WHY A SCHOOL FOR CIRCULAR INNOVATION?
- How can almost everything seem possible, yet the world so often makes no sense?
- How can humanity hold such vast knowledge and capability, yet persist in harming its environment and communities?
HYPOTHESIS
- What makes us, humans, different from machines is that we have the capacity to care.
- Our thoughts and behaviour often follow the path of least resistance—the comfort algorithm—where efficiency is mistaken for effectiveness and deeper sensory engagement is often left behind.
- Technologies that expand our capabilities often reinforce this bias: they create an illusion of connection while in practice disconnecting us from questions of meaning and care, and paradoxically intensifying the harm to the ecological systems we rely on.
- We increasingly rely on the rapid, efficient, yet also sterile senses of sight and sound, while neglecting the earthy senses of smell, touch, and taste.
- These earthy senses are deeply related to our emotions, care and – unconscious – behaviour. Without emphasising their role in our daily lives, we risk drifting toward a sterile “machine” kind of mindset, one that is less connected to the environment we eventually depend on.
“Reintegrating our more earthy senses —smell, touch, and taste—may be an overlooked opportunity in today’s fast-paced world, especially when we try to develop fundamental ideas to address the environmental challenges of our time”
HOW?
Principle: Embracing complexity, Foster emergence
Invite people into the artisan space—a space that nurtures experimentation, curiosity, and sensory engagement. Here, participants learn to navigate complexity and unlearn the “linear” habits that often block the discovery of hidden, low-hanging opportunities. Our aim is to unlock the creative potential within every individual and foster a more circular mindset that restores balance with both environment and society. We explore the roots and conditions from which a circular, environmentally friendly mindset can naturally emerge, rather than being imposed.
Challenge 1: Reconnect with Your Senses
Co-develop with us a food recipe by engaging all your senses. Use food as a playful and effective way to explore connections with your body, your community, and your environment.
Challenge 2: Connect the hidden dots, become a circular matchmaker
Co-design circular recipes. Learn to prevent (food) waste by uncovering hidden relationships and repurposing “waste” by linking unexpected elements (ingredients, people, ideas) together. Engage, connect, care—and experience how small actions can lead to meaningful change.
Challenge 3: Redesign Your Perceptions—Bridge Your Actions to Other Places
Learn to apply new, creative thought patterns to other domains through analogy, discovering how diverse challenges often share solutions grounded in common principles. This approach reshapes how we think, act, and relate to one another, and—beyond food—provides tools for change and transformation in any context.
WHAT
- Transformation is naturally embedded in the artisanal process, and we invite participants to join us on this transformational learning journey.
- The artisanal space naturally embeds ancestral knowledge, community, science, and hands-on skills—in both the place and the process.
- Our living lab explores how food links sensory experiences to the broader societal challenges we face.
TRAINING
1-Day Program
Experimentation: A hands-on program where participants explore circular recipe design, experiment with “waste,” and engage all their senses to spark fresh insights.
- Get to know our method, philosophy and each other
- Introduction to the artisanal space: its vibe, methods, and skills
- Cook and bake with us a circular product and learn how we developed it
- Challenge 1 & 2: Re-engage your senses and experience our process in action—from ingredient, waste products, ideas to experimentation and final product
- Participate in a circular challenge we’re currently working on
- Enjoy a flavourful lunch together with us
- Personalise with us your potential multi-day extended follow-up program
2-Day Program
Still fermenting, stay tuned…