Instagram Facebook Youtube Linkedin
Silicon Vilstal
Instagram Facebook Linkedin

EN

RURAL DESIGN DAYS

DESIGN FROM THE COUNTRYSIDE AND FOR THE COUNTRYSIDE

The pandemic has significantly raised awareness of rural areas and their potential. The hybrid global event Rural Design Days aims to engage and connect designers, innovators, and visionaries around the globe. The Rural Design Days address the new challenges and opportunities of rural spaces in times of multiple transformations.

The Rural Design Days was organized by Silicon Vilstal from Lower Bavaria. Silicon Vilstal is an official partner of the New European Bauhaus program. The Rural Design Days were also recommended by the global architecture and design website Dezeen.

The 2023 Version of the Rural Design Days took place at the „Zukunftsforum für ländliche Entwicklung“ where we held a forum on Rural Social Innovation.

 

Speakers

Jose Antonio Morales

Originally from Peru, he has lived in Slovenia for over 15 years. His professional career kicked off in IT. Jose works with corporate teams, SMEs, and young entrepreneurs, always bringing new perspectives, challenging the status quo, and sparking innovation.
Back in the day, Jose co-founded one of the first ISP in Peru and started up one of the first Web communities in Latin America in partnership with Microsoft Peru.
While in Slovenia, Microsoft Corp. recognized him as one of the 18 SMB Global Partner Area Leads. The US Patent and Trademark Office granted him his first invention in 2014.
Since 2012 he has been incorporating Social Entrepreneurship, social impact, social innovation into his toolkit. He is a proud alumnus of the Ashoka Visionary Program.
Today, he is the initiator and co-founder of multiple ventures: Aurora Coworking, Lincoln Island, the European Rural Coworking Project, and Aurora Coworking Network.

jose

Jose Antonio Morales

Self-sustaining rural Coworking Spaces as a way to foster community

Stephen Sugg

Before joining HAC as a Government Relations Manager and now Special Projects Manager, Stephen Sugg worked as a U.S. Senate staffer, a state-level higher education lobbyist, and as a senior policy officer at the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). Stephen is a published short story writer. He holds a master’s degree in rural sociology from the University of Missouri and a doctorate from the College of William and Mary. His academic research interests include rural education, place-based education, and environmental education. Stephen spent four years as an adjunct faculty member at St. Leo University and Tidewater Community College.

stephen_sugg

Stephen Sugg

Citizens‘ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD)

Oliver Nell

Oliver graduated with his undergrad at Auburn University where he studied Professional and Public Writing, as well as Classical Guitar. He is now in graduate school at Indiana University pursuing a MA in Arts Administration degree. Being from rural Alabama, Oliver has a passion for rural communities and the activities and ways of life that make them so special. He hopes, in his career, to work in rural communities, especially in community arts organizations and creative placemaking efforts.

oliver_nell

Oliver Nell

MA Student, Indiana University

Dr. Rosemary Shirley

Dr Rosemary Shirley is an Associate Professor in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. Her research centres on cultural representations of rural places and she has published widely on this subject including her monograph Rural Modernity, Everyday Life and Visual Culture. She co-curated the critical landscape exhibition Creating the Countryside at Compton Verney and her writing was included in the Documents in Contemporary Art edition: Rural (Whitechapel/MIT Press 2019). Her most recent curatorial project is the online exhibition Everywhere: Life in a littered world

rosemaryshirley

Dr. Rosemary Shirley

Exploring the Rural Distribution Centre

Michael Ulmer

Michael Ulmer founded the strategy consulting and planning company "Querfeld.Design" with his wife Anna in 2016. Since then, he advises and accompanies medium-sized companies and municipalities in their strategic orientation, development and transformation. Likewise, he conceives and designs rural and urban spaces, buildings and interiors in the disciplines of urban planning, architecture and interior design.

STRATEGY DESIGN

An impulse lecture followed by a round of dialogue on the relationship between people and space, between strategy and design.
Illustrated example projects and models will show the quality of a rural building culture and architecture already has and could have in the future, why the countryside is experiencing a social renaissance and can experience much more in the future.

Querfeld Design

Michael Ulmer

QUERFELD.DESIGN

Prof. Klüter

Helmut Klüter lives and works as a geographer in Greifswald, a small university town on the Baltic Sea. While other researchers write most about people moving from the countryside to the cities, Helmut works on migration from the big cities to the countryside. Since 2008, he has been developing the "Garden of Metropolises" mission statement with his colleagues.

Helmut was born in the village of Rahden (North Rhine-Westphalia). He studied sociology, economics, geography, history, Slavic languages and political science at the University of Muenster. He then carried out research in Giessen, Copenhagen and Novosibirsk on life and social development in peripheral regions of the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, Siberia and Germany. He conducted several expeditions and field trips to Khakassia, Karelia, Värmland, Tatra and Altay.

In Greifswald, he managed a working group that compiled and published the first economic atlas on eastern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern He also dealt with the question of how regions with agro-industrial structures can be transformed into sustainable economies. On this topic, he has published monographs on the German states of Saxony, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Helmut is Corresponding member of the Geographical Society of Finland, and member of the board of the Urban-Rural Development Network at Wismar.

helmut_klueter

Prof. Klüter

Garden of Metropolises

Inés Lauber

Studio Inés Lauber is a conceptual food and design studio based in Berlin (since 2012) and Beelitz-Heilstaetten, Brandenburg (since 2020). The studio raises awareness on the subjects of sustainability, seasonality, locality and maintaining biodiversity through storytelling and conceptual design. 

