“What does perfect sustainability look like?” Droog asked in 2008 when the “A touch of green” exhibition was presented at the Milan Furniture Fair. As ever, the Dutch collective was not trying to provide certainties or dogmatic answers but to stir up the debate on a field of still uncertain boundaries via 12 designer proposals.

A couple of years later, Droog returns to the same issue with a major retrospective (the biggest since 2007) at the Benaki Museum in Athens (from 4 June to 25 July). It is organised by Workshop°, a dynamic group of young Greek architects led by Dionisis Sotovikis that has, since 2005, enlivened a large versatile space – 1,200 square metres used as a design studio, furniture showroom, cafe and exhibition gallery in the centre of the Greek capital – and the Mariolopoulos Kanaginis Foundation formed in 1993 to promote environmental sciences and interaction between mankind and Greece’s environmental and cultural heritage. The focus is on concepts such as recycling, reuse, reinvention, memory and nostalgia.

The aim – as declared by curators Dionisis and Kirki – is essentially educational: to draw the attention of the public at large to contemporary design while, at the same time, speaking of ecology. That is why a scientific conference on design, architecture and sustainability is planned for 5 June, World Environment Day, with the participation of Droog co-founder Renny Ramakers. Elena Sommariva