Founded in 2010, the global workplace-design firm Unispace has completed some 6,000 offices for such clients as Biogen, Microsoft, and PayPal, while simultaneously giving back to the community through pro-bono projects. In 2022, Unispace’s DEIB team formalized its CSR efforts with Art for Impact, focusing on initiatives that address climate change, social inequality, and economic development.
One such homes in on Nicaragua, specifically Las Tejedoras, a women’s collective located in El Astillero that weaves tapestries from the plastic bags that litter the Playa Chacocente shoreline and harm sea turtles and other local marine life. Recently, Unispace interior designers across Europe have conceived some 30 patterns, which, through a partnership with Nicaraguan NGO Casa Congo, Las Tejedoras, Spanish for the weavers, has handmade into coverings for floors and walls from more than 50,000 found plastic bags, which are first washed, shredded, and sorted by color before being transformed into regenerative furnishings. The pieces then go on to get purchased by and installed in the workspaces of Unispace or like-minded clients—with half the profits going to Las Tejedoras. The floor-to-ceiling, black-and-white tapestry, for example, graces Unispace’s Zurich studio; the green-blue rug lays in a lounge at Zoom London. As Las Tejedoras proclaim: “¡Una bolsa menos, una tortuga más!” casacongo.org; unispace.com
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
Photography by Maria Del Rocio Ituarte/Courtesy Of Casa Congo.
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
Photography by Oliver Pohlmann/Courtesy Of Unispace.
- Lisa Di Venuta