Experimenting with foraged ingredients and traditional preserving methods, researching on healing aspects and cultural values of food, the studio blurs the boundaries between forgotten and modern, traditional and new, food and art offering food concepts to not only feed your body, but also your mind.

Inés Lauber mainly works with local and sustainable produce and collaborates with projects and (small) businesses that have social and environmental sustainability high on their agenda. 

»Food culture is a reflection of our society and a manifestation of the zeitgeist. I use food as both a source of inspiration and as a working material. Social and emotional aspects as well as sensory experience are central to my work. I create concepts for the food culture of tomorrow.«

- Inés Lauber 

Photo: Constanze Flamme

 

ines-lauber

Inés Lauber

Edible Futures – Designing Food Culture

Franz Nahrada

Franz graduated as sociologist at Vienna University in 1982. As user programming consultant for Apple Computer he was involved in many different digital projects and was influenced by D. Engelbarts concept of "bootstrap research", which he applies to rural rejuvenation.
He was convener of many events on spatial development and digitisation, like "Global Village" etc. From 1998, he focused on education as the key condition for securing rural habitats survival and thriving. From 2003 to 2019, he developed the concept of "Videobridging Learning Villages", which had its first public appearance with the help of friends and voluntary supporters as "DorfUni" at the Elevate Festival in Graz 2020 and is growing since.

franz-nahrada

Franz Nahrada

Futurist, Networker, Founder Dorfuni.at, Global Villages Network

Valentina Anzoise

Sociologist, Founding member of Ru.De.Ri association, Art director of Rural Design Week

Sociologist, PhD in Information Society. He has taught at the University of Milan-Bicocca, University of Padua, European Institute of Design, and collaborated to several national and European projects on urban and rural sustainability, among the last ones: MEDIUM New pathways for sustainable urban development in China's medium-sized cities (EuropeAid), CAP-PERI Common Agricultural Policy, Peer Educational Resources in Italy (IMCAP).

In 2014 she founded Ru.De.Ri (Rural design for territorial regeneration), a cultural association whose mission is to design, develop and promote practices and approaches aimed at valorizing inner and rural areas, placing the activities related to agriculture at the heart of regeneration processes. In 2019 she has been the art director of the first Rural Design Week.

valentina-anzoise

Valentina Anzoise

Art Director Rural Design Week, Founding Member RU.DE.RI Association

Andrea Bartoli

Notary since 2000. He is a consultant in strategic planning, feasibility and management of public and private cultural organizations.With Florinda, life partner and accomplice of all his initiatives, in June 2010 they gave birth to Farm Cultural Park, a new generation Cultural Center, winner of numerous awards, including the prestigious award of the American Foundation of the same name Curry Stone Design Prize, as one of the 100 international experiences that have produced the greatest social impact in the world in the last ten years; invited in 2012, 2016, 2018, 2021 at the Venice Architecture Biennale and published in the most important national and international media such as The Guardian and Vogue and Domus. For several years he has been promoter, curator and organizer of exhibitions of prestigious international artists and architects.In 2018 he was a guest of the US State Department, in Washington, Pittsburgh and Detroit to participate in an exchange project called the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP).

In 2019 he was invited by the European Commission to be Inspirational Speaker at the Dublin Global Platform and by Unesco and Popular Republic of China in Meishan for Rural-Urban Development: The Future of Historic Villages and Towns. In the same year he designed Countless Cities the first Biennial of the Cities of the World.

In 2020 he was a guest of UN at the tenth edition of the WUF-World Urban Forum.

In 2021 with Countless Cities he won the Human City Design Award of Seoul.

andrea_bartoli

Andrea Bartoli

Farm Cultural Park: A platform for change

Esteban A. Matheus

Esteban Matheus is an Architect originally from Ecuador that lives and practices architecture in an integrated design firm in Vancouver, Canada. Esteban specializes in sustainable design and has worked on award-winning planning, infrastructure and post-secondary projects with a focus on sustainability. He is also co-founder of Humans For Abundance (H4A), a social enterprise that aims to restore and conserve the planet's ecosystems and biodiversity by empowering local humans who can take real, concrete actions that have an additive, large-scale positive environmental and social impact. Through the work with H4A, the question of designing for rural communities in a manner that supports local culture and identity while also being ecological and practical has become essential.

estebanmatheus

Esteban A. Matheus

Designing for an Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest

Kathryn Moore

Professor Kathryn Moore is the creator of the West Midlands National Park and Director of the international think tank, the WMNP Lab. She is leading the development of this new approach to transform regions and cities, organizations, policy, modes of governance and finance, addressing global challenges in the context of the accelerating climate emergency.

