N O R M A L S

25/08/2026

Minimal Viable Ecosystems
In a state between napping and scrolling, you glance outside: pigeons, burnt grass, and an abundance of concrete… Everything looks normal: lifeless, if not for the people running to catch their bus. Luckily, your neighborhood is about to change, as a series of biome rehabilitations begins tomorrow.

A full ecosystem graft: vertebrates, plants, soil, and bacteria, all coming from a compatible bioregion, are about to be integrated into your dull cityscape and home! Pets and plants will come with natural predators; it may get mossy, stinky, and wet, as building features and the broader built environment will have to be modified.

How much of your space are you willing to give up for minimal viable ecosystems to thrive?

This is a series of concepts proposed by a group of designers who, with very limited time, established a collective future vision where urban life is renegotiated with natural systems.

Big thank yous to:
ece
Tyler Myers
Studio Fabula
Postnatural Artifacts

Abdulrahman Alqasem

Francesca Rinaldi

Stephanie Hamilton-Jones
Jason Pi
didesevincok
Layla studio
Szymon Eda Hernik

03/08/2026

N O R M A L S is looking for designers with a speculative itch to collaborate on future projects.

Rather than simply hiring people, we’d like the process itself to be worthwhile for you too. This is why we’re announcing a:

Workshop for Effective and Immersive Recruitment in Diegesis™

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- 4-hour online workshop
- Monday 17 August 2026, 09:00 (GMT+2)
- Send your CV and portfolio to designnormalfutu.re
- Following review, 10 participants will be invited to take part.
- More details will be sent upon selection

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- Monday 10 August 2026 at 11:59pm (GMT+2)

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During a 4 hour online session, we’ll introduce our design framework, apply it together through a short assignment, and give you space to build on it with your own ideas. Think of it as a free workshop: even if we don’t end up working together, you’ll leave with a new way of approaching speculative design.

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- A design background. We’re looking for designers with strong visual judgement: you should be able to express yourself visually, in 2 or 3D (or as many Ds as you can handle). We value original visual thinking and expect applicants to be able to communicate ideas without depending on generative AI.
- Future sensitivity. You understand that designing futures isn’t about producing more of the same, but about exploring alternative social and cultural possibilities. We’re more interested in designers who can imagine changing societies than in sci-fi aesthetics.
- Some experience in 3D modeling would be preferred. If your strengths lie elsewhere, we can point you to some tutorials to get you up to speed prior to the session. You’re also welcome to veto 3D modeling if your papier-mâché skills are exceptional.
- All levels are welcome
- A Good command of English would be needed
- To be EU-based (at least with a visa allowing you to work in the EU)

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We believe the best way to evaluate how we would design together is to design together, rather than relying solely on portfolios or interviews.

Share the info with your beloved designer friends

15/04/2026

Short story and commentary on the Amadare Network, one of five New Future Archetype featured in the AXA Foresight Report 2026. This was recorded at ChangeNow, in Paris on March 30 2026 for the release of the report.

The Amadare Network is a fictional nomadic community led by women and built around the concept of ‘antifragility,’ pushing resilience far past the point of simply accepting shocks, but growing from them or even harnessing them. While fictional, the story of the Amadari is rooted in the reality of women left behind in remittance economies. Where many men leave home to seek better economic prospects abroad, communities of women see their roles and power slowly change over time. Amadare is an invitation to imagine what such a future community could look like, as a strong, knowledgeable, adaptable village which has embraced movement and adaptation.

Following the core idea of the report where fiction is born from analysis, we’re showing here two parts:

SIDE A:
An excerpt from a live reading by speculative-acting connoisseuse Laëtitia Eïdo , based on a story written by N O R M A L S .o.r.m.a.l.s and featured in the report.

SIDE B:
Comments from guest contributor and anthropologist Megnaa Mehtta (University College London).

The AXA Foresight Report 2026 is a publication initiated by AXA’s Foresight Team, led by Olivier Desbiey (), and in collaboration with N O R M A L S whose work on New Future Archetypes formed the core of the report.

You can find the full recording of this session on AXA’s YouTube channel.

The link to the report is in .o.r.m.a.l.s ‘s bio.

09/04/2026

Hi there, it’s been a while—things have been a bit craycray over here (and, arguably, around the world…). In the last months we’ve been quietly designing and writing a publication for people who ended up being the best partners one could wish for, utterly destroying the client-to-collaborator barrier. The AXA Foresight Report 2026 is finally out, and we’re beyond thrilled to see it already receive such a warm welcome.

Titled ‘The Atlas of New Futures,’ the report (which really, is much more than a report) springs from a shared need to escape ready-made futures and look under stones left unturned—the kinds that don’t hide spaceships. This is core to what we call ‘New Future Archetypes,’ and the amazing team at AXA Foresight generously offered us a chance to make it the focus of their 2026 report. We packed it with everything we love to do, and zero compromise: new futures as fictional worlds you can step into, with their own logic, economy, artifacts, and everyday life. There’s a lot designed, a lot of stories told, a lot of experts interviewed, and a lot of research—no predictions though. Each NFA sets a different stage to how societies may adapt to climate change, displacement, democratic shifts, geopolitical pressure points, and the slow erosion of the things we took for granted.

None of this would exist without people who made the work genuinely joyful. Olivier Desbiey () and the Foresight team gave us something rare: real trust, real curiosity, and the freedom to go somewhere new. Working with them felt less like a commission and more like a shared ideal, and for this we are beyond grateful!

More to come (especially a soon to be printed version).

For now, you can already get the digital version (link in bio)

27/10/2025

Ok — we’re late with a lot of posts [blushing emoji with eye vortices]. So late, we didn’t even properly congratulate on Near Future Laboratory’s 100th podcast! Featuring... us! Once again! So, better late than never: thank you for doing us the honor of rounding off this extremely cool series, and please accept this commemorative vignette as a token of our appreciation.
If you haven’t listened to it yet, please do - either right from the Near Future Laboratory Podcast page or on your favorite platform that isn’t hurting human dignity itself.

17/10/2024

Point and snap futures on OCT11. For ‘s big Brussels gathering, we created a set of AR accessories so workshop participants could flex their theatrics and tell us stories of the future of human-water relationships.

16/10/2024

‘Praia da Usina’ — impressions from our workshop

We’re back after a few amazing and salty days in Portimaõ for . We got to do a speculative talk (think Yes Men, but less deceptive) and a roleplayey workshop about bold moves in the Algarve region regarding water shortages, what a desalination economy could look like, what “could” be done if we go deep into sucking out seawater (and its LOADS of salt)… Well, we had fun, terrorized some people (sorry again 🥹), and had great conversations on the topic later on.

Many many many thanks to the organizers of for their kindness, warmth, and for putting up with our shenanigans, and an emojis with big hearts pouring out of every pore to all the spectacular people we met and hung out with there.

Thank you for the photos!

15/10/2024

04/09/2024

We are are just one week away from the start of our next Future Fishing online workshop, and there are a few spots still available. We also have an accessibility programme offering free spots to students—the first one is on us, and we are looking for additional donors keen to help nurture the next wave of future thinkers. If this sounds like you, do let us know!

Register now to explore a unique take on speculative design, looking at some creative techniques for combining real-world signals and imagined scenarios into insightful futures, that acknowledge the complexity of the world and help us inform our choices today.

Sessions will take place on September 12, 19, 26, with an extra personal 1-on-1 session between October and December.

The link: https://normalfutu.re/co/future-fishing-workshop-envisioning-designing-telling-futures/