Learning by doing
Direct experience with materials, tools, people and situations is central to learning.
Rural Event 2026
UA.LABDESIGN 4.0UNIVERSITY IN THE VILLAGES
SITUATED DESIGN LABORATORY
5—6 SEP 2026
The laboratory, day by day
University in the Villages
Situated design, made with and for the territory.
UA.LABDESIGN — University in the Villages / Situated Design Laboratory — brings together pedagogical practice, research and community engagement through immersion in real contexts and collaboration with local knowledge.
The proposal is not to take ready-made knowledge from the University to the village. It seeks to create a mutual exchange between academic knowledge, tacit knowledge, material experience and the culture of places.
The territory is neither a backdrop nor a simple object of study: it takes part in the production of knowledge.
Purpose · mission · values
Knowledge in relation.
UA.LABDESIGN brings university and territory closer without erasing the differences between the forms of knowledge found there. Learning happens through contact with people, materials, tools, rhythms and concrete situations.
Research and design develop from these relationships, with autonomy, responsibility and awareness of the effects of one’s own work.
Reciprocity
Academic knowledge, practical knowledge and local experience enter into a relationship of mutual learning.
Autonomy and authorship
Each participant develops their own voice and assumes responsibility for their choices and relationships.
Care
Working means caring for people, places, materials and the effects of what is made.
Intergenerational exchange
Students, lecturers, researchers, craftspeople, masters and residents learn together.
Experimentation and error
An unsuccessful attempt can produce knowledge when it is understood and documented.
Traceability
We make the authorship, provenance, knowledge and transformations of each process legible.
Continuity
The residency connects earlier processes with relationships and projects that may continue beyond the week.
Economy of Wisdom
Situated knowledge can support fair local cultural, social and economic continuity.
UA.LABDESIGN · Fourth edition
Confluences
A confluence occurs when distinct paths meet without ceasing to be distinct.
We create conditions for encounters between people, generations and forms of knowledge; between university and territory; between academic and practical knowledge; between materials, techniques and technologies; and between memory, present experience and future possibilities.
The workshops begin in different places and practices but do not operate as isolated units. A project may begin in clay and encounter graphic or digital practice; flax may enter into dialogue with basketry; the documentation of one process may become material for another project.
The CULTURALITY RURAL EVENT is the moment of opening and returning to the territory: it makes public the processes, discoveries, relationships and questions about what deserves to continue beyond the residency.
RURAL EVENT
5 and 6 September 2026 · Múceres, Tondela
Saturday,
Guided walk through Múceres
Departure from “Bar da Esmeralda” (Café do Arco), ending at AmaCastelões.
Opening of the Project in Design III exhibition at AmaCastelões
Exhibition of 18 project posters created by second-year students of the Bachelor’s Degree in Design at the University of Aveiro, as part of the Project in Design III course unit during the 2025/2026 academic year. The projects were developed in collaboration with basket maker Fausto Dinis.
Lunch at Clube de Múceres.
Vale do Homem.
Public session “Territory, Heritage and Education for a Wisdom Economy”.
- Cristiane Menezes — UA.LABDESIGN: origins, development and continuity.
- Fátima Pombo — Presentation of the CULTURALITY project.
- Round-table discussion with Luís Costa (CEISCaramulo), Helena Rodrigues (Councillor for Culture, Tondela Municipality — to be confirmed), Fausto Dinis (basket maker from Nandufe) and Gonçalo Gomes (DeCA UA / CULTURALITY), moderated by Nuno Dias.
Coffee break.
Communal dinner and gathering.
Vale do Homem.
Sunday,
Exhibition opening and presentation of outcomes
Processes developed in the UA.LABDESIGN 4.0 workshops, in connection with the activities of the European CULTURALITY project.
Community lunch.
Vale do Homem.
Crafts and Gastronomy Mini Market.
Closing session and farewell.
Programme subject to change.
Workshops and places of immersion
Places · practices · projects
Three territorial hubs and three cross-cutting workshops. Each place brings its own relationships, histories, material conditions and people.
Territorial hub 01
Pontes Workshop
The workshops at Casa de Cima and Casa de Baixo bring together crafts, digital practice, the Graphic Workshop and the Future Workshop. In this edition, basketry is the main field of work, with the participation of Fausto Dinis, a basket maker from Nandufe. The process begins with materials, tools and basic structures and evolves through practice towards construction, correction and criteria of quality.
Territorial hub 02
Flax Workshop
Learning grows from contact with the Flax Cycle, the craftswomen, the material, the looms and local productive memory. Experiments may connect with the other workshops, sharing knowledge, materials and processes.
Territorial hub 03
Ribeira Workshop
A hub for material and productive experimentation where learning, prototyping, development and production meet. In 2026, clay has a particular presence, in possible relation with wood, leather and other processes.
Cross-cutting workshops
Graphic Workshop
It gathers, selects, orders and relates images, words, records and materials from the week. Editing makes knowledge, processes and relationships legible and contributes to the UA.LABDESIGN Passport.
Cross-cutting workshops
Digital Workshop
It explores how technology can amplify or mediate relationships between people, materials, gestures, objects and territory without replacing the material experience from which they emerge.
Cross-cutting workshops
Future Workshop
A space for metadesign, reflection, curation and continuity. It asks what deserves to remain, how it should be documented and how it might be activated again.
How the workshops meet
A workshop is a starting point, not a boundary.
Each participant develops a main hub and recognises when another form of knowledge, another workshop or another person can positively transform that work.
Crossings are deliberately sought. One workshop may pose a question to another, request a specific skill or offer material for a new experiment.
Discover→Experiment→Choose→Share→Develop→Consolidate→Prepare→Reveal→Continue / Transform
Rhythm of the week
Residency · 30 August—6 September
The residency is a shared experience. Workshops, meals, journeys, conversations and moments of exchange are all part of the laboratory.
Arrive / Inhabit
Sunday · 30 Aug
Welcome, settling in and a first recognition of Múceres and the shared spaces.
Discover
Monday · 31 Aug
Opening of the laboratory and meeting people, places, materials, tools and ongoing projects.
Experiment
Tuesday · 1 Sep
Intensive work in the hubs: testing possibilities, understanding materials and recording discoveries.
Choose → Share
Wednesday · 2 Sep
Selecting the most meaningful experiments and sharing them in Caramulo with partners and guests.
Develop
Thursday · 3 Sep
Deepening the projects, incorporating what experience has revealed and creating relationships between workshops.
Consolidate / Select
Friday · 4 Sep
Recognising what has gained consistency and preparing the exhibition, documentation and public mediation.
Prepare
Saturday · 5 Sep
Organising and assembling processes, objects and devices while the first day of the CULTURALITY RURAL EVENT takes place.
Reveal → Continue / Transform
Sunday · 6 Sep
Publicly presenting the outcomes and identifying what deserves to continue beyond the residency.
Document · select · share
A living archive of processes.
Documenting does not mean recording everything. What matters is recognising what helps us understand a process: a decision, a gesture, a tool, a transformation of matter, a conversation or a failed attempt that produced learning.
Documentation feeds the public presentation at the CULTURALITY RURAL EVENT and the living archive of UA.LABDESIGN. The Graphic and Digital workshops have a particular role, but the responsibility for observing, identifying and contextualising is shared by everyone.