Overlooking the Visual: Demystifying the Art of Design (Moore 2010) sets a new way of looking at landscape, putting it at the heart of the built and natural environment. She was celebrated by the LI in August 2019 as one of the most inspiring women landscape architects this century.

kathryn_moore

Kathryn Moore

Seeing the bigger picture

Francesca Zampollo

Dr. Francesca Zampollo is a Food Design Thinking researcher, consultant, teacher, and keen public speaker. She is the founding editor of the International Journal of Food Design, the first and only academic journal of Food Design, the founder of the International Food Design Society, and she organised the first, second, and third International Conferences on Food Design. Francesca earned a PhD in Design Theory applied to Food Design in 2014 and she taught Food Design and Design Theory at London Metropolitan University and Auckland University of Technology as a full time lecturer and researcher. For the last eight years Francesca worked on developing the Food Design Thinking methodology, as a food-specific branch of Design Thinking (fooddesignthinking.org). Francesca founded the Online School of Food Design© (onlineschooloffooddesign.org) in 2016, and she now works as a consultant and as a teacher bringing the Food Design Thinking methodology to companies and individuals.

Zampollo Francesca small

Francesca Zampollo

Design responsibility

Kejtil Thorsen

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen was born in Haugesund, Norway, and in 1985 he graduated as Dipl. Ing. Architect from the University of Graz, Austria. The same year he was a co-founder of the first Norwegian gallery for architecture, Gallery ROM.

In 1989 he co-founded the multidisciplinary architectural practice, Snøhetta, which now counts the disciplines architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, product design and graphic design. Since the creation of Snøhetta, Kjetil has been instrumental in the projects developed by the practice such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the New National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway; The SFMOMA in San Francisco; the National September 11 Memorial Pavilion in NY; the Lascaux IV Caves in France; the Busan Opera house in Busan; Under, Europe’s first underwater restaurant in Lindesnes, Norway; Shanghai Grand Opera House in Shanghai, China and Le Monde Group Headquarters in Paris.

He is a frequent lecturer internationally, and from 2004 to 2008 he was professor of architecture at the Institute of Experimental Architecture at the University of Innsbruck, Austria.
As founding partner, Kjetil has been instrumental in defining and developing Snøhetta’s philosophy and architectural ambition. Many of the projects created by Snøhetta has been inspired or led by Kjetil.

thorsen-kejtil

Kejtil Thorsen

Rural Identities: an ecological architecture walk

Patrick Lüth

Architect Patrick Lüth has headed Snøhetta Studio in Innsbruck since 2011. In 2005, after studying architecture in Innsbruck, he started as an intern in the Oslo office. There he accompanied many international architectural competitions due to his exceptional design skills and was involved in some of Snøhetta's most famous design submissions. In Innsbruck he is leading, among others, the Swarovski projects "Kristallwelten Evolution" and Manufaktur, an innovative building for production and creative collaboration, the design study for a new museum quarter in Bolzano, the master plan for a new city quarter in Budapest, and hotel and tourism projects. In summer 2021, he and his team won the competition for the University Campus Klagenfurt.

patrick-lueth

Patrick Lüth

Rural Identities: an ecological architecture walk

Prof. Rainer Mahlamäki

Professor Rainer Mahlamäki’s representative designs are a product of his belief in the importance of understanding each commission’s backstory. He strives to understand the people he designs for, the landscape he is altering, and the history he is representing. Whether museums or homes, his designs are rooted in a deep understanding and speak for themselves.
His best-known works include, e.g., the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland, and the Finnish Forest Museum Lusto in Punkaharju, Finland. He is currently working on the Żurawie mixed-use block in Gdańsk, Poland, and the Lost Shtetl Jewish Museum in Šeduva, Lithuania, to name but a few.
Aside from his projects, Rainer Mahlamäki frequently acts as a juror for high-profile international architecture competitions. His pioneering achievements have been recognized with, e.g., the prestigious Prince Eugen Medal conferred by the King of Sweden for outstanding artistic achievement.
Rainer Mahlamäki founded Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects together with Ilmari Lahdelma in 1997. Their collaborations began well before this, with the founding of the architecture collective 8 Studio in 1986, and architecture office Kaira-Lahdelma-Mahlamäki in 1992.
Rainer Mahlamäki has been ever-present within Finland’s education and architecture institutions. He is Professor Emeritus of Contemporary Architecture at the University of Oulu, chaired the Board of the Museum of Finnish Architecture from 2002 to 2006 and was President of Finnish Association of Architects from 2007 to 2011.

rainermahlamaeki

Prof. Rainer Mahlamäki

„Human – A Nest Builder“

Iain Davidson-Hunt

Dr. Iain Davidson-Hunt is a professor at the Natural Resources Institute, Clayton H. Riddell Faculty of Earth, Environment and Resources, University of Manitoba and a Registered Professional Planner with the Canadian Institute of Planners. His current research focuses on biocultural design as an approach to support individuals and collectivities in their efforts to revitalize their communities and regions drawing upon their biocultural assets. He has worked with Indigenous, Peasant and rural producers on artisanal, or small-scale, food and beverage systems, as well as the use of non-timber forest products for food, medicine and crafts in Canada and Latin America for thirty years.

iaindavidson

Iain Davidson-Hunt

Designing rural

Mathias Burke and Leon Jank

studio amore operates at the interface of spatial and social transformation. The team of Berlin-based urban and rural designers and researchers, focus on the issue of transformation in different regional contexts. They developed their own methods at the intersection of design, social science, planning activism and digital tools.

