IN Residence Design Workshop #19 - METABOLIC SCENARIOS

IN Residence Design Workshop #19 - METABOLIC SCENARIOS
Designer-Tutors: Johanna Seelemann, Nicolas Zanoni
When: 12–15 January, 2026
Where: MACRO - Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome
Curated by: Barbara Brondi & Marco Rainò

Get ready to join IN Residence Design Workshop #19, Metabolic Scenarios, a four-day immersive experience hosted at MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome.
The workshop unfolds as a space of possibility, where imagination meets material experimentation to translate complexity into poetic, tangible expressions.

About the Workshop
IN Residence organizes a series of highly curated workshops led by young yet outstandingly talented designers from the international scene. Each edition focuses on a specific theme and offers participants, students, recent graduates, young professionals, and design enthusiasts, the chance to experiment with new creative concepts through dialogue, collaboration, and hands-on exploration. The result is a formative experience deeply embedded within significant cultural and artistic contexts.

This edition, Metabolic Scenarios, invites participants to perceive the city as a living organism: constantly absorbing, transforming, and regenerating. Every neighborhood carries memory; every community acts as a force reshaping its form. In this continuous flow, past and present merge to create unexpected futures.

Guided by visionary emerging designer-tutors Johanna Seelemann and Nicolas Zanoni, participants will explore the workshop’s theme through speculative inquiry and material investigation, transforming ideas into poetic design interventions.

Throughout the workshop, the designers and curators foster a deeply collaborative experience that extends beyond structured sessions into informal moments of exchange. Dialogue, interaction, and hands-on experimentation are central to the process, creating an open framework in which participants collectively explore, question, and shape their creative trajectories.

The theme of the Workshop
Metabolic Scenarios presents a deliberately open-ended theme of exploration and speculative investigation, aimed at generating research hypotheses within the urban context. The title invites us to perceive the city as a dynamic field of forces, a living organism in a state of constant transformation, where every space holds traces of memory and every community acts as a vector capable of reshaping its form — its very substance.

The term Metabolic refers to that which absorbs, transforms, regenerates: a continuous flow in which past and present intertwine to generate often unexpected futures. Scenarios opens up a horizon of multiple visions, where design — and the actions of designers — give shape to intuitions, omens, and artifacts that tell stories of new ways of living and coexisting.

The workshop becomes a space of possibilities, a place where imagination engages with different material hypotheses to translate urban complexity into poetic, tangible signs, capable of speaking to vital change.

Why join?
• Collaborate with inspiring emerging designers at the forefront of contemporary practice
• Learn from the Curators and Designer-Tutors through lectures and shared insights into their practices
• Engage in critical dialogue to conceptualize ideas collectively
• Develop and prototype design proposals through hands-on experimentation
• Explore forward-looking design approaches that address future ways of living and coexisting
• Experience four immersive days within one of Rome’s most prestigious cultural institutions
• Access museum exhibitions as a source of research and inspiration
• Connect with a diverse, international community of participants

Workshop Ticket Includes:
• Participation in the full 4-day immersive IN Residence Design Workshop #19, “Metabolic Scenarios”
• Hands-on engagement with materials and collaborative design activities
• Guidance and mentorship from emerging designer-tutors and curators
• Access to MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome, including its exhibitions for inspiration
• Opportunities to network with international participants, peers, and professionals
• All workshop materials and resources needed for creative experimentation
• Daily lunch
• Certificate of participation

Places are limited.
Don't miss out on this exciting opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and expand your design horizons. See you there!

With the support of:
Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo
In the context of Missione Sviluppare Competenze

In collaboration with
MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art of Rome

With the contribution of:
Duparc Contemporary Suites

Special thanks for taking part in the workshop:
ISIA – Roma Design

Below the video documentary of the previous edition of IN Residence's workshop, which took place at HEAD – Genève in Switzerland, featuring designer-tutors Teresa Fernández-Pello and Studio Ossidiana.