as Artist of the Month for August 2026. The Czech painter’s figurative practice explores emotion, memory, and the complexities of contemporary social experience, using intimate representations and expressive colour to reflect on inner psychological states and the ways people construct, reveal, and conceal their identities. As one of BE OPEN Art’s monthly winners, Šimková will advance to compete for the Artist of the Year 2026 title, with the overall winner receiving a €1,000 prize and promotional support from BE OPEN Art.
BE OPEN Art announces Karolína Amálie Šimková as Artist of the Month for August 2026. The Czech painter’s figurative practice explores emotion, memory, and the complexities of contemporary social experience, using intimate representations and expressive colour to reflect on inner psychological states and the ways people construct, reveal, and conceal their identities. As one of BE OPEN Art’s monthly winners, Šimková will advance to compete for the Artist of the Year 2026 title, with the overall winner receiving a €1,000 prize and promotional support from BE OPEN Art.
#BeOpenARCH
Brette Haus approaches the fold-out cabin as a transportable architectural system rather than simply a rapidly deployable structure. Its cabins use a lightweight cross-laminated timber (CLT) shell and a patented hinge system designed for repeated folding, allowing the compact volume to be transported folded and expanded on site. The design prioritizes structural efficiency and portability, but its architectural proposition extends beyond the unfolding mechanism: transportation weight, site access, foundations, utilities, and local classification all shape how the cabin can actually be deployed. Brette Haus therefore sits between prefabricated architecture and mobile construction, where the folding system is as integral to the building as its material and spatial organization.
Brette Haus approaches the fold-out cabin as a transportable architectural system rather than simply a rapidly deployable structure. Its cabins use a lightweight cross-laminated timber (CLT) shell and a patented hinge system designed for repeated folding, allowing the compact volume to be transported folded and expanded on site. The design prioritizes structural efficiency and portability, but its architectural proposition extends beyond the unfolding mechanism: transportation weight, site access, foundations, utilities, and local classification all shape how the cabin can actually be deployed. Brette Haus therefore sits between prefabricated architecture and mobile construction, where the folding system is as integral to the building as its material and spatial organization.
#BeOpenDESIGN
Portuguese designer João Teixeira’s Burger Sofa explores furniture construction through a deliberately reduced assembly system. Four upholstered cushions form the main volume, while curved wooden elements and leather straps bind the components without screws, adhesives, or conventional hardware. The tensioned strap functions simultaneously as structural connector, restraint, and visual detail, allowing the sofa to be disassembled and potentially reconfigured. Rather than treating modularity as an added mechanism, the design makes the connection system fundamental to the object’s form, material expression, and portability.
Portuguese designer João Teixeira’s Burger Sofa explores furniture construction through a deliberately reduced assembly system. Four upholstered cushions form the main volume, while curved wooden elements and leather straps bind the components without screws, adhesives, or conventional hardware. The tensioned strap functions simultaneously as structural connector, restraint, and visual detail, allowing the sofa to be disassembled and potentially reconfigured. Rather than treating modularity as an added mechanism, the design makes the connection system fundamental to the object’s form, material expression, and portability.
#BeOpenDESIGN
For designer Nicholas Niemen, Stockholm’s existing city fabric is a source of materials rather than waste. Developed with the City of Stockholm through Levande Stockholm, Re transforms salvaged paving stones, concrete wells, and other municipal components into public furniture at Hornstulls Strand. Shaped by the materials’ size, weight, condition, and availability, the robust tables and seating make circular design tangible revealing the traces of previous uses instead of hiding them. More than a furniture project, Re reframes demolition as harvesting and the city as an urban warehouse, suggesting that innovation can begin by looking differently at what is already under our feet.
More urban furniture made from salvaged materials on our blog.
For designer Nicholas Niemen, Stockholm’s existing city fabric is a source of materials rather than waste. Developed with the City of Stockholm through Levande Stockholm, Re transforms salvaged paving stones, concrete wells, and other municipal components into public furniture at Hornstulls Strand. Shaped by the materials’ size, weight, condition, and availability, the robust tables and seating make circular design tangible revealing the traces of previous uses instead of hiding them. More than a furniture project, Re reframes demolition as harvesting and the city as an urban warehouse, suggesting that innovation can begin by looking differently at what is already under our feet.