studio_amore

Studio amore - Mathias Burke and Leon Jank

A new take on rural design

Andrew Bullen

Andrew Bullen has spent his working life moving between creative disciplines, cultures and societies: From working for the Brecht family in East Berlin, to university teaching in West Berlin, Sussex, Amsterdam, Utrecht, St. Petersburg and Xiamen. He co-founded the pioneering Europe Online in Luxembourg, directed the Media Guild Creative Industries incubator in Amsterdam and the Futur en Seine Festival in Paris. He is founder of the Creative Cooperative, co-creator of the European Street Design Challenge (ESDC) and co-creator of the Lucitopia Rural Design Challenge (LRDC) in Jiangxi province, China. He has created and run citizen co-design and social entrepreneur workshops for the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Georgia, Cairo and Alexandria. Andrew has published widely in non-fiction and fiction.

andrewbullen

Andrew Bullen

Lucitopia Rural Design, China

Leopold Zyka

Leopold Zyka, born as Digital Native in Vienna (Austria), Software Architect, Open Source Evangelist, founder of OpenLandLAB, Co-initiator of ThinkCamp Smart Country.
Currently we are working in co-creation on first drafts for a distributed open eco village 
as contribution to the New European Bauhaus .

profilfoto-me-upside-down

Leopold Zyka

Workshop BALANCING THE (ECO) PUZZLE

Nikolas Kichler

Nikolas Kichler is one of the three initiators of the vivihouse project. He studied architecture in Vienna (AT) and Delft (NL). The question of how urban dwellers can actively shape and adapt their built environment has been on his mind since his student days. This has led him to the Maker Movement, the commons and alternative economic cycles. After internships architecture firms in Berlin and Vienna, he has been active at the Vienna University of Technology, where he initiated the vivihouse project in 2016.

nikolaskichler

Nikolas Kichler

Vivihouse Project

Richie Moalosi

Richie Moalosi is a Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Botswana, Botswana.
He is also the Director of the Engineering and Technology Innovation Centre. He coordinates the University of Botswana Design for Sustainability and Social Innovation Lab. Her works with various grassroots communities to empower them to solve their challenges using the bottom-up approach.
At the Zukunftsforum he will speak about the San Community in Botswana and how social innovation is sustaining their livelihoods.

richie_moalosi

Richie Moalosi

Professor of Industrial Design at the University of Botswana

Ricardo Situmeang

Ricardo Situmeang is a Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Tropical AgriScience, Sustainable Rural Development at the Czech University of Life Science, Prague.

Moving directly from humanitarian to academic, Ricardo has deep exposure to the problems in the field with a scientific background. Over his twelve years both in development and teaching, Ricardo can merge the gap between both worlds. Leveraging the unique lessons he learned from the inside out - literally! - Ricardo made a seamless transition to the world of sustainability and research. Ricardo will share his story of working to help his hometown's tourism and creative industry at the Zukunftsforum.

ricardo_situmeang

Ricardo Situmeang

Ph.D. candidate at the Faculty of Tropical AgriScience, Sustainable Rural Development at the Czech University of Life Science, Prague

Hartmut Esslinger

Growing up in a Black Forest village, Hartmut Esslinger became one of the world's most influential industrial designers. In a rural setting, he founded frog design, the first global design agency in 1969, with 14 studios on all continents today.

He helped brands such as SONY, LOUIS VUITTON, SAP and APPLE - the collaboration with Steve Jobs has become legend - to global success. His vision is to advance the world of complex hardware and software by innovative design for humans - both functional and emotionally appealing.

hartmut-esslinger

Hartmut Esslinger

Designer

Phillip Nielsen

Phillip has over 15 years' experience working on the delivery of conceptual and detail design of small and large scale commercial, community, hotel, residential and urban planning projects across Australia.

His expertise evolved between Melbourne and Brisbane, working at internationally respected design studios, where he established an open minded approach, driven to deliver positive solutions.

Phillip established Regional Design Service with Aaron Nicholls in 2017, with an agenda to cultivate community awareness of design and how it can enrich all facets of rural and regional life.

Driven by a passion to understand how regional communities perceive the built environment, Phillip is continuously provoking conversation with clients, community groups and local councils alike.

phillip-nielsen

Phillip Nielsen

Regional Design Service Design Director

Uni.-Prof. Philipp Oswalt

Philipp Oswalt is professor in Kassel since 2006 and has a project office since 1999, which realises studies, exhibits and projects. 1988-94: editor of architecture magazine Arch+, 1996/97: employee at OMA/Rem Koolhaas, 2001-03: Co-leader of Europ. research project Urban Catalyst. Co-initiator and Co-curator of the cultural temporary use of Palast der Republik 2004.

2002-08: Head of the project Shrinking cities.  2009-14: Director at the Foundation Bauhaus Dessau, 2019/20: research project: construction for new mobility in rural areas (with Stefan Rettich & Frank Roost).

Numerous publications: i.a. Berlin_city without form. Strategies of a different architecture (2000), Pioneers in rural areas (2013) and Brand Bauhaus. Victory of an iconic form over usage (2019).

