In September 2025, Nova Gorica, Slovenia, will become the stage for Reclaiming Hope: Design for (Un)certain Futures—an ambitious international symposium and summer school. At its core lies a pressing challenge: how can design help us navigate uncertainty and shape fairer, more resilient, and more hopeful futures? The event is rooted in the acclaimed SpeculativeEdu project, an initiative that examined speculative and critical design practices. Nova Gorica, as the European Capital of Culture 2025, provides the perfect setting to expand on this legacy, drawing international experts, educators, and emerging designers into dialogue.

We live in a time of polycrisis: environmental degradation, social upheaval, technological disruption, and political instability. These interconnected challenges affect local communities on multiple levels—socially, economically, culturally, and psychologically. Traditional models of problem-solving no longer suffice. A new approach is needed, one that uses imagination as a tool for resilience. As curator Ivica Mitrović frames it: “It is today’s challenge to revisit how design and architectural thinking and can contribute to reclaiming imaginations of the future and shape new, bright, and viable paths.”

Sector

Projects

Partners

Tribe