February 2024, Year XVI, n. 2
One Army
An Army of People
“Pollution, emissions, waste, deforestation and many more. These are massive global problems, big and interconnected issues. However, these problems are created by humans and we think humans can fix them. This will require many hands and brains. Many people. Like... an army of people.”
Telos: Why One Army?
One Army: We know, we know... it sounds a little scary. One Army. But we’re actually nice and peaceful people. A friendly army, protecting planet earth. As, you might have noticed we, as a civilisation, are kind of screwing things at a planetary scale. One Army is a group of people from around the world working on global problems affecting the planet and humanity. We are born in a world full of big problems. Pollution, emissions, waste, deforestation and many more. These are massive global problems, big and interconnected issues. However, these problems are created by humans and we think humans can fix them. This will require many hands and brains. Many people. Like... an army of people.
Yes, we believe they are fixable, but we need One Army to tackle them. To secure a liveable planet for the next generations we are focusing on two areas: the first one we called Better tools, since we believe that there is a big need to rethink, redesign and improve our tools and technologies. The second, named New culture, where we aim to find a new way of living in balance with planet earth. Small changes from millions of people that can contribute to fixing or preventing such global problems. Rethinking our habits and inspiring others.
In a nutshell, One Army is a global movement of peaceful sapiens dedicating their lives to serve and protect planet earth.
Where did it all start?
December 4, 2020 was a big day for us. A new chapter we had been working on for some years to set the foundation for the future of all our projects. David Hakkens, who we may define as One Army founder, closed his website, with a shocking video. He said “I’ve started this website 13 years ago, as a student. It has grown into an important place on the web for our projects. We shared our updates, showcased our work, run forums and had over 70.000 people signed up for our community. But it’s time to move forward, time to restructure and prepare ourselves for the future.” Dave Hakkens is the absolute pioneer of free and accessible design. Dutch, 36 years old, industrial designer, Hakkens belongs to that generation of designers, who wanted to strongly believe that they could try to solve environmental issues starting from the design. And, as a forerunner, he has relied on the speed of the web to engage a growing number of activists, willing to help him grow his projects through forms of participatory design that have involved not only designers, but also makers, engineers, communicators, graphic designers, and small local production companies. Hakkens believes that design, to impact society, simply needs a fairly large critical mass. For this reason, he created US, or better say IT, a project community which is much more than a design studio: it is an army of militants open to all those who want to unite to spread alternatives to current thinking on a large scale, and change (for the better).
What about your current New Culture projects?
Project Kamp, prototyping a new way of life that is in balance with planet earth, is one of our flag projects. It started in 2018, trying to tackle the problem of sustainable living. By simply living like the average Joe in the developed world, we generate a massive footprint on earth. Just by living in this system we cause extraordinary stress to the planet. And the more developed nations become, the more resources and infrastructure a person consume.
We decided to find another way to live, one that is more in harmony with our environment. There is a lot to figure out: what building material we use for houses, how do we store energy, what's the best thing to eat for breakfast and much more. Prototyping a new way of living on planet earth working on regenerative land management, sustainable building, permaculture, water retention systems, renewable energy, how to peacefully live together and more. It all started in an abandoned farm near Coimbra, in Portugal, as “experimental laboratory that can serve as a model for anyone who wants to recreate it elsewhere.” We have now reached 10 hectares of land and 500K+ subscribers on Youtube.
Fashion is one of the pillars of the Italian economy. An industry that, despite all the efforts made, continues to be accused of not being environmentally sustainable. Does One Army also deal with fashion?
Of course we do, and always in our somewhat radical way. Fashion industry is one of the greatest polluters on the planet, depleting water sources, indeed. Our project, Fixing Fashion, tries to tackle the various problems of that Industry. We started with a simple question: what kind of fashion does the world need right now? And the answer was: we don’t need anything new. There are enough clothes and material out there for decades to come. We need to get resourceful again. Fixing Fashion is a clothing brand. But unlike all the others, we don’t want to sell anything. The opposite. We provide knowledge on how to fix, repair, resize and upgrade. Trying to help you keep people’s clothes longer. We created our Inspirational Collection that tries to set a new standard of what a new fashion could look like. And we are building a community of people around the world following this ethos. Proudly Fixing Fashion. Together.
