A NEW EDITION OF SUMMER SCHOOL THAT EXPLORES THE CONCEPT OF RECLAIMING HOPE THROUGH MERGE OF DESIGN AND SCIENCE

University of Ljubljana, together with us, MAO, Faculty of Design Split and Institute Joanneum of the University of Applied Sciences Graz, is organizing a fourth edition of Design+Science Summer School. From 18th to 22nd of September 2025 in Nova Gorica, we will gather 21 participants from all over the world to explore the topic of Reclaiming Hope.

This year, the Summer School is starting with a symposium Reclaiming Hope on 18th and 19th, and continuos with the Design.science Summer school. 

We are living through a time of polycrisis, where climate breakdown, rising inequality, and political unrest intersect and shape our daily lives in complex ways. The optimistic future once envisioned by the West in the late 20th century has failed to materialize; instead, we face uncertainty, disruption, and growing divides. This moment calls for a renewed effort to imagine how communities can come together to confront shared challenges. Design and science, as disciplines rooted in imagination and worldmaking, have long offered tools to explore alternative realities. Today, their speculative power is more vital than ever. In a world that insists “there is no alternative,” what happens when we dare to imagine one anyway? What if Utopia isn’t naïve, but necessary?

Boštjan Botas Kenda, professor of visual communication and co-founder of the Summer School introduces this year’s edition: “When we set up the Summer School more than five years ago, we were looking for an ever-widening network of schools, universities, professional associations, companies and, on the other side, professionals, market players and the curious. Each year, we have gradually expanded. Today, the network is even bigger and stronger, because changing location and linking up with the spread of the European Capitals of Culture is a step that we did not foresee at the beginning. We are doing very well. This year’s theme also makes us more mature. To raise questions about the links between the lives of design and science is a subject that obliges contemporary society and critical thought to give clear and unambiguous answers.”

Borut Jerman, the head of PiNA and co-founder of the Summer School added, “To be woven into GO! Borderless – the 2025 European Capital of Culture programme for Nova Gorica and Gorizia – is far more than a ceremonial honour. It affirms a simple, urgent truth: culture and art are the strongest engines we have for reclaiming hope and daring to design better futures. By situating this year’s Design+Science Summer School within a two cites-wide celebration of creative border-crossing, we signal that imagination must sit at the heart of every discipline, from ecology to engineering. GO! 2025’s invitation is also a vote of confidence in our experimental, trans-disciplinary approach to education – proof that when designers, scientists and citizens learn side-by-side, they don’t just exchange knowledge, they expand the horizon of what’s possible.“

The Summer School D+S is an experiential teaching methodology that relies on interdisciplinary integration among students from the arts, humanities, and scientific disciplines. This is facilitated through group work, learning through practice, and condensed, interactive learning that also includes peer learning at its core. The structure of the D+S method involves the entire process being accompanied by modern interactive teaching elements, such as excursions, workshops, education through dining, education through experience, viewing multimedia content, and design sprints. The implementation of the summer school is designed so that participants continuously interact with each other, with experts, and with the organizers of the summer school from morning to evening, enabling interaction throughout the whole summer school.

The applications are open until  31th of July 2025. Please apply also to Symposium, as it is integral part of the Summer School. Follow designscience.school for more information or contact us at design.science@aluo.uni-lj.si.