An evening of talks exploring a speculative vision for higher education in a future beyond sustainability.
Studio Saol invites you to explore The Pluriversity: a speculative design project exploring what higher education might look like for a future beyond sustainability.
Today’s universities were built for a different century. As the climate crisis deepens and technology reshapes how we live and work, The Pluriversity asks what kind of higher education institution Ireland needs now. Limerick-based design office – Studio Saol explored that question with local students, academic staff and communities in partnership with UL Foundation & Rethink Ireland. Their answer is a university spread across the Shannon Bioregion, where people learn by testing solutions across the region to inform its own regeneration.
The Pluriversity exhibition lets you step into this future as a student in 2070. At its heart is a sculpted model of the Shannon Bioregion, made from local materials including reclaimed brick and ancient bog oak. Around it, three viewfinders offer imagined glimpses of daily life and learning in this future university.
The project was brought to life by a multidisciplinary team at Studio Saol, spanning futures and systems thinking, strategic design, visual and digital design, spatial design, and experience and interaction design, each discipline shaping a different layer of the world, from the research underpinning it, to the model you can walk around, and the screens you can interact with
After showings at FutureDays in Copenhagen and at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, The Pluriversity comes home to Limerick. Come along to see the exhibition and hear from the team who made it.
Wheelchair Accessible • Suitable for All Ages
Sponsored by:
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Irish Design Week 2026
