BERGAMO POP-UP SCHOOL 2027

Overview‍

17th–28th May 2027 · Bergamo, Italy

Design for a world in transition: two weeks of hands-on courses on how intelligence, generations, care and places are changing.

Bergamo, home to CIID's studio and Interaction Design Programme, sits at the meeting point of Italy's manufacturing, healthcare, design and entrepreneurial ecosystems, an hour from Milan.
In 2027, our Pop-Up School takes on the questions organisations across Europe are facing now: how to adopt AI responsibly, how to design for ageing societies and new generations, how care is moving beyond the hospital, and how cities and destinations can adapt and regenerate.

Whether you join for one week or two, you'll work on real-world challenges through research, prototyping and testing, guided by experts from CIID's global community. The programme brings together courses around four themes. Week 1 focuses on understanding and prototyping emerging change; Week 2 on leading, governing and applying it. 

Four themes

Technology — how intelligence is changing what we can create
From AI agents that act on our behalf to intelligent objects and robots in the physical world.

People — how generations and behaviours are changing
Designing for the needs and expectations emerging at both ends of the generational spectrum, from Gen Z to the silver economy.

Health — how care systems and needs are changing
From treating illness to a wider ecosystem of prevention, wellbeing and continuous care, including the underserved field of women's health.

Places — how cities, communities and destinations are changing 
Redesigning urban life and tourism to be more adaptive, inclusive and regenerative.

Who it's for

The courses are open to all and tailored to professionals who want to expand their creative toolkit: designers, product and service teams, innovation and strategy professionals, healthcare and public-sector professionals, and leaders driving change in their organisations.
Organisations are welcome to send small teams. Courses are taught in English.

AI across the programme

AI is present across all our courses, but never for its own sake. How we use it shifts with the focus. In Technology, AI is a design material in its own right. In People, it is part of how behaviours and society are changing. In Health, it enables new forms of care and personalisation. In Places, it helps make complex systems visible and anticipate change. Across every course, we look beyond optimisation towards meaningful AI: where it genuinely adds value, how it can expand human agency rather than erode it, and how trust, transparency and accountability are designed in from the start.