Today, more than ever, it is essential to recognize the interconnectedness between humans, nature, and technology. A “more-than-human” design approach embraces a broader perspective that considers the impacts of our actions on animals, plants, and the surrounding environment.
The goal of EIT Community Ignite NEB event 2024 – Italy is to focus on the Post-Anthropocene era, encouraging participants to promote a just transition that considers sustainable impact and the long-term importance of current choices, by co-designing solutions with local communities, rooted in their specific “ecologies.”
The European Green Deal emphasizes the role of the cultural sector in achieving carbon neutrality and climate resilience in Europe by 2050. By combining the generation of innovative ideas with active community engagement, the project promotes the goals of the New European Bauhaus initiative.
From a methodological perspective, Participative Futures 4Planet draws inspiration from a previous project conducted by Studio Shift in Italy and Colombia during 2023-24 (funded by the Lombardy Region, designforsocial.it), applying the same Design Sprint 4ETS methodology to the new environmental challenges.
The DS workshops use design thinking methodologies to facilitate rapid ideation, prototyping, and concept testing. Tools such as journey mapping, problem framing, and scenario building guide participants through a comprehensive design process.
A Design Sprint is a process for generating innovative ideas and solving significant problems in just a few days. It helps to concretely define objectives and issues and to create a high-level prototype tested with real people.
We aim to collaboratively design new product/service proposals capable of fostering reconnection—and new connections—with Nature, embracing a deep and climate-resilient vision by adopting the concept of protopia (a sustainable future characterized by continuous, gradual evolution).
By integrating speculative future thinking approaches and design tools, and consulting numerous authoritative sources as well as a selected group of academic and local experts, Studio Shift has envisioned 5 collective scenarios for participants to address in order to design new solutions.
Since the literature agrees that one of the primary obstacles to behavioral change regarding climate change and the implementation of pro-sustainability choices is the psychological distance from the issues, participants will have the opportunity to delve into local data at the provincial or regional scale for each topic, in relation to the goals set by the European Community for 2050.
The scenarios, from which ideas will emerge during the Festival, have been discussed with: Stefano Angelinis, representative of the association ‘Sondrio Domani’; Giusi Biaggi, social entrepreneur and President of the National Consortium CGM; Martina Bosica, systemic designer at Legambiente Alpi; Carlo Brigatti, President of FabLab Sondrio; Maria Chiara Cattaneo, lecturer at CRANEC, Catholic University; Giovanni Caruso, founder and Chapter Leader of Speculative Futures Milan; Silvio Cioni, Director of Education at Domus Academy; Simone Foscarini, representative of Italea Lombardia – RIFAI network, Lombardy group; Andrea Galimberti, lecturer and researcher at the University of Milan Bicocca; Giovanni Pizzochero, representative of Avanzi and Avanzi Discover – RIFAI network, Lombardy group; Stefano Sala, technologist at UNIMONT – University of the Mountain; Caterina Salvo, representative of Tracciaminima – RIFAI network, Lombardy group; Villiam Vaninetti, President of WWF Valtellina and Valchiavenna; Flaviano Zandonai, sociologist at National Consortium CGM
Participative Futures 4Planet celebrates design as a means to influence values and guide behaviors toward greater awareness and sustainability. The field of eco-social design and its professionals need a new vision to shape the future, envisioning plausible and preferable directions that enable communities to transition toward more planet-centered and inclusive lifestyles.
The local eco-social challenges have been coordinated with organizations and informal communities, including those invited to participate in the Festival: RIFAI Lombardia, Legambiente Alpi, Consorzio Nazionale CGM, FabLab Sondrio, Sondrio Domani, SEV – Società Economica Valtellinese, WWF Valtellina e Valchiavenna.
The participants, selected by Studio Shift, are defined by Ignite NEB as ‘changemakers’ and come from various disciplinary fields: designers, environmental experts, artists, entrepreneurs, and design students from major Italian academies.
The call for participants has been shared with students from: Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, UNIMONT – Università degli Studi di Milano sede di Edolo, Domus Academy e NABA – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Politecnico di Torino, Libera Università di Bolzano.