Ndao Hanavao
Training and innovation laboratory for social design
Antananarivo, Madagascar
Since 2018
Ndao Hanavao is an innovation and training laboratory for social design created by Rubis Mécénat in 2018. Its objective is to respond to local societal and environmental issues via innovative, viable and sustained design projects, developed in collaboration with guest designers. It also aims to sustainably contribute to the professional integration of Malagasy youth from underprivileged backgrounds, helping them build commercial and collaborative initiatives based on projects developed in the laboratory.
Three projects are currently being developed locally: plastic waste becoming utility objects with French designer Alexandre Echasseriau ; invasive algae becoming paper with French designer Samuel Tomatis and plastic waste becoming wool with the Franco-British designers behind The Polyfloss Factory.
The project also allows new talents and vocations to emerge: five young beneficiaries of Ndao Hanavao founded the eco-responsible company R’Art Plast in 2022, in order to commercialise materials and objects made from recycled, transformed plastic in the laboratory.
Numerous artists and professionals have been invited to share their experience within the project, including Joël Andrianomearisoa, Laureline Galliot, Madame Zo (in memoriam) and Richianny Ratovo, etc.
