While Odemira is the municipality with the largest territory in Portugal, its interior has one of the lowest population densities in Europe. Over the last two generations it has lost more than 70% of its inhabitants due to major shifts in agriculture and lack of alternative opportunities. This results in an ageing population, dispersed over a vast area, affected by isolation and social exclusion (one of the world's lowest birth rates, and a dramatic suicide rate three times the national level). Its shrinking population leads to neglect of the land, the decay of infrastructure, and the loss of traditions, knowledge, and culture.
Our partner is CLARA, a recently established center for the rural future. They purchased an old brick factory where the center will be located. Their sustainable development strategy is based on three crucial components:
- The integration of the local community of the interior of Odemira, embracing their skills, perspectives, and traditions
- The valorisation of indigenous resources; as a way to improve the local economy
- The attraction of new visitors and of the creative community and with their support, stimulate and activate new opportunities and spaces of dialogue and thought
We partnered with CLARA to investigate the future scenarios of such a center for the rural future. Our main aim is to develop functions and activities alongside business models that will help the center to revitalise the economic and social fabric of the area. We are looking for participants including, but not limited to, the following areas:
Visual communication
Author, Interaction Designer
Alexandra is an interaction designer, product designer, entrepreneur based in London. She was named 1st in a list of 100 Internet of Things Influencers (Postscapes, 2016), 2nd in Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders (Onalytica, 2014) and in the Top 100 Influential Tech Women on Twitter (Business Insider, 2014), Smith & Williamson Power 100 (2017).
Consultant, project manager
Alvaro is mathematician and project manager with experience in small and large companies. His problem-solving oriented mind makes him always look for continuous improvement. He is passionate about service design, and thinks it is the key to make the world a better place to live.
Furniture designer
Amira is a designer, an entrepreneur and a researcher who is passionate about using her design skills to catalyze change. She’s triggered by problems, world potentials and solution hunting while believing in innovation, creative thinking and story telling as a lens.
Co-founder and Director of Superflux
Anab is a designer, futurist, filmmaker and educator. As Co-founder and Director of Superflux, she hopes to realise the vision of the Studio as a new kind of design practice, responsive to the challenges and opportunities of the twenty-first century. She has received awards from ICSID, UNESCO, Geneva Human Rights Festival, Apple Computers Inc., and the UK Government’s Innovation Department.
Business analyst
Singer
Programme Manager at Prime Minister's Office
E-commerce entrepreneur
E-commerce entrepreneur with a background in finance.
Ecology
Theology
Account manager at Mito
Preservation of Cultural and Architectural Heritage
User Experience Researcher at GE Transportation Lab
Archie works as UX Design Researcher at GE Transportation, a Wabtec company, serving the global freight industry by driving user-centric practices, modernizing products, and finding new opportunities for humans to interface with artificial intelligence and industrial automation. On the side, she collaborates on projects, mentors students, and co-organizes the ATL Speculative Futures meetup in the local design community. In addition, she is part of the organizing committee of Primer 2020 taking place in Atlanta, USA. Archie loves people, working with them, getting inspired by them, and most importantly solving for them. Oh! by the way, she is a Yes and! person.
Attila is associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Marketing and Media, Department of Marketing, Media and Designcommunication and founder of coandco.cc. He is a designer artist, with his company coandco.cc holds several international design awards such as Red Dot. Attila is the author of designcommunication, DIS.CO, complex creative design methodology.
Architect at Paradigma Ariadné
Architect
Freelancer designer. Previously head of the MOME Department of Design, co-founder of Sausagefence! design studio, designer of the iconic Hungarian Mustache Ba, P-shaped Bike Parkers and BKV Passenger Information System Designer.
Barbara is an assistant professor, theoretician, designer, author, and Design for Europe Ambassador. Co-founder and leader of the department of design theory at the Pekinpah Association, and director of the Ljubljana Institute of Design, an academic research organisation. Since 2010, with Petra Černe Oven, she has been co-editing Zbirka 42, a series of books on design, under the auspices of the Pekinpah Association.
Philosophy
Event manager
Architect
Art history
Mathematical Modeller at Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Communication and PR
Product design
Associate lecturer at Budapest University of Technology and Economics.