More urban furniture made from salvaged materials on our blog.
#BeOpenDESIGN
BENTU Design’s Inorganic Growth transforms construction waste from demolished urban villages into 3D printed urban furniture, turning discarded concrete, brick, and mortar into a new generation of sustainable public objects. By combining material recovery, digital fabrication, and localized production, the project creates a closed-loop system where demolition debris becomes a resource. Beyond reducing waste and emissions, the furniture preserves traces of urban environments through layered textures and colors, transforming discarded materials into functional objects that carry the memory of the places they come from.
More urban furniture from waste materials on our blog.
BENTU Design’s Inorganic Growth transforms construction waste from demolished urban villages into 3D printed urban furniture, turning discarded concrete, brick, and mortar into a new generation of sustainable public objects. By combining material recovery, digital fabrication, and localized production, the project creates a closed-loop system where demolition debris becomes a resource. Beyond reducing waste and emissions, the furniture preserves traces of urban environments through layered textures and colors, transforming discarded materials into functional objects that carry the memory of the places they come from.
More urban furniture from waste materials on our blog.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS
The Art Limitless programme within the BE OPEN Art online gallery has announced Joe Mwakiremba based in Kenya as the August 2026 monthly winner, recognising his collaborative art practice that transforms discarded flip-flops into vibrant sculptural works.
Throughout 2026, BE OPEN continues to highlight artists whose work reflects sustainable approaches to artistic practice. Each month, a winning artist is selected and featured in the online gallery, and at the end of the year, three artists will be chosen from the monthly winners by members of the BE OPEN community to receive monetary awards and increased international visibility from the BE OPEN Foundation.
We warmly congratulate Joe Mwakiremba on this achievement.
The Art Limitless programme within the BE OPEN Art online gallery has announced Joe Mwakiremba based in Kenya as the August 2026 monthly winner, recognising his collaborative art practice that transforms discarded flip-flops into vibrant sculptural works.
Throughout 2026, BE OPEN continues to highlight artists whose work reflects sustainable approaches to artistic practice. Each month, a winning artist is selected and featured in the online gallery, and at the end of the year, three artists will be chosen from the monthly winners by members of the BE OPEN community to receive monetary awards and increased international visibility from the BE OPEN Foundation.
We warmly congratulate Joe Mwakiremba on this achievement.
#BeOpenDESIGN
Aifunghi is rethinking sustainable furniture through mycelium, hemp, seaweed and agricultural waste, turning biological materials into playful, tactile pieces designed for everyday use. Its furry chairs and lamps challenge the idea that eco-friendly design must look austere, while a semi-industrial production model aims to make mycelium furniture scalable and accessible. By combining material innovation with bold aesthetics, Aifunghi shows that the future of sustainable furniture can be both responsible and genuinely desirable.
Aifunghi is rethinking sustainable furniture through mycelium, hemp, seaweed and agricultural waste, turning biological materials into playful, tactile pieces designed for everyday use. Its furry chairs and lamps challenge the idea that eco-friendly design must look austere, while a semi-industrial production model aims to make mycelium furniture scalable and accessible. By combining material innovation with bold aesthetics, Aifunghi shows that the future of sustainable furniture can be both responsible and genuinely desirable.
#BeOpenDESIGN
French designer Alexandre Veillon’s Let the Dog Out transforms a 19th-century coffee table into a mechanical animal by replacing its original supports with articulated computer arms, metal joints, chains, and exposed hardware. The project preserves the antique tabletop’s irregular silhouette and aged material character while introducing a contemporary mechanical vocabulary beneath it. The resulting hybrid object occupies the space between furniture, sculpture, and kinetic creature, using reuse not simply as a sustainable strategy but as a way to create tension between historical craftsmanship and industrial technology.
