Social Ecological Design
Regenerative Practices for Everyday Life
Turin
On campus
ENG
Master
Language
English
Start date
November 2025
Frequency
Full time
Fruition
On campus
Duration
16 Months
Course Coordination
Michael Kaethler
Price
20.300 €
Find out the current facilitations
How can design serve as a tool for care that fosters deep and respectful connections between humans, communities, and ecosystems through environmental design and socially responsible design approaches?
For too long, design has prioritized market demands without considering the environmental impact. The immersive Master's degree in Social Ecological Design offers a vital alternative through sustainable design and regenerative design practices. By integrating artistic research methods with creative activism in real-world contexts, this program develops pioneering approaches to foster profound connections with the living world. It combines classroom learning with immersive fieldwork across Sicily, Tuscany, and Piedmont (Turin and the Alps), emphasizing design for community and ecological anthropology.
Through direct engagement with communities and ecosystems, students gain versatile skills in biomimicry, systems thinking, inclusive design, and creative ethnography while collaborating with local stakeholders, craftspeople, and experts.
This unique approach, grounded in DesignXCommons, nurtures an awareness that care for the commons arises through social design and environmental ethics. Students learn to collaborate with diverse actors and engage with theories, methods, and tools to drive meaningful regenerative and constructive social and ecological transformation.
The program cultivates designers prepared to confront complex challenges through systems design and participatory design approaches. It encourages students to venture beyond conventional methods and disciplinary boundaries to explore new social ecology alternatives and sustainable development solutions.
Information to decide
Transform communities through sustainable design and ecological innovation.
Today's design education must adapt to urgent crises, including climate change and social inequalities. Our experimental Master's program responds through environmental design and socially responsible design.
Rooted in social ecology and ecological anthropology, the program equips designers with the theories and methods necessary for meaningful transformation.
The curriculum balances analysis and application of sustainable design and regenerative design.
Students explore innovative approaches through:
- First trimester: systems thinking and theoretical foundations
- Second trimester: creative ethnography and field applications
- Third trimester: design for community implementation
Learning methods include:
- Lectures on environmental ethics and new materialism
- Workshops emphasizing biomimicry and biophilic design
- Fieldwork focusing on participatory design
- Material explorations through circular design
- Creative activism projects
The three phases in detail:
First trimester: building foundations
Based in Turin, this phase focuses on essential systems design skills and knowledge. Students explore social design, critical methodologies, and alternative economies. The curriculum includes an immersive experience in the Alps centered on ecological anthropology and bioinspiration.
Second trimester: practical theory and fieldwork
This phase combines theory with creative ethnography and site visits. Students engage in artistic research methods, attend workshops on regenerative design, and spend two weeks in Tuscany at a sustainable design-focused farm and nature academy.
Third trimester: fieldwork, thesis project, internship, and integration
The final phase emphasizes real-world application through design for social innovation and professional practice. Students conduct fieldwork in Sicily, complete internships, and develop thesis projects that incorporate regenerative architecture and resilient design principles.
This transdisciplinary program welcomes individuals passionate about sustainable design and design for social innovation. It is ideal for students and professionals interested in environmental design, social ecology, and creative activism. Candidates should have experience in creative practices or a strong interest in developing skills in regenerative design and participatory design.
- Collaborative learning environment:
Work alongside experts in sustainable development, environmental design, and social design across Italy's diverse regions. - Immersive fieldwork:
Engage directly with real-world settings, learning ecological anthropology and creative ethnography through hands-on experience. - Integrated skill development:
Gain expertise in systems thinking, biomimicry, and regenerative design while addressing site-specific challenges. - Hands-on experience:
Practice design for community and participatory design while navigating complex social and ecological contexts. - Personalized mentoring:
Receive guidance from faculty experienced in environmental design and socially responsible design. - Transdisciplinary partnerships:
Build connections while working on sustainable design projects that prepare you for real-world challenges. - Diverse career opportunities:
Prepare for roles in eco-design, regenerative architecture, social design, and more.
Syllabus
The program covers three main areas:
Theory and Methods
- Critical history of design
- Radical and critical design methodologies
- Artistic research methods
- High and low tech design methods
- Identity politics and design
- Systems of power and authority
- Practices of care and empathy
- Embodied methodologies
- Alterity, otherness, and hospitality
- Deep observation and direct perception
- Systems thinking, systems transformation
- Modalities of change and transformation
- World building and narrative production
- New materialism
- Alternative economies
Social Design Practice
- Community design
- Practices of care
- Territoriality and vernacular design
- Dialogical design
- Creative ethnography
- Decolonising design practices and non-Western cosmologies
- Process design
- Affirmative and transition design
- Stakeholder and end-user mapping
- Adversarial design
- Co-production and participatory design
- Systems design, network mapping
- Inclusive design
- Creative forms of social criticism and cultural protest
- Design poethics
Design Ecology
- Climate and eco-literacy
- Sustainability
- Regenerative and restorative design
- Circular design and life cycles
- Social ecology
- Ecosystem-driven and metabolic design
- Ecological anthropology
- Biomimicry, bioinspiration, biophilic design
- Multi-species and more-than-human ethnographies
- TEK Traditional ecological design
- Soil care, Agroecology and lifeworlds
- Ideology and environmentalism
- Environmental ethics
- Feminist political ecology
- Post-growth alternative models
Faculty
Michael Kaethler
Course Coordinator
Anna Maria Orrù
Francesca Gattello
Zeno Franchini
Adrian Vickery Hill
Federica Natalia Rosati
Mauro Filippi
Alexandra D'Onofrio
Laurens Van der Cruyssen
David Liver
David Bassuk
Vivien Tauchmann
Gabriel Fontana
Lucia Babina
Fredrik Moberg
Brigida Marovelli
Jordan Valentin Lane
Bettina Schwalm
Emílio Brandão
Lorenzo Costanzo & Camilla Speriani
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