Cansu is an early stage investor for tech for good companies. As senior partner, her focus at BGV is building meaningful partnerships for their portfolio teams and the fund itself. She also supports fundraising efforts for their investment vehicles. She has been involved with early stage ventures as founder, operator, mentor and now investor throughout her career in tech.
Service Designer
Architectural designer
Industrial, Product Design
I graduated from the ALUO, in the course of industrial design, and continued studying the master's degree in the stage design/scenography at AGRFT. Currently I am crafting scenes for theater and film. I enjoy music and basketball.
Dana is an interdisciplinary artist working between the boundaries of art and design, with a focus on social and climate justice. Amongst others, her participatory projects have been presented at Tate Modern, Museum of London, and London Short Film Festival (UK), Incheon Art Platform (South Korea), Centre for Art on Migration Politics (CAMP), Tanzhaus NRW (Germany), La Virgule (France), and Tranzit (Romania).
Artist, Freelance Graphic Designer
Daniel is a Budapest based graphic designer who graduated from the Royal College of Art, London. He is the co-founder of Diaméter Collective.
UI/UX Designer
Professor at National Autonomous University of Mexico
Professor, researcher and designer, his work portrays the interest to understand the link between creativity and education. With a special curiosity for the interpersonal dynamics elicited by certain objects - like games and other playful artifacts - Diego explores complex social systems through collaborative design. His ideas have been constructed, exposed and debated in different formats from Mexico to Germany.
Industrial Design/ Speculative Design
Dominika is a process-oriented designer, working at the intersection of social innovation and speculative futures. Motivated by the impact that her work has on the people and environment, she keeps seeking new ways to learn about societal transitions and systemic change.
Architect at Paradigma Ariadné
Architect, writer, critic and co-founder of paradigma:ariadné. He studied architecture at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and at the West Hungarian University. He is a former president of Budapest Architecture Student Studio and author of dozen essays, studies and articles in the topic of architecture, urbanism and politics. In his architecture related works he always collaborate with artist, designers and urban thinkers.
Dóra is associate professor at Corvinus University of Budapest, Institute of Marketing and Media, head of the Department of Marketing, Media and Designcommunication. Her areas of research include diffusion of new technology in personal communication, designcommunication, co-creation, projective research techniques. Her areas of education involve: strategic and creative planning of marketing communication, design management, advertising management.
Vype Activation Manager at British American Tobacco
Design and Innovation consultant
I am curious about people’s culture, stories and needs. I am very keen to listen, see and discover how they think, how they behave, why and how we can help. As a Design Thinking Consultant, I am collaborating in the development of design projects for social and technology innovation at Bayteq in Quito, where we centre our research and outcomes in humans.
Social designer
Urbanism
Biology
Landscape architect
Architect
Biotechnology
Co-founder and Food Curator
Eszter is a curator and cultural mediator who is interested in CEE regional creative industry and local movements. She is the co-founder of Holis and was part of the team until 2019.
Designer
Project manager
Eszter is constantly looking for opportunities where she can use her knowledge and experience for a greater good. Combining her Sociology degree with her background in tech, she’s currently working as a project manager in a social enterprise that aims to educate and empower hearing impaired professionals to make a successful career in the digital economy.
Media design
Fanni Csernátony is addicted to design workshops and co-creation ever since she started studying Product Design in Moholy Nagy University of Art and Design (MOME). She participated and organized several events focusing on creative teamwork. She believes that the design process works best if it involves people with different cultural and professional backgrounds.
Product Designer
Innovation & Service design
Painter
Product designer at Studio Rygalik
Partner at Studio Rygalik
Gosia graduated from the Design Department at Warsaw’s Academy of Fine Arts (2010 MA). She also studied at the Danmarks Designskole and gained her first professional design experience in Copenhagen. During the studies in Warsaw she was a member of the PG13 platform – responding to experimental design briefs, exhibiting, organizing and taking part in design workshops and competitions as well as industry supported projects.
Strategic Product Design
Gunjan is a strategic designer and researcher who likes working on challenges that involve people, processes and systems. Her skills and tools are drawn from diverse fields of practice: human-centred design, business strategy, organizational change and education. She is a lifelong learner and enjoys herself best while working on transdisciplinary projects in diverse contexts.