French designer Alexandre Veillon’s Let the Dog Out transforms a 19th-century coffee table into a mechanical animal by replacing its original supports with articulated computer arms, metal joints, chains, and exposed hardware. The project preserves the antique tabletop’s irregular silhouette and aged material character while introducing a contemporary mechanical vocabulary beneath it. The resulting hybrid object occupies the space between furniture, sculpture, and kinetic creature, using reuse not simply as a sustainable strategy but as a way to create tension between historical craftsmanship and industrial technology.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenNEWS
BE OPEN Regional Art’s Central Europe stage, held from May to August 2026, brought together emerging artists from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The €500 Artist of the Region award was presented to Prague-based Marie Bokova, a Ceramics and Porcelain student at UMPRUM whose sculptural practice explores relationships between human history and the natural world. The jury — Michal Novotný of the National Gallery Prague, Branka Bencic of MoMCA Rijeka, and Olga Butinar Čeh of ZDSLU — also selected three artists for honorary mentions: Bogdana Peric Milenkovic from Serbia, Helena Mirich from Croatia, and Lorena Iavorschi from Romania. The competition now moves on to its East Asia stage.
BE OPEN Regional Art’s Central Europe stage, held from May to August 2026, brought together emerging artists from the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The €500 Artist of the Region award was presented to Prague-based Marie Bokova, a Ceramics and Porcelain student at UMPRUM whose sculptural practice explores relationships between human history and the natural world. The jury — Michal Novotný of the National Gallery Prague, Branka Bencic of MoMCA Rijeka, and Olga Butinar Čeh of ZDSLU — also selected three artists for honorary mentions: Bogdana Peric Milenkovic from Serbia, Helena Mirich from Croatia, and Lorena Iavorschi from Romania. The competition now moves on to its East Asia stage.
#BeOpenDESIGN
The Rope Stool explores what happens when conventional furniture hardware is removed from the equation. Designed by Esbjorn Grip and Junsei Fujimoto during a craft exchange between Japan and Sweden, it uses identical Japanese cedar boards held together by rope tension. The construction is deliberately legible: loosen the rope and the stool comes apart; tighten it and the separate boards become a rigid structure. Its folding format also gives the simple construction a practical dimension, allowing the stool to be packed and transported as a flat bundle.
More collapsible furniture on our blog.
The Rope Stool explores what happens when conventional furniture hardware is removed from the equation. Designed by Esbjorn Grip and Junsei Fujimoto during a craft exchange between Japan and Sweden, it uses identical Japanese cedar boards held together by rope tension. The construction is deliberately legible: loosen the rope and the stool comes apart; tighten it and the separate boards become a rigid structure. Its folding format also gives the simple construction a practical dimension, allowing the stool to be packed and transported as a flat bundle.
More collapsible furniture on our blog.
#BeOpenARCH
Munich-based practice Opposite Office's Baumhaus Office turns extreme spatial economy into an architectural experiment: a one-square-metre workspace suspended in one of Weimar's oldest trees. Designed for two to three architects, the tiny office challenges the need for permanent headquarters while reconnecting work with nature, history and a radically different perspective.
More tiny structures with big ideas on our blog.
Munich-based practice Opposite Office's Baumhaus Office turns extreme spatial economy into an architectural experiment: a one-square-metre workspace suspended in one of Weimar's oldest trees. Designed for two to three architects, the tiny office challenges the need for permanent headquarters while reconnecting work with nature, history and a radically different perspective.
More tiny structures with big ideas on our blog.
#BeOpenARCH
Arizona studio I/Thee’s The Dining Room transforms rammed earth into a public gathering space that appears to have been naturally eroded over centuries. Built with locally sourced materials and sculpted using high-pressure water, the pavilion integrates a bright blue picnic table and bench into its earthen walls. As the first of six planned pavilions around Lake Petocka, the project explores how material, time, landscape, and community can become active participants in architecture.
Arizona studio I/Thee’s The Dining Room transforms rammed earth into a public gathering space that appears to have been naturally eroded over centuries. Built with locally sourced materials and sculpted using high-pressure water, the pavilion integrates a bright blue picnic table and bench into its earthen walls. As the first of six planned pavilions around Lake Petocka, the project explores how material, time, landscape, and community can become active participants in architecture.
#BeOpenART #BeOpenDESIGN
Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary artist Abel van Oirschot, who has aphantasia and cannot form mental images, built Birch, a life-size octagonal spacecraft interior entirely by hand in his home garage. Constructed from wood, cardboard, foam, and repurposed electronics, the white, Space Age-inspired set combines clinical geometry with deeply personal objects, from photographs and stickers to a guitar and iPod. The result is less a convincing spacecraft than a portrait of imagination itself: a physical world built without ever being visualized in the mind.
