Maker Change

Maker Change is a community activation project transforming urban disconnection from nature into opportunities for engagement, regeneration, and action. The project introduces open-source public tree sculptures made from sustainable materials to serve as collective action hubs. These tree-shaped structures hold action cards offering accessible sustainability challenges, wellbeing activities, circular living tips, and ancestral knowledge rooted in nature-based solutions, empowering communities to adopt fun and sustainable behaviours.

Why? Because cities are responsible for over 75% of natural resource use and up to 80% of greenhouse gas emissions, yet many citizens feel powerless in the face of climate challenges. Maker Change empowers people to shift from passive to active participation. Nature positively impacts our mental health and it is time to nurture nature.

How? Through place based participatory co-design, local fabrication, and digital collaboration. The action cards and trees are adaptable to local needs on a global scale

Who? Anyone—from local residents and makers to educators and municipal actors.

Where? We have our first prototypes in ESAN Fablab Peru and London in St. John’s Hoxton Community Garden and Barcelona. We will launch the large scale tree in Barcelona’s public space.

When? Prototyping now, with installations growing throughout 2025/26

The project is open-source and globally scalable, inviting other cities to join the movement.

About the project’s approach

Key goals and strategies:

Participatory strategies rooted in local ecosystems
Residents co-create the action cards, becoming active contributors to community-led governance.

Distributed design for global impact
Designs are made locally with reclaimed or bio-composite materials, demonstrating circular production systems that are both globally connected and locally productive.

Influencing policy through visibility and participation
As public installations, Bio-Trees communicate new models of ecological action, education, and production, opening doors to local sponsorships and government partnerships.

Promoting multi-species stewardship
Engaging the public in low-barrier acts of care encourages responsibility for both human and non-human neighbours.

Seeing cities as interdependent ecosystems
Bio-Trees help citizens recognise their city as part of a broader bioregion, connected through collective action online and offline.

Local knowledge, global exchange
Co-created ideas and actions feed into a growing open-source global repository, fostering cross-cultural learning and climate resilience.