Ecological Futures Camp

Our popular 5-day residential for young people is back! 

Experience Black Mountains College and explore your future. How can you use your passions and skills to make a difference in a climate-changed world?  

Spend 5 days with us, on our 120-acre farm and surrounding mountains. Imagining, designing and taking action. Guided by activists, artists, and industry professionals, you will explore your role in creating a just society within safe planetary boundaries. 

At the heart of the journey sits a real-life challenge around housing and extractive construction industries. With the support of designer-makers, architects and BMC facilitators, you will collaborate to problem-solve and reimagine the future of housing, infrastructure and (natural) building in the context of climate crisis. 

This year, we will be joined by practitioners Francesca Leibowitz and Will Bradley from Material Cultures who will co-design and facilitate sessions exploring the intersection of our built and natural environments. Together we will unpack the impacts of our current construction industry, explore the possibilities bio-based materials as alternatives and get hands-on with a practical co-build using natural materials. 

You will explore how you can apply yourself – personally and professionally – to make positive systemic change. We will work together, engaging bodies and minds, to explore new ways of being in the world, to live well and do good!  

This is an on-campus course. The course fee includes full-board accommodation in one of our bell tents.  

Who is this for? 

For school leavers and others thinking about the world of work at a time of uncertainty and ecological crisis.  

• Budding leaders and anyone passionate to make a difference in the world  
• Anyone keen to learn new skills in an adventurous way  
• The program is not discipline or subject limited; it is for people with an interest in the built or natural environment, from an artistic or technical perspective or those with a more practical or vocational background 
• It is for seasoned changemakers and for anyone who has only just developed an interest in the natural world, climate change and activism.  
• You must be between 16 and 25 years old at the time of the course. 

You will: 

• Gain real-world skills that help you to imagine, improvise and problem-solve in a fast-changing world.  
• Understand the impacts of an extractive construction industry, the possibilities of bio-based building materials and connections with agricultural systems.
• Have an engaging, social, and informative learning experience that reconnects you to nature and other people. 
• Learn from inspiring people and develop a sense of agency in the face of a climate-changed future. 
• Explore what you are good at, and how you can apply these skills to make a difference. 
• Receive feedback and advice from experienced tutors on what the right next step might be for you. 
• Cook and eat together, spend time on the land and in nature, swim in streams, sleep under the stars! 

Key Information 

Date: Monday 28^th July – Friday 1^st August 

Location: The course will take place at our farm Troed-Yr-Harn in Talgarth, Wales. We expect you to arrive in the afternoon of the 28^th of July; and you will leave in the early afternoon of the 1^st of August 

We will provide: A place in one of our shared bell tents, all meals, and course content. We won’t provide your travel, but if you are coming by public transport, you can hop on our free minibus which will run from Abergavenny train station.  

Who will you learn from?  

Francesca Leibowitz  

Francesca is a designer, maker and architect whose work varies in media and scale, but has a common focus on details, materiality and sustainability. Understanding manufacturing and building processes in order to influence design lies at the centre of her work. Francesca has often worked with Material Cultures, a London-based architecture, design and research studio, having taught architectural design and construction with them at the ETH in Zurich and Central Saint Martins in London. 

Will Bradley 

Will is a maker, designer and educator whose work advocates for regenerative land practice through novel uses of natural materials, and centering vernacular architecture and craftspeople. Will works with Material Cultures, a London-based architecture, design and research studio and has taught architectural design and construction at Central Saint Martins in London. He also makes clothes and often engages in building the projects he has designed, including leading several participatory build programs at Material Cultures. 

Magda Petford  
Magda is dedicated to creating learning infrastructure that supports communities across both urban and rural environments to gain skills and knowledge for resilience amidst the climate crisis. She has facilitated spaces that build capacity for people to reimagine their neighbourhoods in a future where people and the planet are thriving together. As a designer and illustrator, she finds joy in crafting visual artefacts that bring a sense of hope to complex concepts.  

Lucine 
Lucine b.k.a ‘L U C I N E’ is a transdisciplinary artist and mental health advocate that believes in using a cross arts approach to create unique, immersive experiences for all people to enjoy and feel equal in. This focus has enabled Lucine to curate and facilitate work which engages communities on both a local and global scale, in person and online. It is their wish to continuously challenge perceptions of the human experience and encourage lifelong curiosity.   

About Material Cultures:

Material Cultures is a design and research organisation working at the intersection of natural materials, low embodied carbon construction and construction technology. Their mission is to work towards a bio-regional construction industry which is integrated into regenerative and socially just land and building systems. They design buildings, carry out research and a construction skills programme. 

APPLY

To apply for the Ecological Futures Camp 2025: please complete this short form. Or send us a video of yourself in which you answer the questions listed in the form. Video applications should be sent to: info@blackmountainscollege.uk 

Deadline for applications: Sunday 29^th of June. You will hear back from us in the week starting the 30th of June, whether we can give you a place. 

You are not eligible for a place if you have accepted a place on one of our FE or HE courses to start in September 2025.