Restless and always questioning the environmental and human conditions, Águida Zanol was not satisfied when she made a wearable top-shirt from the oil can in her kitchen. She discovered a technique for working with metal waste and a growing curiosity for creating from rich raw materials including plastic, glass, paper, and much more. Realizing that she could change not only her environmental impact but also change other peoples’ lives, she created the project for a school in order to teach the technology. Aguida’s work continues to be researched, applied and improved.

Aguida is a consultant in sustainable processes and products, and she teaches classes and workshops on topics including Eco-design, Eco-sustainable products, processes for sustainable products, product life cycles, and more.

Mini-resume

Aguida is a post-graduate in Design Management from the School of Design (UEMG), with a specialization in Eco-design from the University of Witzenhausen, Germany. She graduated in Art Education from the School Guignard (UEMG) and in Fashion Design from the School of Fashion Merchandising, Scranton – Pennsylvania, USA.

As a pioneer in the Wearable movement (Art to Wear) with recyclables in her home country of Brazil, she was a co-founder of the Wearable Group with other three Brazilians artists. She is the Founder and Director of the Institute Reciclar-T3, the first research institute in Brazil on recyclable materials, Founder of Aristides School House – the first School of Recycling in Brazil (in Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, 1997), and the Founder of Wandel Werte, Reciclar -T3 project in Germany, with the cooperation of Mensch und Region Company and the German Government (Hannover, Agenda 21).

Aguida applied her constructive & creative process for using garbage to ASMARE (Waste Pickers Association of Minas Gerais). She also leads the eco-sustainable projects of the Avina Foundation – Switzerland. For her research in product development with garbage as the main raw material, her name is featured in the book 100 Best Brazilian Designers  by Museu da Casa Brasileira and Eternally Yours: Time in Design by Ed Van Hinte, also known as the “Goldenbook of International Designers (Ed.OIO Publishers, 2004).

Aguida received the Top Styling Award by Francal, SP (1998). She was also invited by the German government through the Local Agenda 21 to develop the concept for Agenda 21, in Lower Saxony, Germany.