About

We produce participatory design projects that engage people in reconfiguring the politics of social and environmental issues. We combine design research methods with radical pedagogy, feral approaches to community economies and lots of DIY making and organising.

We create a diversity of outputs, including spaces for making, learning and exchanging; commoning and community-building processes; events such as workshops and conferences. We also enjoy feminist theory, writing, (self)publishing research outputs, working with our power tools, printing with our Risograph, and good graphic design.

Brave New Alps started out in 2005 as a collaboration between Bianca Elzenbaumer and Fabio Franz. In 2012, we registered as a cultural association in Italy in an attempt to explore what legal and organisational framework can support an eco-social design practice that wants to operate beyond the market, that is, outside the conventional client-designer framework. Since 2021, BNA is part of La Foresta – Accademia di comunità.

Currently the association is formed by: Martina Dandolo – president, Fabio Franz – vice-president, Paolo Plotegher – secretary,  Bianca Elzenbaumer, Giovanna Zanghellini, Giampiero Benvenuti, Chiara Mura, Carlo Bettinelli, Panos Tsiamyrtzis Bakas, Wolfgang Franz, Romana Benvenuti, Frieda Aichner, Oskar Heiss.

Designers and researchers who are (or were) part of the team of Brave New Alps are: Kate Rich, Caterina Giuliani, Gaja Mežnaric Osole, Raphael Volkmer, Riccardo Govoni, Beatrice Borso, Vittorio Veronesi, Eva Popovic, Irene Bonvicini, Natalia Campreguer, Riccardo Folladori, Ingrid Bale, Sofia Camporese, Irene Manfrini, Irene Bettinelli, Emma Harwood, Katie Emeny, Linda Tonolli, Flora Mammana, Julia Wagner, Kim Kaborda, Paulina Mimberg, Maria Pasqualini, Lennart Reichel, Angelica Cianflone, Marla Nichele, Alberto Gasperotti, Emilia Bodenmueller, Justine Hartwig, Ward Lauvers, Alessandro Tasselli, Greta Zanon, Angela Tang, Holly Le Var, Jelke Meyer, Ruairì Moore.

RESEARCH NETWORKS BRAVE NEW ALPS IS PART OF
• Community Economies Institute (international)
• Eco-Nomadic School (pan-European)
• Rural Commons Assembly (Alpine)
• LICHEN: Life-Centering Cultural Heritage Network (pan-European)