Photo: Nicolas Wefers

philip-oswalt

Uni.-Prof. Philipp Oswalt

Professor für Architekturtheorie und Entwurf Uni Kassel

Randall Arendt

Randall Arendt FRTPI is a landscape planner, site designer, author, lecturer. In 2003 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Town Planning Institute, and in 2004 was elected as an Honorary Member of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Among his books are Rural by Design, Conservation Design for Subdivisions, Growing Greener, Crossroads, Hamlet, Village, Town, and Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices. IN 2015 he completed a thorough updating and substantial expansion of Rural by Design for the APA.

randall-arendt

Randall Arendt

Greener Prospects

Prof. Mugendi M'Rithaa

Prof. Mugendi K. M'Rithaa is a transdisciplinary industrial designer, educator, researcher and consultant.

He is passionate about various expressions of socially conscious design, e.g. Advanced Ergonomics/Human Factors Engineering, Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Universal/Inclusive Design.

Additionally, Mugendi is President Emeritus and Senator of the World Design Organization - having been the first African President in the history of the WDO from 2015 to 2017.

mugendi-mrithaa

Prof. Mugendi M'Rithaa

Chairperson & Professor of Industrial Design: Department of Fashion Design and Marketing Machakos University, Kenia

Ulrike Rothe

She is part of the founding team of Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA) Thüringen and was a co-author of the feasibility study. Now, Ulrike works in an urban-rural context as project developer at IBA Thüringen. She has worked at the IBA Fürst-Pückler-Land (IBA see), headed communication and the visitor centre and led the IBA see during its final year 2010.

She is a trained hand weaver, studied painting/graphics in Schneeberg and architecture in Weimar, Stuttgart and Copenhagen, worked at an architecture and design office and in landscape architecture at the universities in Karlsruhe (at Prof. Dieter Kienast and Prof. Henri Bava) and Berkeley and other universities. She has been a perennial chairwoman of Sächsischer Werkbund and is currently chairwoman of the Kunstlandschaft Pritzen e.V.

ulrike-rothe

Ulrike Rothe

Projektentwicklerin IBA Thüringen

Prof. Ute Meyer

Ute Meyer is Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Climate-Engineering and Professor of Urban Design at the University of Applied Sciences Biberach.

With over fifteen years of professional experience she has directed many projects on urban issues for a variety of public clients and led interdisciplinary research projects on sustainable development. Ute holds an Executive Master in Cities Degree from the London School of Economics and Graduate Degrees from Stuttgart and Columbia University.

She has founded the urbanes.land initiative to question the potential of resilient urban development in non-metropolitan areas, kicking off investigations and projects throughout Europe and southwest Germany, involving different professionals and stakeholders.

ute-meyer

Prof. Ute Meyer

Founder urbanes.land

Paola Menzardi

Paola is a systemic designer and academic researcher in design for territories. She is obtaining her Ph.D. in Management, Production and Design at the Polytechnic of Turin with a research on co-design processes for the enhancement of territorial heritage in inner areas.

Her interests regard slow and immersive tourism, participatory regeneration practices like community mapping, in marginalized rural and alpine areas. She has been Visiting Researcher at i-DAT, Institute of Digital Art and Technology Art in Plymouth (UK), where she focused on citizens' empowerment projects in territorial planning and management. She currently collaborates with Val Grande National Park and Ars. Uni.Vco Association on Comuniterràe, a participative project for territorial development in Piedmont region.

paola-menzardi

Paola Menzardi

Systemic Designer, Academic Researcher Polytechnic of Turin – Department of Architecture and Design

Andrea Cottini

Andrea graduated in Law at Milan University and is responsible for the Alpine Convention's Infopoint in Domodossola and for the European Documentation Centre (EDC) for the province of Verbano Cusio Ossola and he is president of GAL LAGHI e MONTI (Local Action Group).

For almost 20 years, he has been working on implementing services related to training, research and culture. Managing various cultural and local development projects, he was speaker at e.g. conferences and training courses with respect to the specific projects. As a co-author, he contributed to some publications about designing, researches and management and to projects concerning mountain life and high lands. He is interested in all aspects of mountain's life especially culture, tourism, customs, sustainabel energy.

andrea-cottini

Andrea Cottini

Secretary and Project Manager ARS.UNI.VCO Association

Giulia Damiani

She graduated at the Polytechnic of Turin with a thesis about slow tourism in the Ticino Valley MAB UNESCO, with which she still collaborates. Her interests focus on sustainable development, holistic approach, co-design.

In 2015 she worked in Lisbon at Cortiço&Netos store on the conversion of ceramic waste into new products. In 2017-18 she was part of Hygiene First team, collaborating with the NGO IOP to spread hygiene awareness in a Tanzanian primary school.
She worked as graphic designer at Energy Center and at the Department of Energy of Polytechnic. In 2019 she won the Premio Barcellona residence and she worked on urban and participatory regeneration for the development of farmers' markets. Since October 2020 she is ecomuseal facilitator for the Comuniterràe project.

giulia-damiani

Giulia Damiani

Systemic Designer, Facilitator Comuniterràe Project

Stefania Cerutti

Stefania is an Associate Professor of Economic and Political Geography at the Department of Business and Economic Studies. She focuses her research on Cultural and Religious Tourism, Local and Territorial Development, Inner and Mountain Areas, Project Management and European Project Design. Her research and teaching activity combines with a significant participation as a speaker and chairman at conferences and seminars, as well as a good scientific production. As President of the Ars.Uni.VCO Association, she has been involved, also as scientific responsible, in several projects such as Comuniterràe. She is the Director of Upontourism. Vision, Strategy, Research for Innovative and sustainable tourism, the Interdepartmental Centre for Tourism Studies of the University of Piemonte Orientale.

stefania-cerutti

Stefania Cerutti

Associate Professor at University of Piemonte Orientale, President of ARS.UNI.VCO

Emma Enderby

Emma Enderby is a curator, writer and lecturer of modern and contemporary art.

