Marjetica Potrc focuses
on the ad-hoc architecture and objects made by the residents of "informal cities," a name she has given to the impromptu residential areas that exist around the edges and in the shadows of global metropolises. She studies how people around the world, living under these conditions, are solving specific problems without support from official sources: on their own terms, on their own time, and often outside the bounds of the law. She usually works in a case study mode in which she makes this necessary, everyday creativity visible within the gallery space. Her best-known methods include sculptural installations in which she re-presents "urgent architecture" in the form of temporary sculptural installations, and two-dimensional works that combine text and image, including photographic collage and her signature brightly colored, loosely rendered drawings.

Potrc's contribution to Beyond Green comes from her ongoing series Power Tools, in which she applies her case study approach not to architecture but rather to small-scale objects that she has culled from the usually undifferentiated stream of consumer goods. The Hippo Water Roller featured here, made by the company Imvubu Projects, allows individuals to efficiently move large amounts of water over long distances. Potrc presents it along with a print that indicates some of the social benefits of its adoption. The full Power Tools series examines other commercially produced objects such as solarpowered flashlights and clockwork cell phones designed for use by residents of the informal city or "urban explorers" as well as by those in rural areas. These devices apply sustainable design strategies such as durability and self-power (through body movement or solar power, for example) to real social needs such as lack of easy access to electricity or running water. (Of course, the boundaries between necessary object and luxury item are fluid as things move among different contexts, and Potrc has observed that the clockwork cell phone has been picked up as a trendy gadget by Johannesburg urbanites.) Through her visual and verbal commentary, Potrc calls attention to the huge variety of applications of sustainable design and its varied roles in different social contexts.