Prishtina Sustainable Design Week

Prishtina Sustainable Design Week is back for a second edition, 31 August to 6 September, on the theme NEXT FUTURES. Seven days of conferences, workshops, exhibitions and public art, free throughout. It is run by DYVÓ, a design platform based in the city. The first edition drew more than four hundred people last autumn. This one is longer and reaches further.

The four conferences are the spine of the week. Each runs 19:00 to 21:00, with no ticket and no registration. Clear your evening for the opening night on 31 August at the Faculty of Civil Engineering. That is where Prishtina announces its intention to join the global Fab City network, alongside the opening of Kosovo's first FabLab. Renata Zamida travels in from Ljubljana and Francesca Weber-Newth from Fab City Hamburg. Nora Cimili speaks for the municipality. The other three evenings run at Kino Armata on 2, 3 and 4 September. They take on artificial intelligence, the ecology of materials, then fashion and the body.

The workshops are where the week gets its hands dirty. Places are free but capped, and you have to apply. Anyone over 18 is eligible. The design marathon runs 3 to 5 September at DYVÓLAB. Biomaterials and textile upcycling take 4 and 5 September, and the fungi lab the 5th. All three are at the PSDW Creative Island, in the old Hivzi Sylejmani library. Applications close on 25 August. The eco quiz takes entries until the 27th.

The neatest thing here is that the mentors and the speakers are the same people. Ilse Kremer talks about the ecology of materials at Kino Armata on 3 September, then runs the fungi lab two days later. Valerio Perna speaks on the 2nd and mentors the marathon. Three exhibitions thread through the week. It closes on 6 September with an open studio and final show at the Creative Island, from 13:00. One piece is still to be pinned down: New Beginnings, billed as Prishtina's first permanent upcycled public artwork. Its location has not been announced.