At The Shed, she curated the retrospective Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates, and shows with Trisha Donnelly, Tony Cokes, Oscar Murillo and the Institution's emerging art programme, Open Call.
As a curator at Public Art Fund, she curated e.g. Tauba Auerbach: Flow Separation, Spencer Finch: Lost Man Creek, along with group exhibitions Commercial Break and The Language of Things.
As exhibitions curator at the Serpentine Galleries, London, she organised e.g. Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen and Rachel Rose: Palisades, and assisted on Adrián Villa Rojas: Today We Reboot the Planet.
She also worked in London at the Royal Academy of Arts and Whitechapel Gallery.

emma-enderby

Emma Enderby

Chief Curator The Shed, New York

Thomas Büttner

Thomas studied landscape planning at the Technical University of Berlin and wrote his doctorate thesis on "Cultural landscape as a planning concept".

Since 20 years he is working as a freelance landscape planner with a focus on cultural landscape inventories and reports for monument preservation. He has an office in Morschen (Hesse, Schwalm-Eder County).

Since 2021, Thomas works as scientific assistant of the Bavarian State Association for Homeland Care. There, he is responsible for the content-related support of voluntarily active persons who use a web GIS database to record landscape elements.
More information here.

thomas-buettner

Thomas Büttner

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter beim Bayerischen Landesverein für Heimatpflege Freier Landschaftsplaner und -forscher

Ursula Eberhard

Ursula studied Agricultural Sciences at the University of Bonn and Landscape Planning at the Technical University of Munich. Following her studies, she worked in executing planning offices in Nürnberg, Freising and Munich.

Since 2003 she is employed as scientific assistant at Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege (Bavarian State Association for Homeland Care) in Munich. There, she is concerned with citizen participation and mediation of cultural landscape as well as planning and building in rural areas.

She is involved in Bund Heimat und Umwelt in Deutschland (Federation for Homeland and Environment in Germany) and in Deutsches Forum Kulturlandschaft (German Forum Cultural Landscape).

ursula-eberhard

Ursula Eberhard

Referentin Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege

MArch PhD Intl Carlos Arroyo

Carlos is Principal of Carlos Arroyo Architects and Founder/Director of Digital Rural Lab. He teaches at Universidad Europea de Madrid, where he is Curator of the Masters in Architecture.

The Digital Rural Lab was created in 2018 to study the digital revolution in the rural and the remote, exploring implications in terms of Architecture, Engineering, Urbanism, Landscape and Design. The aim is to show rural-native phenomena, avoiding the more usual urban-centric approach, looking into the ways that the 50% of population that continue to live in the countryside are empowered and self-organised using digital technologies.

He is a Member of the Europan Europe Scientific Committee since 2004, helping cities and territories across Europe find the right strategy for their difficult areas.

carlos-arroyo

MArch PhD Intl
Carlos Arroyo

Founder Digital Rural Lab

Robert Krikac

Robert Krikac is the co-director of the Rural Communities Design Initiative at Washington State University (WSU) and has been an associate professor in the Interior Design Program of the School of Design and Construction since 1998.

Before coming to WSU professor Krikac practiced design in the southwestern U.S. for twenty years. During his graduate studies, he worked with the Arizona State University Joint Urban Design Studio in community workshops and design charrettes and found a passion for community engagement.

He has brought this love of community engagement to the RCDI at WSU, continuing to work with rural communities throughout the northwestern United States on design related issues.

robert-krikac

Robert Krikac

Co-Director Rural Communities Design Initiative

Michael Sanchez

Michael Sanchez is an Assistant Professor of Practice in Landscape Architecture at Washington State University's School of Design and Construction (SDC) where he teaches design, site engineering, storm water management, construction technology/documentation and foundational drawing as a "thinking" tool for designers. He is a registered landscape architect in Idaho.

In his role as Co-Director of the Rural Communities Design Initiative, Michael works closely with faculty and students in the disciplines of architecture, interior design and construction management, bringing a comprehensive perspective to the discussion regarding the built environment.

Michael enjoys helping communities of all sizes solve challenges they face in developing beautiful, functional and affordable spaces.

michael-sanchez

Michael Sanchez

Co-Director Rural Communities Design Initiative

Mag. Bertram Meusburger

Teacher training in biology; training and many years of practice in pedagogy group dynamics, theme-centred interaction, art of hosting, dance. Since 1998 at the Office for Future Issues (staff unit at the Office of the Vorarlberg Provincial Government), Deputy Head. Department of Sustainable Development. Since 2020 renamed Office for Voluntary Engagement and Participation.