Designer at ChemAxon
I work as a product designer at a cheminformatics company. I define myself as a generalist with the obsession of small details. I believe that my role as a designer is to facilitate co-creation and give the ability to people with the relevant knowledge to share their voice. Continuous experimentation and small iterations motivate me the most during my everyday work.
UX Design
UX/UI designer and team lead, design thinking practitioner, interaction design instructor, previously a web developer.
Cinematography
Co-founder of Change Pilots
Helps organizations create products, services and brand scenarios based on design strategies. As a co-founder of design consultancy Change Pilots he offers a unique point of view as both strategist and designer capable of creating measurable, novel solutions. Always brings multicultural perspective thanks to years of practice abroad including New York and London and such organizations as Parsons School of Design and IDEO.
Graphic design
Customer Experience Designer at O.P. Holdings
International & Public Affairs Manager at Dutch Design Foundation
Ingrid is a connector, conceptor, communicator with a focus on co/design for people and planet. Over the years she has initiated projects for the use of design as the driver for social innovation, economic growth and sustainable development. She has extensive experience in cross-sectorial partnerships between public authorities, industries, businesses and designers.
Service Designer
Iria's passion is using the power of design processes to transform people's lives. After studying psychology Iria started her career in 2001 working as user researcher / ethnographer (exploring people’s needs in their context of use) working in several private companies in Barcelona. In 2005 she learned how to integrate user/cultural research with design and business processes.
Customer Success Manager
I am energetic and self-motivated advisor with more than 10 years’ experience in: project management, strategic communication, business development, event management & service design.
Sociology
Designer
Jana is a designer from design studio Pábení from the Czech Republic. Pábení wants to bring sustainability into the lives of organizations. Jana helps fulfil this vision with educational design, organizational culture projects and regenerative, circular service design. She deeply believes that the responsibility of designers is to take care of the needs of users and stakeholders as well as society and planet.
Innovation Consultant & Agile Coach
Designer
I am a product / graphic designer. I was the co-founder of Have a Bite (a media startup) and I have been working with Ergo Design - a design and consultancy agency.
Design Researcher and Service Designer
Jimena is a curious creative and change maker, passionate about improving people’s lives through design. She thrives on connecting with and learning from people, and on coming up with new and enhanced ways of doing things. She has vast experience in user research, creative facilitation and service design, having worked with multiple clients across varied industries. She works now as a Service Designer at wearereasonablepeople.
Joana is a researcher, architect and intermedial artist. She coordinates and curates Topias Urbanas (Urban Topias), an artistic and urban research project which, combining a processual, collaborative and relational ethos with a discursive and reflexive dimension generates experimental and interrogative cartographies of the multiple layers that compose urban space.
Senior Lecturer at Royal College of Art
Dr John Stevens joined the Royal College of Art in 2013 to help launch the new Global Innovation Design MA. John’s research interests concern the application of design methods to emerging contexts of innovation such as service design, multi-disciplinary design and design management, especially applied to social, cross-cultural and humanitarian innovation. This necessarily encompasses the design of products, interactions and systems.
Writer, Advisor, Speaker
John Thackara is a philosopher, writer and advisor. He helps companies and cities design innovation platforms that benefit all life, not just human life. His most recent book (of 12) is How To Thrive In the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow's World Today. John curated the celebrated Doors of Perception conference for 20 years, first in Amsterdam, and later in cities throughout India.
Co-founder of Change Pilots
Designer, researcher, and initiator of the ideas. Creates processes, experiences and visual systems that allow brands, organizations, and events communicate integral value offered to their users. Her experience comes from working with design studios, product and service companies as well as design and culture centers in Paris, Helsinki, New York, and across Poland. Passionate about sustainable development, Human-Centered Design, and mindfulness.
Brand manager
Geoinformatics
Graphic designer
Curatorial Practice
Business Analyst
Service Management
I am a Service Management masters student at Copenhagen Business School with a focus on how to design services. Given my previous education experience in the Top Up bachelor degree in Digital Concept Development, based on Multimedia Design and Communication, I worked with user research, user experience, user scenarios, customer journeys, personas, service blueprints and storyboards.
Photo and Video
Krstan is a photographer, director and screenwriter. He took his first photo when he was 5. He directed ads, experimental movies, and television programmes. He has been practising ju jitsu since he was 13 and run several marathons. He has 2 children.
