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 and how worldviews are shaped. We explore 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 developing 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. You ground your project in a broader existing context and come up with innovative research questions to challenge the status quo. 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 analyse, investigate, and navigate the direct (local) impact and broader implications of design and living systems on nature. You synthesise the perspectives shaping biodesign with your own educational background and future profession, and instrumentalise these to analyse 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 materialise interventions by combining creative research methodologies with hands-on explorations. You initiate and execute question-driven, explorative, and open-ended processes and instrumentalise 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 path and document your development in a personal portfolio. 

Students should be proficient in English.

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

Expect 4 days of study (12-16 hrs contact time with teachers, and 16-20 hrs of self-study or group work). The timetable will be announced two weeks before the start of the minor via rooster.hva.nl.

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, divided into parts:

Theory & Practice: 12 ECTS: Assignment - deliverables from the different courses (week 1-10, individual work).

Team Project: 12 ECTS Team Project: Professional product - research and design process, concept and presentation of team project (week 11-19, group work).

 Self directed learning: 6 ECTS: Portfolio Assessment - organisation and documentation of own learning path (week 1-20, individual work).

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.

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

Resit:

Semester 2, date to be determined.

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

Questions about the Kies op Maat procedure?
Contact ​​​​​​Eunice Williams via Resultsandregistration-amfi@hva.nl

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

Costs:

Consider material costs of about € 60-75 on account of the student for materials, ingredients, printing fees, etc. The kick-off excursion will cost appr. € 155 and needs to be paid in advance.