Amsterdam-based multidisciplinary artist Abel van Oirschot, who has aphantasia and cannot form mental images, built Birch, a life-size octagonal spacecraft interior entirely by hand in his home garage. Constructed from wood, cardboard, foam, and repurposed electronics, the white, Space Age-inspired set combines clinical geometry with deeply personal objects, from photographs and stickers to a guitar and iPod. The result is less a convincing spacecraft than a portrait of imagination itself: a physical world built without ever being visualized in the mind.
#BeOpenNEWS #BeOpenART
As the 2026 BE OPEN Regional Art competition wraps up its Central European stage, Elena Baturina selected Prague-based artist Ester Nemjo as her personal choice.
A painter, illustrator and animator, Ester creates dreamlike worlds filled with imaginary creatures and symbolic landscapes. A graduate of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and the School of Decorative Arts in Paris, her work brings a distinctive imaginative voice to contemporary art.
Congratulations, Ester!
As the 2026 BE OPEN Regional Art competition wraps up its Central European stage, Elena Baturina selected Prague-based artist Ester Nemjo as her personal choice.
A painter, illustrator and animator, Ester creates dreamlike worlds filled with imaginary creatures and symbolic landscapes. A graduate of the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague and the School of Decorative Arts in Paris, her work brings a distinctive imaginative voice to contemporary art.
Congratulations, Ester!
#BeOpenDESIGN
TonerBox rethinks the home gym as furniture, packing weights, resistance bands, storage, and a tri-fold workout bench into a compact oak plywood box. With an aluminum-framed bench that opens in seconds and built-in racks for the equipment, the system keeps a full-body workout setup hidden in plain sight. Designed for strength, cardio, flexibility, and mobility training, TonerBox offers a space-saving alternative to bulky home gym machines.
TonerBox rethinks the home gym as furniture, packing weights, resistance bands, storage, and a tri-fold workout bench into a compact oak plywood box. With an aluminum-framed bench that opens in seconds and built-in racks for the equipment, the system keeps a full-body workout setup hidden in plain sight. Designed for strength, cardio, flexibility, and mobility training, TonerBox offers a space-saving alternative to bulky home gym machines.
#BeOpenDESIGN
Stockholm-based artist duo Bigert & Bergström transforms a polluted industrial site in northern Sweden with the Lithium Crystal Sauna, a striking pink, faceted structure inspired by lithium crystals. Combining digital fabrication, mirrored titanium-coated steel and a battery-powered heater, the sauna explores the contradictions of the green transition while creating an intimate space for gathering, reflection and conversation.
More sustainable saunas on our blog.
Stockholm-based artist duo Bigert & Bergström transforms a polluted industrial site in northern Sweden with the Lithium Crystal Sauna, a striking pink, faceted structure inspired by lithium crystals. Combining digital fabrication, mirrored titanium-coated steel and a battery-powered heater, the sauna explores the contradictions of the green transition while creating an intimate space for gathering, reflection and conversation.
More sustainable saunas on our blog.
#BeOpenDESIGN
Nafaskāri by material researcher and designer Vibhuti Amin explores how biotechnology can help preserve endangered craft traditions while creating climate-resilient alternatives to synthetic dyes. Developed with master artisans in Srikalahasti, India, the project introduces pigment-producing soil bacteria into the 3,000-year-old Kalamkari tradition, responding to rising temperatures and water scarcity that threaten botanical dye crops. Its low-tech Nafas Chamber enables artisans to cultivate microbial pigments locally, connecting scientific innovation with heritage knowledge, ecological resilience, and greater autonomy for maker communities.
Nafaskāri by material researcher and designer Vibhuti Amin explores how biotechnology can help preserve endangered craft traditions while creating climate-resilient alternatives to synthetic dyes. Developed with master artisans in Srikalahasti, India, the project introduces pigment-producing soil bacteria into the 3,000-year-old Kalamkari tradition, responding to rising temperatures and water scarcity that threaten botanical dye crops. Its low-tech Nafas Chamber enables artisans to cultivate microbial pigments locally, connecting scientific innovation with heritage knowledge, ecological resilience, and greater autonomy for maker communities.