WANTED : curious and courageous students -for example designers, coders, media makers, engineers, storytellers, advocates, and economists- to come up with interventions for real life problems. Starting from your own values and design vision, we collectively work toward researching and shaping desired futures.

We're talking about creating innovative and environmentally responsible interventions (such as material research, speculative design products, or interactive experiences) that take cues from cultural studies, new technologies, local and indigenous wisdom, and regenerative design. 

In the minor program, biodesign plays an important role in exploring sustainable futures. Biodesign questions the direct (local) impact and broader implications of design and living systems on nature, how both human and non-human beings connect and live together, and how interventions on a systemic, cultural and/or material level may contribute to shaping new perspectives on sustainable and desired futures. 

Starting day one, the minor Sustainable Futures: Nature + Design + Creativity combines hands-on knowledge with a critical and curious attitude to develop yourself into a sustainable creative professional. At our own biolab you will learn to work with living materials and biofabrication, such as bacteria dye, fungi, algae, and biobased plastics. To understand and ground your project in a broader existing context and to come up with though innovative research questions, you will experiment with different creative research methods and develop your own set of research tools. You will explore aesthetics and storytelling as a powerful tool to foster an understanding of -and care for- living systems on this planet. In the second part of the minor, you apply these learnings in transdisciplinary team projects. 

For inspiration, context, and career-perspectives, we host guest speakers and lecturers, team up with external partners for the project, and take you on site visits including tech and design festivals.

So if you're ready to make a difference, join us on the journey to create a more sustainable future!

In the Sustainable Futures: Nature + Design + Creativity program you develop yourself as a transdisciplinary practitioner and deepen your understanding of sustainability in the context of your creative profession. During this minor, you will:   

• Learn various biodesign approaches to analyze, investigate, and navigate the direct (local) impact and broader implications of design and living systems on nature. You synthesize the perspectives shaping biodesign with your own educational background and future profession, and instrumentalize these to analyze societal, ecological, and industrial themes and to come up with interventions that help shape sustainable futures.
• Use the power of aesthetics and storytelling to creatively transmit sustainable ideas, applying trend research and futuring techniques. You embrace complexity, see connections, and put things together creatively. You understand and integrate insights into compelling arguments.
• Design and materialize interventions by combining creative research methodologies with hands-on explorations. You initiate and execute question-driven, explorative, and open-ended processes and instrumentalize diverse materials, technologies, and methods to come to design proposals.  
• Work collaboratively with students from other education programs in a shared conceptual framework, contributing with one’s own strengths and qualities and acknowledging those of others. You actively shape your own learning goals and learning path and document your development in a personal portfolio.  

You meet the entrance requirements from your own study before you can take a minor (see the Teaching and Examination Regulations for your study). 

This minor welcomes students with an open, curious, and analytical attitude, and affinity with nature, design, tech, and sustainable innovation. We aim to embrace the transdisciplinarity of the field of biodesign in our student population. 

The entire program is taught in English, participants are expected to be comfortable with reading, speaking, and writing English.

Sustainable Futures: Nature + Design + Creativity uses a mix of reading materials that will be communicated at the start of the program.

You are expected to be present in the scheduled classes and workshops. If you cannot make it, you inform the coordinators of the minor and the teacher of that class.

Expect 4 days of study (12-16 hrs contact time with teachers, and 16-20 hrs of self-study or group work).

30 ECTS 

Assessment with portfolio and expo

Throughout the minor, you work on assignments that allow you to fill your portfolio to demonstrate your progress on the learning outcomes and receive feedback and feed forward from both peers and tutors. The learning outcomes are assessed through a mid-term assessment (formative) and a final assessment (summative). 

We foster a safe, inclusive, supportive, and positive learning climate where students oversee their own personal learning trajectory and growth.

Resit: all assignment(s) can be resubmitted up to week 22 (early July)

If a student fails to successfully complete the minor in the period in which she took the minor it is possible to finalize the minor in a following period in which the minor is given.

If a minor is no longer offered or in case the minor is rewritten, the degree programme will offer students a further two opportunities to finalize this minor in the following year.

Costs: Consider material costs of about € 130-170 on account of the student for materials, excursions and printing fees. Excursions abroad may require additional costs.

Video: https://vimeo.com/798657979

Questions about the minor?
Contact Sam Edens, s.j.edens@hva.nl
of Ista Boszhard i.boszhard@hva.nl

Questions about the Kies op Maat procedure?
Contact Yien Wei Thye Resultsandregistration-amfi@hva.nl

Applications will be processed in the order of receipt of signed learning agreements.