Alastair Fuad-Luke is a facilitator, educator, researcher, writer and activist exploring and challenging how design is applied to societal, ecological, economic, political and educational issues. From July 2016 to March 2021 Alastair was Full Professor of Design Research at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy and from 2011–2014 was Professor of Emerging Design Practices at Aalto ARTS, Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland where, during the World Design Capital 2012, he worked with Lahti Regional Development to develop a ‘co-design eco-system’ for the city.
He contributed to several European Union projects, including “Eco-innovera — Support Systems for Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Transformation” (SHIFT), 2012–2016; and “Leonardo Da Vinci — Design Education and Sustainability” (DEEDS), 2006–2008. Present consultancy projects include reviewer for “4Cs, From Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture”. He collaborates with diverse communities; his latest project is muu-baa, a network for “agri-cultural” explorations. His books include Field Explorations (forthcoming 2021), Agents of Alternatives (2015, contributing co-editor), Design Activism (2009) and The Eco-Design Handbook (2002, 2005 and 2009).

Alberto Altés studied architecture and urban planning in Valladolid, Barcelona and Delft, and critical theory/museum studies at the Independent Studies Program in Barcelona (MACBA). Following a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at the Department of Architecture at TU Delft (2017-2020), he is currently Associate Professor of Architecture at Bergen School of Architecture in Norway, where he continues to explore ‘love, care and delay’ as modes of engagement in architecture/spatial practices. He has previously taught at several institutions such as the ETSAV School of Architecture in Sant Cugat (Barcelona) where he successfully defended his PhD dissertation “Delaying the Image: Towards an Aesthetics of Encounter” (2016).
He has taught courses in architecture theory, architectural design and construction, and architectural graphic expression, and has a particular interest in non-normative and critical modes of pedagogy that aim to enable inclusive collective learning. He has co-edited several books, such as The Power of Experiment (2016, with Arteria and the Lisbon Architecture Triennale). He is also co-founder and partner of LandLab Arkitektur AB, a transversal practice built around forms of care and situatedness.

Ana Jara is an architect, scenographer and researcher in Urban Studies. Co-founder and director of Artéria studio, she is responsible for coordinating curatorial and urban intervention projects which focus on the social, cultural and artistic dimensions of architecture. With Artéria she has developed an exploratory, prospective practice, using methodologies of action-research in an interdisciplinary approach to create urban intervention projects and programs, such as Avenida Intendente (2013) and Lisbon Skyline Operation, part of the Portuguese representation at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2014. Co-curated The Power of Experiment — Formulate, Formalize, Perform for the Nordic Satellite at the Lisbon Triennale 2016, and CCA ℅ Lisboa for the Canadian Centre for Architecture. Recently, with Artéria she co-curated Journeys to the In-Between for MAAT museum. With Joana Braga, presents the exhibition Matter for Future Excavation at the Lisbon Architecture Triennale.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Lisbon Technical University (FA-UTL) and a Master’s Degree in Arts from the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London. She is also a PhD candidate at the School of Social Sciences of the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE-IUL) and at the Nova University’s Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH-UNL). She taught at Umeå School Of Architecture in Sweden (2014-2015) and at IADE — Creative University (2017-2018). Since 2018 she has been a councillor elected at the Lisbon City Council.

 

André Cruz holds a degree in Communication Design from ESAD — College of Art and Design, Matosinhos. Much of the work he develops as a graphic designer manifests itself in the cultural area. He currently runs Studio Dobra with João Guedes and is a guest professor at ESMAD —  Porto Polytechnic. In 2020 he started Sumo, a podcast made of conversations on the practice of design.

André Cruz’s path is marked by a participation in ExperimentaDesign in 2005, the Drop studio in 2006, and the collaboration with Stefan Sagmeister for the implementation of the graphic identity of Casa da Música, where he went on to develop that work as designer and art director between 2007 and 2018. His strong relationship with music enabled him to design various album covers and identities for festivals, such as Paredes de Coura and Primavera Sound (Barcelona and Porto).

