2016

GREEN CYCLES: CREATIVE INDUSTRIES EAST AND WEST GO SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

In 2016 for the first time in Bangkok, the Goethe-Institut was organizing a symposium in cooperation with HAW Hamburg, which asked for innovative ideas and solutions for the sustainable production of textiles. 

On May 11 and 12, students, teachers, designers, start-up entrepreneurs, as well as an interested public were invited to this platform at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre to exchange ideas with experts, get inspired and build a network to not only discuss the topic, but rather to explore how to translate ideas into action. Experts, professionals and representatives of the textile business community from Germany and Southeast Asia, such as Rolf Heimann, Prof. Renate Brink, Prof. Dorothea Wenzel and Wong Pui Yi were meeting in Bangkok to share their concepts, experiences and visions of creativity and sustainability in the textile cycle.

The symposium was divided into three sections: In its first section, the symposium was dealing with aspects of technology and management in the area of materials and clothing. The second section looked at local business options for community crafts. In the third section, four case studies from Thailand, Germany and Vietnam presented their solutions as sustainable CSR business models.

At the same time GREEN CYCLES was the opening event of the regional textile project “IKAT/ eCUT – Textiles in Tradition, Technology, Art and Design” hosted by the Goethe-Institutes of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand in 2016/2017. This project explored the role and function of textiles in tradition and future.