Process design (management of numerous trainings in art of hosting), conception and implementation of regional development and citizen participation. Since 2019 in the core team of LandStadt Vorarlberg.

bertram-meusburger

Mag. Bertram Meusburger

Land Vorarlberg – Büro für Freiwilliges Engagement und Beteiligung

Troy Conrad Therrien

Troy Conrad Therrien (b. 1981, Canadian and Métis) is the Curator of Architecture and Digital Initiatives at the Guggenheim Museum. He brings an animist approach to architecture, magic, deep history, and technology in a curatorial practice that blends traditional and experimental formats.

He organized the Guggenheim's first ever online exhibition, Åzone Futures Market, co-organized Architecture Effects (2018-2019) in Bilbao, and organized Countryside, The Future with Rem Koolhaas / AMO (2020-2021).

Therrien is also an adjunct professor of architecture at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, where he co-founded the Architecture Online Lab, and a visiting tutor at the Architectural Association.

troy-therrien

Troy Conrad Therrien

Curator Guggenheim Museum, New York

Siyanda Mbele

Siyanda Mbele is a furniture designer with experience in interior design. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Interior Design From Durban University of Technology. However, it was in 2012 during his third year of study that he realized the lack of African representation from curriculum to the design industry. To fill this gap would form the basis of his professional commitment.

Part of Mbele's ethos is to, primarily, critically and creatively rethink wastage whilst using design as a tool. In other words, design is only a tool to solve our most pressing problems, especially in working class and low income communities. Aptly captured in his design values statement "Narrate African stories through design to represent identity and evoke a shared sense of belonging".

Photo: Njabulo Magubane

siyanda-mbele

Siyanda Mbele

Pinda Furniture and Interior Design

Muhamad Lukman

Muhamad Lukman is a traditional pattern designer and software instructor.

He is the co-founder of Digital Tenun Indonesia, a company that developed and teaches the DiTenun software helping traditional artisans making new textile designs. He is also the co-founder of Batik Fractal Indonesia, a company that uses custom-made software to create new batik textile patterns.

His belief is that technology can help empower traditional artisans of Indonesia, especially in rural areas. In 2009 he was recipient of UNESCO Award of Excellence for Batik Fractal and in 2010 of British Council Young Creative Entrepreneur 2010.

muhamad-lukman

Muhamad Lukman

Designer Digital Tenun Indonesia, Batik Fractal Indonesia

Dr. Pallavi Rani

Dr. Pallavi is a passionate Visual Designer, Ethnographer, Muralist, Illustrator and practicing design researcher in the field of Communication Design.

In her presentation Dr. Pallavi will discuss the rural mural art forms of eastern rural Jharkhand India. In addition to this she will also explain how the study of visual characteristics of these art forms will help to preserve this traditional art practice in modern time.

pallavi-rani

Dr. Pallavi Rani

Assistant Professor National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Mumbai, India

Jörg Stauvermann

Jörg Stauvermann was born in 1971 in the rural Münsterland region (North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany). He is a trained cabinet maker and he has studied design in Essen, Cologne, Copenhagen and Paris.

Afterwards, he has worked for several bureaus, became self-employed in 2000, moved to the North Frisian Island Föhr with his family in 2008 and won numerous international design awards. He works dor customers, institutions and museums all over Germany - not seldomly in rural areas.

joerg-stauvamann

Jörg Stauvermann

Freier Kreativdirektor

Adam Sutherland

Grizedale Arts is a rural organisation that positions art and design as a part of everyday life. It works with local and international communities facing common issues of change and loss. Through joint working GA aims to generate diversity and diversification, creatively driven enterprise and cohesive communities.

GA has recently purchased a rural Inn and land, and now plans to reinvent it for the 21st century. www.lakedistrictfarmersarms.com

A long term project involved the reanimating of a farm as a productive base for ideas and practical development. www.lawsonpark.org

A project in Japan develops complex combinations of local, international, farm and educational projects aimed at reengergising rural life and retaining and repurposing skills and knowledge. www.dreamofkiwanosato.org

 

adam-sutherland

Adam Sutherland

Director Grizedale Arts

Xavier Troussard

Since 12/2020, Xavier leads the NEB Unit created at the JRC. Before, he was at the DG for Information, Communication, Culture and Audiovisual leading the coordination in negotiating the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions. Heading the "Culture policy, diversity and Intercultural dialogue" Unit in the DG for Education and Culture, he developed the European Agenda for culture and a strategy for cultural and creative industries. He joined the JRC 2014 to create and lead the EU Policy Lab development at the crossroads of anticipation (horizon scanning, foresight), behavioural sciences and design. Xavier graduated in Law and General Administration from the University of Rennes and from the College of Europe Bruges in European Studies.

xavier-troussard

Xavier Troussard

Head of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) Unit European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC)

Roland Gruber

Roland Gruber, born 1972 in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Carinthia (Austria). Studied architecture in Linz and Zurich and cultural management in Salzburg.

Since 1999 co-founder, partner and managing director of nonconform (www.nonconform.at), an office for architecture and participatory spatial development of communities, cities and companies.

Initiator and curator of the annual vacancy conference; co-founder of LandLuft-association for the promotion of building culture in rural areas (www.landluft.at); co-founder of Zukunftsorte -platform of innovative communities in Austria (www.zukunftsorte.at); co-founder of RURASMUS - European scholarship to bring young people to the countryside (www.rurasmus.eu).

roland-gruber

Roland Gruber

Partner, Geschäftsführer Nonconform

Sophie Mirpourian

Sophie builds Infrastructure for shaping the future. As a communications manager and project maker at the Anscharcampus creative center in Kiel, she works with international partnerships, creative industry networking and strategic communication. As an organizational anthropologist, her approach is based on Scandinavian co-creation methods, empathy and systemic process understanding.

