Gentler Futures Festival is back with its third and last preview session: Designers going off-grid.

In this informal afternoon of ideas, talks and workshops, we explore the potential of low-tech tools and decentralised energy production in preparing the design practice for a post-fossil fuel world. Most of the technology we use today—from electric vehicles to the internet—is dependent on resource-intensive global systems and on fossil fuels. How do we transition our lifestyles to exist without them? How do we stop relying on big corporations for the products we need on a daily basis? Which older, simpler technologies can we readapt to contemporary knowledge? And in general, what is the role of design in creating resilient and self-sufficient urban communities?

During the afternoon, we will invite SOS HEATER, SUN FACTORY and, fellow DDP talent, SLOW LAB to present their work at the intersection of low-tech design and alternative energy systems. And each of them will host a workshop challenging the notion that (high tech) is the solution to today’s global issues.

Join us in Lisbon, Portugal on February 24 and keep an eye out for the real Festival happening May 2024.

Learn more about the event and register to the workshops through the link bellow. Talks are free to attend without registration.
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Why we need a Gentler Futures Festival

Suppose you search futuristic city on the web. In that case, a very cohesive aesthetic will emerge: tall skyscrapers, flying cars, metal, glass and mainstream sci-fi movie vibes. From the image results, it seems like the future is already written. But who got to decide that? And what if we don’t want it?

In our case, we long for a gentler future—or many. To be gentle means that a relationship is going on: between you and me, between us and other communities, between humans and non-human species, between the man-made world and nature. What would a future based on respectful relationships look like? What would it mean for humankind to become gentler? And how do we design gentler cities, worlds, and futures?

In an attempt to answer these questions and ask some others, we are going to gather designers, artists, architects, students and policymakers in the first edition of Gentler Futures Festival: a collective series of events meant to explore what it means to design for tomorrow, what are the challenges that twenty-first-century designers face and which legacy they hope to leave behind. By delving into all the different facets of the practice—from material design to architecture, from distributed design to biomimicry—we aim to celebrate projects, initiatives and movements that are shaping a type of future we would like to live in planet-centred, local-based, non-linear and post-consumerism.

Gentler Futures Festival is organized by BY THE END OF MAY in collaboration with Distributed Design at IPL – Politécnico de Lisboa, with the support of Mouraria Creative Hub and A Bairros.