people
ADES was founded in early 2018 by a design theorist, innovator and sustainability thinker Dr. Karina Vissonova, who had been working on an idea for a sustainable design education for over a decade; with the support of Róbert Héjja Ph.D, an investor, life-long learner and traveller, who believed in the idea of ADES and its relevance in the today’s world.
ADES has grown into a small international organisation directed by its Founder Dr. Karina Vissonova. ADES projects determine the size of its team, dependending on capacities and expertise needed at the time.
ADES have an international group of advisors - well known experts in areas of sustainability, design, education, research, sciences and philantropy.
ADES holds affiliations with pioneering organisations dedicated to design, art, science and future studies.
Dr. Karina Vissonova. Photo by Alexandra Heim, Budapest, 2018.
“The Institute of Advanced Design Studies is a non-profit and an independent educational organisation. Our funding model is based on tuitions, subsidies and donations. We work to complement existing education programmes and to increase educational diversity for sustainability across disciplines. Our profits are channeled towards funding new educational initiatives, researchers and research fellowships, and scholarships.”
ades advisors
Our prominent advisors are experts with decades of experience in areas of higher education, design, sustainability, multidisciplinary work, fellowship program building, founding of large research projects and heading thought-leading organisations in sustainability and design.
Each of the advisors is contributing to ADES with their specific knowledge and expertise. Together, we are developing the educational platform that is relevant for postgraduates in today’s world and prepares them for working with nature and human value driven design.
Karen Blincoe, DD, FRSA, founder of ICIs centre
Karen Blincoe is currently a consultant and lecturer in sustainability and the 17SDGs. She has for many years been working with sustainability and since 2016 her work has included the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Karen’s expertise covers leadership, organizational change, design and education within a sustainability context. She has headed a variety of organisations both education and design-orientated including Chora Connection, Schumacher College and ICIS Center. (Read more)
Steinar Valade-Amland, founder of three point zero
Steinar is an independent consultant since 2012, helping organizations to unlock their strategic and business development potential. He is dedicated to improving organizational performance and innovation capacity through stakeholder engagement strategies, design thinking, and building strong brands and vibrant organizational cultures. He has held leading export, product and marketing management positions primarily in design-based manufacturing companies, as well as, he was the CEO of the Association of Danish Designers, (Read more)
Jonathan D. Trent, Ph.D., founder of UpCycle Systems and NAsa omega project
Currently a Distinguished Professor at Zhijiang College of Zhejiang University of Technology, founding director of UpCycle Systems, Adjunct Professor in BioMolecular Engineering at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Fulbright Specialist, and a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. After earning a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, he conducted research at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Germany, Århus and Copenhagen Universities in Denmark, University of Paris at Orsay in France, Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine at Yale Medical School, and Argonne National Laboratory in the USA. As a NASA scientist (Read more)
affiliations
the futures lab and futurexperience lab
The Futures Lab Inc. and its FutureXperience Lab are USA/Europe based research & consultancy group in the field of future studies, member of the WFSF. The team has over 20 years’ experience of practicing the science of foresight with major international corporations, government institutions, associations and non-profits. The founder, chief futurist Derek Woodgate, is an Assistant Professor in the ICT Department of the Engineering and Science Faculty at the University of Adger in Norway and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Houston College of Technology Foresight Program. He teaches Grad and PhD students in Applied Foresight. Recently, he was appointed to the Executive Board of the Center for Futures Studies at the University of Dubai. Derek is also a member of the World Futures Studies Federation UNESCO Committee on Futures Literacy. In addition, Derek has curated several art & science artworks and exhibitions, through the FutureXperience Lab, and is well known in this field as well as the field of future studies.
The Laboratory for Artificial Biology: Hanczyc Lab
The Laboratory for Artificial Biology was established in 2014 by Martin Hanczyc, as part of the Centre for Integrative Biology (CIBIO) at the University of Trento. Their research seeks to integrate various functional aspects of artificial life, synthetic life, and natural life. Their expertise is in interfacial dynamics, modeling of complex chemistry, optimization strategies, robot-chemistry interfaces, fundamentals of intelligent materials, synthetic biology, and new bio-inspired materials for designs of architecture and engineering.
International Summer School of Design MAD
The name MAD is derived from the keywords describing the concept of the school—Man and Design.
MAD brings together designers, artists, craftsmen, and scientists – people who are unlikely to meet under different circumstances. Here, theories and hypotheses are tested in practice by creating new things and experiences. Philosophical foundation and realization of the works are evaluated equally and their realisation is made meaningful. MAD embraces soft definitions of design and art, by creating useful as well as aesthetic objects. Crafts play the central role in teaching activities at MAD. With the work with traditional materials such as wood, stone, clay and fiber, students experience the passion of creating, while being limited by the laws of materials and the discipline of the craft.