Sustainable Futures’ nine week program offers students the opportunity to live and work in a rural, but rapidly developing region on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica. This is a “service learning” engagement where the studio works on community-identified projects that envision and create futures that are ecologically and socially just. Since the program’s inception in 1995, Sustainable Futures has contributed to planning, design, and construction of dozens of projects throughout the area.

SF2024 focuses on ecological materials and making in the rain forest and includes hands-on opportunities to explore biomimicry, living structures, and repurposed materials. The three courses synthesize ideas of ecological practice across study, research, design, and making. The work focuses on generating responses to community requests to generate a public dialogue.