Experience Designer at Mirum Agency
Learning Designer and Facilitator
Lewis has worked internationally, across private and public sectors. From community-based outreach to formal youth work, arts outreach and structured programmes, working in roles that foster mutual learning and that can make meaningful change in individuals lives motivates him. Since moving to London 3 years ago he has been working freelance with lots of different projects and clients.
Cultural anthropology
Pattern designer and illustrator
Google Ads Specialist at Majorel
Designer
Design Engineer at Delft Hyperloop
Project manager
Service Design
Born and raised in Bilbao, now living in Madrid. Graduated in Fine Arts and working as a digital designer since 2010. Focused in human centered design, creative problem solving and facilitation tools. Currently researching how people actually interact with technology, especially from a social, ethical and feminist perspective.
Strategic advisor @ Mito, co-founder, executive director @ Koin.
Professor of Design
Martyn is a Professor of Design, product designer and design academic with 20 years research, teaching and leadership experience and is Head of Manchester School of Art Research Centre. Interested in the strategic role that design commands in a variety of settings, his research explores the approaches designers use to conceptualise and communicate the future.
Interdisciplinary Designer
Maxim is kind of designer, kind of entreprenuer. He is the founder of Holis. He also founded many other things. Some of them are still running. That makes him happy. Waste makes him angry. He also works as a consultant in social innovation, design, collective intelligence and management in general.
Although we have different topics for each of our summer schools, they all focus on learning skills that will strengthen your ability to solve complex problems — regardless of the field you come from. We believe that hard skills are important, but with the rapid evolution of technology, a focus on hard skills can potentially leave you vulnerable to change as these often have a shorter shelf life. Soft skills, on the other hand, enable you to adapt to change more easily.
You will be working on a real project in an interdisciplinary team because soft skills learning should be experience based. You will attend a 10 days / 9 nights on site workshop with both preparatory work and post-workshop assignment. You will produce project deliveries that might be used for further development and implementation thus achieving real impact in a long run.
Besides the obvious part of learning the aforementioned mentioned skills, you will be part of an ever growing community of Holis alumni. Holis alumni consist of team facilitators and participants who are spread across the world. It’s a network of like-minded people who are helpful and occasionally even collaborate on projects.
This program is a non-profit endeavour. We receive a lot of volunteer work, get support from our sponsors, and grants. Nevertheless, your contribution is essential to make it work. We kindly ask that you pay as much as you can within the following ranges.
Student/Unemployed: €400-500.
(Self)Employed: €500-600.
Step 1 — Registration
This is you saying that you are interested in participating. We will ask you for some basic personal data and nudge you to complete your application.
Step 2 — Motivation letter and project portfolio
In your motivation letter, please tell us why you would like to attend Holis, what you expect from it, your relevant experiences, what you find interesting about the topic of this year’s summer school, and how can you contribute to the summer school and your team. Your motivation letter should be around 500 words. In your project portfolio, you should present projects that you were part of that are relevant to the summer school. Your project portfolio should be a one-page document.
Step 3 — Shortlisting
We will evaluate your application based on your motivation letter and project portfolio. We are looking for participants who excel in their chosen profession, are eager to learn, open for interdisciplinary collaboration, and have a sense of social and environmental justice. We will evaluate applications on the last day of each month meaning that if you submit your application earlier, you will get your results earlier.
Step 4 — Video interview
We will have a 30 minute interview with every shortlisted applicant to understand each one better and to answer any questions.
Step 5 — Final selection
We will make the final selection of participants one week after the application deadline at the latest. After you pay your participation fee, we will start the preparatory work online.
The Holis approach is different from traditional courses. We pay attention to every aspect of your well-being and learning. Our venue is in a rural environment away from the rush of big cities; we prepare all of the delicious food that you will eat ourselves; there are opportunities to participate in sporting activities, games, and evening bonfires. All of this is intentionally planned to deliver a unique and unforgettable educational experience.
The first Holis focused on the future scenarios of an old felt factory in Hungary, which at the time was suffering from a 90% loss of income due to the rise in popularity of synthetic felts. As a result of the solutions that Holis participants helped to identify and implement, the felt factory now has new owners, new products, and other thriving business activities. Since then we’ve been working on various challenges in different countries.