For her, the focus is on people as drivers of Innovation. For creative work to function, effective interfaces, active listening and agile processes are needed to create space for new trends, forms of work and technologies.

In the historic building of the former naval hospital, almost 100 people and companies work with art, sustainability, inclusion and creative industries.

sophie-mirpourian

Sophie Mirpourian

Head of Communication Anschar Kultur- und Kreativwirtschaft GmbH

Michele Anderson

Michele Anderson is the Rural Program Director for Springboard for the Arts, a community and economic development organization run by artists based in St. Paul and Fergus Fall, Minnesota, USA.

Michele has launched nationally recognized programs at the intersection of rural arts, historic preservation, public health, and economic development, leading programs like the Rural Arts and Culture Summit, Artists on Main Street, and the Hinge Arts Residency.
Her writing and ideas on dismantling stereotypes of rural life have been featured in the New York Times, and more.

Michele is also a pianist and a creative writer. She lives in Fergus Falls, Minnesota with her husband Spencer and their son, Ash.

michele-anderson

Michele Anderson

Rural Program Director Springboard for the Arts

Alessandro Rancati

Architect and designer trained at the Politecnico of Milano.

Extensive experience in design for policy, strategic design, design direction, service design, group facilitation and participatory leadership.

Current challenge: to contribute to the development of a design culture in the European Commission.

Current interest: bridging design and complexity theory
Experimenting with permaculture, additive/subtractive manufacturing, couture, practicing kitesurfing

Founded and ran design studios in Miami and Barcelona. Taught design at Elisava, ESDI, BAU, Escola Massana, Barcelona.

Alessandro_Rancati

Alessandro Rancati

European Commission Joint Research Centre

Jakob Liese

Jakob Liese is co-founder of two start-ups that have made it their mission to support smaller labels and artists.

He studied Fashion Journalism / Media Communication at the Akademie Mode & Design in Düsseldorf and Fashion Management and Communication at the University of South Wales.

At the same time he founded and discovered his love for graphics and design. Currently, as Creative Director at the start-up LABELBIRD, he is the creative mind behind the website, online store and marketing.

With his own label Vitamin Bois he invites young creatives to realise their passion.

jakob-liese

Jakob Liese

Creative Director Labelbird

Lena Wenz

Lena Wenz is a trained photographer and studied Kommu(h)nikationsdesign. Today, she earns her living as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator and as a lecturer at HAW-Landshut.

In her graphic and illustrative work, she is particularly interested in projects related to her native region - she comes from the Fichtelgebirge and now lives in the nearby university town Bayreuth. In addition to rural design, it's cowtime is her heart project in which the illustrator devotes herself entirely to cattle.

Due to her love of cows, the Silicon Vilstal team reached out to her in 2019, when they had the special theme "MUH" at their Festival. So it happened that Lena created the MUH design and also the visual for the Festiva "Zukunft Daheim" ("Future at Home").

lena-wenz

Lena Wenz

Kommu(h)nikationsdesignerin, Grafikerin, Illustratorin & Dozentin

Organization and Moderation

Simona Gulich
Project Manager | Rural Design Days 2022

Simona Gulich works as an event manager and PR manager at Silicon Vilstal while studying journalism, PR and political science. She organized the Rural Design Days 2022 from the program planning to the acquisition of speakers and the promotion of the event.

Rebecca Alt
Moderation | Rural Design Days 2022

Rebecca Alt is moderating the Rural Design Days for the second time. Previously, she was responsible for program coordination at Silicon Vilstal Festival. Rebecca works at the Federal Foreign Office Germany.

Carina Forsthofer
Technical Support | Rural Design Days 2022

Carina Forsthofer works as an event manager at Silicon Vilstal alongside her studies in media and communication. For the Rural Design Days, she coordinates the technology and processes in the background.

What happened before

The first thoughts concerning a “Rural Design Event” came about in 2019. Back then, we asked ourselves: is there a specific rural design? What is the relevance of design for rural regions? Are rural regions a good place for designers?
To put the topic “Rural Design“ to the test, we then organised a “Rural Design Workshop“ at THE ARTS+, the international “Future of Culture“ event at the Frankfurt Book Fair in fall 2019. The lively discussions there encouraged us to plan the first Rural Design Days in March 2020, as a small regional event on a tiny farm. With the pandemic approaching, we decided to transform the physical event into an online event virtually “overnight“. Our event spontaneously got online participants from different countries. Video 1 Video 2 
This led to the next step: a global online meeting of rural creators – the Rural Design Days 2021. 

Here you can find the Rural Design Annual 2021, which includes the proceedings of the past Rural Design Days event.

Download Rural Design Annual 2021

Behind the scenes

Voriger
Nächster

Kontakt

Silicon Vilstal gemeinnützige UG
(haftungsbeschränkt)
Hauptstraße 15

D-84144 Geisenhausen

Geschäftsführer: Albert Fischer, Helmut Ramsauer

Newsletter abonnieren

© Silicon Vilstal 2023