Events are an integral part of the master programs: from workshops with guests professors to lectures series with relevant practitioners.
Wed, Nov 4, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Izaskun Chinchilla
Los barrios del buen vivir: A Perspective from Tentative Design
Los barrios del buen vivir: A Perspective from Tentative Design
What if designers made fewer mistakes if they stopped trying to get it right the first time? Neighborhoods of Good Living explore a city understood not as a finished object, but as a living laboratory: spaces that are tested, inhabited, evaluated, and transformed. The lecture will explore the work of Izaskun Chinchilla Architects and the book Neighborhoods of Good Living to ask what happens when design abandons certainty and embraces hypothesis, experimentation, and adaptation. A perspective from tentative design to conceive of well-being as something experienced collectively.
Izaskun Chinchilla, a professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL), and an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), integrates ecology, care, and participation into her practice, research, and teaching. Her work promotes more equitable and sustainable cities. She combines design, critical thinking, and cultural knowledge to promote an architecture that is educational, cooperative, and oriented toward the common good. She is the author of La ciudad de los cuidados (Catarata, 2021) and Los barrios del buen vivir (Catarata, 2026).
Izaskun Chinchilla Architects is a group of architects led by Izaskun Chinchilla that brings together interdisciplinary teams for each project. Their work focuses on optimizing the environmental performance of architecture, public space, facilities, art, and cultural products through innovation. Public engagement and social participation are pillars of their practice, which promotes collaboration in the construction of shared spaces and community-based decision-making regarding the use, location, and characteristics of the facilities they design.
Wed, Dec 16, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Rainer Hehl, Polycosmos
Cosmotechnics — or how we make worlds in the wake of AI
Cosmotechnics — or how we make worlds in the wake of AI
Every design enacts a cosmology. Each time we make an object, a space or an environment, we shape how the self relates to the world — how humans, non-humans and nature come together in a worldview.
For millennia, cosmologies have anchored the making of worlds in places, cultural practices and belief systems, from the scale of cities to everyday objects. Technologies have never been applied neutrally — they have always been embedded in a cosmic order. When we understand design as cosmotechnics, we can use our tools consciously to cultivate more meaningful worlds.
In the wake of AI, the lecture situates new technologies within design as a conscious act of world-making, and invites designers to bring meaning back into making, weaving AI together with situated knowledge, embodied practice and place-based cosmologies.
Rainer Hehl
Situating design practice at the intersection of research, education and world-making, Rainer Hehl mediates between environmental design, architecture and performative spatial practices to contribute to an engaged vision of design within pluralistic cosmologies. Embedded in deep knowledge, consciousness and continuous processes of learning and experimentation, his projects act within a relational field of co-creation.
Studio Transforma
Transforma is a studio for transformative design practice based in Berlin, founded with Natalie Pirmann. It develops contemporary forms of ritual and ceremonial practice, ranging from performance to space and object design. Through tea ceremonies, contemplative environments and objects the studio explores how design can create immersive experiences and open moments of attention and transformation.
Polycosmos
More recently, Rainer Hehl initiated Polycosmos, a nomadic school for architecture, design and spatial practice that experiments with new forms of education, institutions, disciplines and knowledge. As technologies reshape the conditions of knowledge, Polycosmos explores how machine intelligence can be placed in dialogue with embodied experience, situated practice and collective consciousness.
past events
Wed, Feb 11, 2026
Masters’ Talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Karel Martens & Thomas Castro
Unbound
Unbound
From July to October 2025, the Stedelijk Museum honored Dutch design icon Karel Martens with a comprehensive retrospective curated by Thomas Castro. Karel and Thomas will “flip-through” 200 pages of Martens’ works and invite the audience to participate in a lively conversation of anecdotes, insights, and unique examples of works, systems and sketches from his personal archive. From stamps and books to monoprints, architectural signage, and digital experiments, this is a unique opportunity to dive deep into the work of one of the most influential voices in graphic design.
Karel Martens (1939) is a Dutch graphic designer and educator. He studied at the Arnhem Academy of Art and Design, graduating in 1961. From 1977 to 2020, he taught internationally at ArtEZ, the Jan van Eyck Academie, and Yale University, and co-founded the Werkplaats Typografie in 1998. Martens designed the award-winning OASE magazine from 1990 to 2021. His work is held in collections including SFMOMA and The Art Institute of Chicago, and has been shown in solo exhibitions at P! (New York), Kunstverein München, 019 (Ghent), and Platform-L (Seoul). He received the BNO Piet Zwart Prize in 2023.
Alongside commissioned work, Martens has consistently developed an autonomous practice, most notably through his monoprints, begun in the 1960s. Since the 1990s he has used archival cards from the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, printing found objects onto them to create compositions that integrate printed imagery with existing archival text. Known for an experimental approach to typography, grids, color, and printing, his work moves fluidly between books, stamps, monoprints, signage, and digital systems.
Thomas Castro (1967) is a graphic designer, educator, and curator, and since 2019 Curator of Graphic Design at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. There he initiated the Post/No/Bills public poster circuit, curated the exhibition Karel Martens: Unbound, and edited the collection book Stedelijk Museum Posters by Color. Previously, he co-founded the multidisciplinary studio LUST and LUSTlab in 1996, which was awarded the BNO Piet Zwart Award in 2017 for their two-decade oeuvre. His practice connects making, education, and curating, with a focus on expanding the graphic design canon.
Tue, Jan 13, 2026
Cine Club Talks
Òscar Romagosa, Roma
From CANADA to ROMA: Building a Production Vision
Open to all Master’s students
In this masterclass, Òscar Romagosa reflects on his professional journey through the production company CANADA and the founding of his own studio, ROMA. Through selected projects, the session explores authorship, production models and the transition from working within an established structure to creating a new creative platform.
