Unispace Teams Up With Local Weavers In Nicaragua To Upcycle Beach Litter

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. 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 the profits split between Las Tejedoras and Casa Conga. 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

• Lisa Di Venuta