In 2004, toy company Hape hosted China's first UNESCO bamboo workshop. Hape's bamboo toys, the first collection of toys based on this natural resource, grew out of this UNESCO event. Since then, Hape and Founder/CEO Peter Handstein have offered an Annual Bamboo Workshop, inviting international design students to propose and create new ideas. The bamboo facility is in Zheijang, adjacent to their own renewable, sustainable, bamboo forest.
In 2012, along with students from the China Academy of Art, Hape hosted students from Otis' Creative Action course, "Bamboo Challenge."Â Toy Design and Fine Arts created innovative and sustainable designs, learning about bamboo in an integrated context - growing, harvesting, processing; along with its physical properties and sustainable attributes. Each student designed, fabricated and completed a toy made of bamboo, with the goal of making a difference in the new world market.
Creative Action Director Rich Shelton and Toy Design faculty member Drew Plakos attended this workshop.