 

An architect and engineer by training, Professor Carlo Ratti teaches at MIT, where he directs the Senseable City Laboratory, and is a founding partner of the international design and innovation office Carlo Ratti Associati. A leading voice in the debate on new technologies’ impact on urban life, his work has been exhibited in several venues worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, New York’s MoMA, London’s Science Museum, Barcelona’s Design Museum. Three of his projects — the Digital Water Pavilion, the Copenhagen Wheel and Scribit — were hailed by Time Magazine as ‘Best Inventions of the Year’. He has been included in Wired Magazine’s ‘Smart List: 50 people who will change the world’. He is currently serving as co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cities and Urbanization.

After managing the design development platform, lille-design, Caroline Naphegyi is curating the programs of Lille Metropole 2020, World Design Capital. Much more than just an event, this capital is a laboratory where a new world is taking shape and experimenting. Designers, citizens, entrepreneurs and researchers from all over the world have designed and built solutions to the challenges of our time.

After having contributed from 2000 to 2006 to the design programming of Lille 2004 European Capital of Culture, then lille3000, she was entrusted by its founder David Edwards with the direction of the Laboratory, a multidisciplinary cultural center located in the heart of Paris and dedicated to the development of research protocols associating creators (designers, architects, artists, composers) and scientists. In 2010, she then created Tomorrowland, a company producing projects at the crossroads of disciplines, and the non-profit organization Design for change, a platform for putting innovative solutions into practice through design, for the benefit of companies and communities.

Fran Edgerley is a partner of the architecture and design collective Assemble, with whom they work to look critically at the processes producing our built environment. Fran’s work is focused on the possibilities in collective and cooperative relations created by different social, economic and architectural structures. She is currently working to develop a new social centre in London as a resource to challenge the commodification of land and property. Over the past decade she has worked on a range of projects — both material and relational — with communities in Scotland, England, Portugal, Iceland, France, Germany, Denmark and Estonia. This year Fran is in the process of starting a new organisation focused on practice exploring the invisible architectures that reflexively produce and are reproduced by the built environment.

Inês Marques is a Lisbon-based designer who practices human-centred design with experience in community led projects and social engagement. Her work is focused in exploring issues of inclusion, interaction and civic benefit in the public and private sector. Ines holds a Masters Degree in Material Futures from Central Saint Martins, a course that explores design, technology, science and craft applied to current issues. In her practice, Ines has a specific interest in applying design thinking and education to social purposes to generate interactive and sustainable creative outcomes. At the moment, Ines is developing El Warcha Lisbon after having initiated and established El Warcha London since 2018.

From London, Olivia graduated in 2019 from Central Saint Martins, with distinction in MA Architecture, where she gained the Spatial Practices award and Green Trail Maison/0 LVMH winner. Portugal based since 2017 and fluent in Portuguese, her architectural background is research and design for sustainable construction materials. She has developed different bio-based sustainable construction materials such as hemp and bio-waste from local Portuguese industries. These projects are in collaboration with various architects in Portugal including using hempcrete with Skrei in Porto, CRU, Montemor-o-Novo and recently with the French luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Her work has been exhibited internationally including La Triennale di Milano, Dubai Design District, Lethaby Gallery London and Award Stores, Paris.

Olivia Page is currently developing “Rede de Construção Sustentável” to connect and promote the different Portuguese players of sustainable construction; to connect projects with material suppliers to construction companies with specialised knowledge, services or products. She is also co-founder of a new company, developing hempcrete in Portugal.

Born in France, Sam Baron has a degree in Design from the Fine Arts School of Saint-Étienne and a post-graduate degree from the National Decorative Arts School of Paris. Baron loves to reinterpret traditional methods of construction, raising questions about the utility of today’s material productions. He creates products, exhibition and interior design projects, giving life to cross-over works mixing art and design. He is an independent designer and consultant for international companies such as Louis Vuitton, La Redoute, Vista Alegre and the French liquor brand Hennessy. He has been consultant as Design director for Fabrica, the international communication research center based in Italy, during a decade. In 2009 Baron received the Grand Prix de la Création de la Ville de Paris in the Design category and in 2010 Philippe Starck selected him as one of the ten important designers of the next decade. Recently Sam has been awarded with the special PAD Paris Fair Price. Sam Baron currently lives and works between Portugal and France where he recently took part of the think tank platform Thinkers & Doers.