Who are you?
Marloes van Bennekom and Isis Boot are two design graduates (2011) that together took the initiative for BUUR. The idea for the label ánd the coöperation finds its roots in a school project during our studies at the Design Academy Eindhoven, where both of us took classes at the department of Man and Public Space. Here we developed an interest in the tension between the large scale of the public field and the small scale of the experience. This shared fascination also has been an important starting point of the ideas that BUUR is based on.

What is your vision?
BUUR wants to make the abstract idea of biodiversity tangible by drawing it closer to people and giving it a place in our daily lives. BUUR focuses on the experience of flora and fauna and, in this way, seeks to improve the involvement and interest of citizens and to provide an insight on the system of nature, since getting to know nature means starting to care about it. Therefore BUUR operates mainly on a small, personal and direct scale.

To support biodiversity, one of BUUR's aims is to sustain and improve green infrastructure in urban areas, making it easier for nature to infiltrate into cities and to blend with urban human life. BUUR wants to (re)connect the open ends of green networks in urban landscape; to re-use natural solutions for improvement of existing products and processes and to enrich the cycles of urban nature.

What is your biggest achievement?
BUUR is now exploring the practice of the independent designership and we are fond to have accepted this challenge together. We are curious, positive, venturous and enthousiastic, which we consider to be the most relevant qualities we need for the future.  

What challenges does the designworld face?
Idealism can not be the (only) base for innovation. Products, plans and initiatives should be appealing in their own right, because they are aesthetical, practical and enjoyable to the users, as it is necassery to create a widespread support and a broad audience to enlarge the effects of an innovative product or concept. Sustaining biodiversity is more than a good deed, it enriches our lives. It is a task of designers to convince the world of this message with their creativity.

What will you do if you win the green design competitions?
Winning the Green Design Competition would be the opportunity for BUUR to launch itself as a label and take it's first concept into production. We cherished this idea since our studies and, after graduation, we took the challenge of this competition as an extra stimulant to bring our idea's into practice. Whith this project we founded a label which intends to develop products, projects and actions that adress both flora, fauna and human beings and bring those together where they can support each other and increase each other's well-being. The products should be appealing in their own right, because they are aesthetical, practical and enjoyable. Winning this competition would mean the first step for BUUR and hopefully opens doors for the other idea's that we have whithin this concept.