WantedDesign's Schools Workshop, initiated in 2012, will take place once again at Industry City, Brooklyn, in the beautiful Camp David co-working studio space, from May 16 to 19 during NYCxDESIGN.

Participating schools include:

ArtCenter College of Design (USA)
CENTRO (Mexico)
École Boulle (France)
École Camondo (France)
Escuela de Comunicación Mónica Herrera (El Salvador)
Pratt Institute (USA)
Tec Monterrey (Mexico

The workshop is intense by nature, and constrained so participating students go from concept to finalized project within just a four day period. The beauty of the workshop is that students will work in creative, collaborative teams. The students coming from all 6 schools will bring fresh perspectives, unique ideas and varied backgrounds.

The 2023 Schools Workshop Theme: Water Matter(s)

This workshop proposes a creative and prospective design reflection based on the value of water in the public space of New York City, renowned for having some of the highest quality water in the country. Today, with global warming and its particularly hot and dry summer seasons, water has become an increasingly precious common good.

- How can we offer free water to everyone within a 5-minute walk?

- How can it be made legible and visible in the public space?

- What would be the <relays> and objects likely to facilitate its use tomorrow?,

will be just a few of the questions addressed by the students during this 4-day workshop.

WantedDesign Schools Workshop's 2022 jury

The final presentation to the Jury, led by Allan Chochinov (School of Visual Arts, Core77) will take place on Friday, May 19, 2.30-4.30pm, at Industry City.

To learn more about this year's workshop, we chatted with the leaders of the 2023 WantedDesign Schools Workshop, École Boulle's Antoine Fermey, Product Design Professor, Alexandre Poisson, Designers and Object Design Professor, and Vincent Rossin, Object Design Professor.

The theme of the 2023 workshop is "Water Matter(s)"; can you further explain the premise of this theme?

Water is considered in this workshop as a creative material (Mater), universal but with singularities according to the cultures of different countries that will be brought by the students of the different schools participating.

It is also considered as a resource that matters, which is too often evoked from a global point of view and little from a hyper local point of view. At the invitation of Wanted Design, this workshop, New York's public water, the schools and partners invited and the students present form a whole that converges and gives students the opportunity to take sides, to be creative and imaginative on the subject of water in New York. This is a contemporary issue that concerns us all.

WantedDesign Schools Workshops' 2022 cohort

What do you think will be the expected results of the student teams? Is there anything in particular that you hope to see?

We don't expect specific results, but the proposed method (cross-cultural team projects, visits to infrastructures in New York, tangible embodiments) invites students to a form of immediacy, generosity and spontaneity in their approach. These can be devices, scenarios, performances, objects, visual content, etc. We are open to multi-media formats that are different, engaged, alive and situated.

 Is there anything you would like to add as the school responsible for the workshop this year?

Yes, Ecole Boulle is very happy to lead the workshop this year and we warmly thank Odile Hainaut and the whole Wanted Design team for this invitation. We would also like to highlight the link between the cities of Paris & New York, attentive to the quality of life of their citizens and the protection of water as a public and shared resource.

The WantedDesign Schools Workshop is presented with Core77 and sponsored by LIXIL Americas.

If you're interested in learning more about the 2023 WantedDesign Schools Workshop, click here (https://www.wanteddesignschoolsworkshop.com/) , and stay tuned for more information about the winners of the workshop in the coming months!