Portfolio

(Above: the @CasaNetural team in Ganges)

If the ‘souvenir’ of tomorrow were to be a reciprocal relationship between city people and a rural place, what would it be about?

Together with @CasaNetural, a hub in southern Italy, we looked for alternatives to the ‘visit-spend-leave’ model of mass tourism – for example, the opportunity to learn a skill from artisans, or farmers, as part-time ‘remote apprentices’.
CasaNetural, Matera, Italy

Our short course on City-Rural Connections @Abadiracademy in Sicily was part of its Relational Design masters. We visited local projects, such as a permaculture orange farm (below) and discussed ways for city people to reconnect with rural projects.

Our annual summer school with Konstfack, in Sweden (where the sun always shines) combines online work with a week on site in at Hjulsjö. In 2017 (below) we crafted and tested small actions to do with soil fertility, ecological and economic value, biodiversity, food webs. We asked: how best might we support ongoing actions in rural situations like this one?
konstfack.se/Design-for-Sustainable-Co-Creation

On this short course at Schumacher College in 2017 (below), which we led with Lisa Maria Enzenhofer, we explored ecological restoration at multiple scales of geography and time. We went on a Deep Time Walk (below); looked at micro-environments in former factories; and met people working on regenerative agriculture; civic ecology, green infrastructure.

A ‘leave things better’ economy is emerging in civic ecology and green infrastructure, wetlands restoration, fibersheds, and Ecological Restoration Camps. At Sweden’s premier architecture school KTH  (below) we explored  the ways in which ecological restoration is not only multi-disciplinary; it also works at multiple scales of geography and time.

If the health of people, and the places where we live, are connected, what kinds of business can help them thrive together? In September 2018, we’re helping launch a new Relational Design Masters with Pontio; students explore live approaches to innovation that are centered on people and place, tech enabled, and design-led. They will learn how, for example, to connect adventure sport with the $3 trillion wellness industry.

Many city people yearn to reconnect with nature and the land – but city and rural are dis-connected. What are we to do about it? In southern Italy, we are working with @CasaNetural to develop a new kind of learning destination – a base from which to connect with farms, watersheds, bioregions, ecomuseums, food routes, industrial heritage, and agro-ecology.
Our approach at Wonder Grottole is to combine the “What Is?” with the “What If?” For example: shown is Giuseppe’s Ape (with a curious cargo). We ask:”What other services could the Apes of Grottole support?” In exploring that question, we look far and wide for inspiration – for example, Go-Jek in Indonesia.