Òscar Romagosa is a filmmaker and producer, founder of the production company ROMA. He has worked extensively in advertising, music and audiovisual storytelling, combining strong visual identity with contemporary production approaches.
Tue, Jan 13, 2026
Cine Club Talks
Ioana Crasovan
Selling Creative Ideas: Strategy, Clarity and Persuasion
Open to all Master’s students
This masterclass focuses on how to present, articulate and sell creative projects effectively. Through practical frameworks and real examples, Ioana Crasovan shares tools to structure ideas, communicate value and connect creative vision with strategic thinking, helping students strengthen the way they pitch and defend their projects.
Ioana Crasovan is a creative consultant specialized in design thinking, innovation and strategic communication. She works with creative teams, institutions and organizations to help translate ideas into clear, compelling and future-oriented proposals.
Wed, Dec 10, 2025
masters’ talks
19:30 h — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Ronan Bouroullec
Day After Day: Rencontre with Ronan Bouroullec
Day After Day
Despite not always being entirely comfortable with the label “designer,” Ronan Bouroullec is undeniably among the most prolific and admired practitioners working today. For more than three decades, his Paris atelier—led with his brother Erwan until 2023—has produced a remarkable series of “singular objects,” often in collaboration with leading design manufacturers such as Alessi, Artek, and Vitra. In a special conversation with journalist Anne Quito, Bouroullec reflects on the arc of his career and explains how his drawing practice has remained a central pillar of his life and work. Vignettes from his latest monograph, Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day (Phaidon, 2023) will be a highlight of the evening.
© Marion Berrin
Born in Quimper, Brittany, Ronan Bouroullec is a celebrated artist and designer based in Paris. His studio, formerly led with his younger brother Erwan, has collaborated with some of the world’s most prestigious design companies, including Artek, Alessi, Cappellini, Galerie Kreo, Hay, Kartell, Kvadrat, Magis, Mattiazzi, Mutina, and Vitra. Also a prolific artist, his drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Ronan Bouroullec’s studio, founded 30 years ago, is based in Paris and comprises a team of six assistants.
Wed, Nov 12, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Dries Depoorter
Surveillance art, dying phones, and fake likes
Surveillance art, dying phones, and fake likes
In this engaging talk, Dries Depoorter delves into his world of his art, blending the boundaries between technology and creativity. Attendees will be taken on a journey through Depoorter’s recent and upcoming projects, offering insights into the conceptual and technical processes behind his works. Dries will showcase live demonstrations of his art in the form of giving away likes or followers. This lecture offers a unique opportunity to learn more about the projects that have brought him worldwide recognition.
Belgian creative technologist and artist Dries Depoorter, based in Ghent, creates thought-provoking work about technology, surveillance, AI and social media in a playful way that makes people laugh while delivering serious messages in an accessible way. His projects explore digital culture that can inspire marketers: privacy challenges, artificial intelligence applications, surveillance and authentic social media projects.
With his unique background in electronics and digital innovation, Dries has become a voice for forward-thinking brands and marketing professionals looking to navigate today’s complex digital landscape. His artistic approach can directly inspire brands to think differently and develop original marketing concepts that stand out. Through his work, Dries demonstrates how combining creativity with technological insight creates viral moments.
His award-winning “Die With Me” app, accessible only when a user’s phone battery drops below 5%, demonstrates how scarcity and unique user experiences can create powerful engagement. On Black Friday, he doubles the price of his app instead of offering discounts, showing brands how breaking marketing rules can create attention.
In his viral project “The Follower” Dries leverages open cameras and AI to reveal the reality behind curated Instagram moments—offering marketers an unfiltered look at consumer behavior and content creation.
Meanwhile, ”The Flemish Scrollers” uses AI to automatically identify politicians using smartphones during parliamentary sessions, highlighting how technology can create accountability and transparency in public spaces.
Dries has exhibited at prestigious venues including the Barbican in London, Art Basel, Mutek Festival in Montreal,ZKM, Bozar, WIRED and Ars Electronica.
Wed, May 14, 2025
masters’ talks
7.30 pm — Event at DHub
Open to the public
Rob Giampietro, Notion
20 Years in Design
20 Years in Design
Across nonprofit and for profit, startups and scale, on boards and in residence, in print and with AI, as a writer, designer, teacher, and leader — Rob’s career has spanned a wide range of projects at the intersection of design, culture, and technology. This talk will share some recent work from Notion as well as work from Google and MoMA, connected in their uses of strategic inquiry, brand-focused storytelling, and multidisciplinary human-centered design to convey unique stories and experience to global audiences.
Rob Giampietro is a designer based in New York, where he is Head of Creative at Notion, a productivity tool celebrated by Forbes’ “AI 50” list in 2024. Active across worlds of design, art, and technology, Rob has held creative leadership roles at Google (Material Design, Research & Machine Intelligence, Search/Assistant) and MoMA, where he was Director of Design during the museum’s historic 2019 expansion.
Rob taught for over a decade in RISD’s MFA Graphic Design program and has served as VP of AIGA/NY. In 2024, he was a jury chair for AIGA’s 100th Annual 50 Books 50 Covers awards. A graduate of Yale, Rob has had fellowships at MacDowell and the American Academy in Rome, along with recognition from the National Design Awards for his work at Project Projects. Rob has been an Advisor to the Aspen Ideas Festival and is a trustee and board member of the Aperture Foundation.
Notion is the connected workspace that allows teams and individuals to easily share documents, take notes, manage projects, and organize knowledge—all in one place. Users can create and customize beautiful documents, roadmaps, knowledge bases, and more, helping them work smarter and faster.
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