Marco Sonsini
Editorial
You won’t find them on social media because “This doesn’t seem like a healthy mechanism. We have a newsletter that will be sent out every three months with major updates. Four times a year. No spam, not pulling your attention. Just solid information.”
Our guest, or rather guests (?), in this February issue of PRIMOPIANOSCALAc is One Army, a project community that is far more than just a design studio. It is an army of militants open to anybody who wants to help spread alternatives to the current thinking on a large scale, or rather, change society for the better.
He may have decided to ‘commit suicide’ to assert his anti-individualist stance, but there is no denying that behind, around, above and below One Army is David Hakkens, pioneering a concept of design that is free and open to all. He invented Precious Plastic, the largest open-source recycling project in the world, a participatory design community to combat plastic waste with over 500 recycling stations in over 100 countries worldwide. For example, in Italy there is one in Salento, where plastic is artistically recycled, and Rome, where bottle caps are used to make street furniture, and in Tuscany, Liguria, Friuli, Trentino, Emilia-Romagna, Umbria and Marche.
His allergy to all things digital begins with social media, because first Hakkens, then now One Army, has exploited internet speed to grow their projects through participatory design. He hasn’t just co-opted designers, he has also co-opted small production companies, makers, engineers, communicators and graphic designers as well.
One Army is based on the idea of anti-individualism. They ironically, yet sharply, criticise the cult of personality that typically surrounds auteur designers. Hakkens believes he is just one of many who contribute to the success of their projects, to the point that, in the December 2020 video, that One Army mentions our interview, “GOODBYE Dave Hakkens”, he decides to ‘kill’ davehakkens.com “to give space and visibility to the entire army of all those who work with me on my projects (…) because it is not healthy for a designer to be an individual at the center of his professional strategy.” This live suicide gave rise to One Army. One all-but-insignificant detail is its domain extension. It isn’t the usual “.design”, but rather “.earth”, stressing that One Army is a community, not an individual. Since 2020 One Army has continued to regularly launch new projects. In addition to the projects mentioned in the interview, there is also Story Hopper, for example, a video series “that shares useful information or ways how to change our habits and worldview.” The videos are all really funny, and educational. I suggest watching the one on sustainable travel, or on how to eat without spending a cent, but the most topical video is undoubtedly ‘The Fuel for Electric Cars’ where Hakkens shows his visit to a lithium mine in Chile…
All One Army’s projects are based on a pragmatic vision of the designer’s role in society: to identify practical solutions that can quickly become operational all over the world. This has been Hakkens’ only goal since he received the Social Design Talent award in 2013 for his plastic recycling machines, then immediately offered to donate the cash prize to anyone who could help him improve his idea.
The 2024 PRIMOPIANOSCALAc cover series inspired by the works of Romano Gazzera continues in this issue. Gazzera was a painter from the Piedmont known for his ‘giant’, ‘talking’, ‘flying’ flowers which, along with other iconographic themes connected to historical and collective memory, characterised and distinguished him as the leader of the Italian Neo-floral school.
Our covers won’t be only static, they’ll even have a more dynamic version. Just wait for us to launch it on social media. It’s a shame One Army won’t see it! We have chosen a rare flower for them that is at risk of going extinct due to the progressive destruction of its natural habitat: Jade Vine, with clusters of bright turquoise, claw-shaped flowers.
Originally from the Philippine rainforests, it is also known as the emerald vine, famous worldwide for its spectacular cascading flowers. They are difficult to grow in captivity because their natural pollinators are bats.
Mariella Palazzolo
One Army is a group of people from around the world working on global problems affecting the planet and humanity. Problems like plastic pollution, the growing amount of e-waste, fashion or the footprints we leave on earth by just living our lives.
Thousands of people work on One Army projects around the world. A foundation was set up to provide a safe and efficient place for development of new projects. Therefore, new projects don’t have to setup practical stuff like a new legal entity, bookkeeping system etc. One Army foundation will hold the infrastructure to make this happen.
Its motto is: Together we are One Army.
One Army is 4 years old, created by Dave Hakkens, lives everywhere and is growing at the speed of light!
Marco Sonsini
SocialTelos