Atelier retreat (in Italy): for companies, consortia and beyond
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Photo: Battista. Fagetto Azienda Agricola Agrituristica. Battista is an architect, and used to lecture in Florence. Now he teaches about biodynamical agriculture from his first hand experience. To us, biodynamic is a beautiful immersion in deep time, which is integrated in our atelier’s first hand experience. It has strong roots in Italy, such as through the Slow Food Movement which also had an exhibition in the World Expo in Milan in 2015.

The atelier in Italy is organised as a bespoke assignments for and with clients. If you are an employer - such as a dean of a faculty - and would be interested in the atelier as a pedagogical retreat or training of trainers (ToT) for your lecturers, professors, a new educational consortium, PHD students or otherwise, feel free to contact us, telling us what you you need, so that we can think alongside you and co-create an atelier.

In principle we can organise an atelier once every season. Italy serves are our inspiration and fills all our imagination, yet we can also organise it for you elsewhere, if you can offer to be the local partner for the logistcs etc. Feel free to approach us directly via: tikvah@studioblended.com

Do you need training to be more compact and with more ‘face to face’ in person guidance right at the level of seniority and responsibility of your team of educational professionals? With solid styllized cases, and lots of unstructured time?

Would you like to in fact dwell longer, on an envisioning excercise with your team, or perhaps a role play such as the Japanese Future Design Model we created for pedagogical purposes around climate topics?

Could your team use a time horizon reset, a detox from technology, one that brings them back to the present tense, the simplicity of undivided attention and flow? Alternating with working with their hands - away from screens - and la dolce far niente?

We have created a 1-week European atelier that does exactly that and gives a good ground and soil for your people’s own vitality too.  

There is an enormous added value in this opportunity to exchange experiences, in a relaxing environment, with no pressure – just inspiration and cross-learning.

A place where all one’s senses can relax - the optimal conditions for deep learning. Being almost off the radar for a week, is also an excellent way to tune in to deep time - not only for teachers’ own perception of your time horizon, but also for your technical content.

The atelier is located in an inspiring and calming setting deep off the beaten tracks, in Tuscany, Italy. Your teachers will be picked up by our personal friends at Pisa airport, to bring the teachers to their estate with biodynamic agriculture and local cuisine.

We can ensure your teams’ undivided attention for the whole week - there is no Internet (the roaming on your phone does work). We aim to offer the resilience course as a compact, analogue training with teachers and peers who are also fully present. A wonderful way to detox, refresh yourself in simplicity.

Find more below, about the atelier concept, the biodynamic stay and the arrangements. This atelier retreat is a highly bespoke assignment, and in dialogue with you as a client we will make it fully tailor-made, that is: within the boundaries of simpliicty that we love so that we do justice to the nature of this setting.

'Ha um gosto de vitoria e encanto na condicao de ser simples.
Nao e preciso muito para ser muito.'

'There is a sense of victory and delight in the condition of being simple.
You don't need a lot to be a lot.'

Lina Bo Bardi / Italian Brazilian architect,
winner Venice Architecture Biennale’s
Special Golden Lion award 2021


Photo: Battista. Breimer 2017

Photo: Niemeyer’s drawings, Breimer 2018

Photo: Niemeyer’s auditorium, Breimer 2018

Photo: Thermae in the vicinity, Breimer 2017

Interdisciplinary curricula resonate with our ever more complex reality and world, and therefore with the various technical content fields lecturers work in. Interdisciplinarity/transdisciplinarity is very much in the spirit of Leonardo Da Vinci. His works are over 500 years old now. Leonardo admired everything in nature, including human beings, as integral part of the whole.  

In your freetime, you can admire Leonardo da Vinci’s work, in Florence.

Photo: the Davinci Network, prof. Martin Kemp

Photo: Florence, Breimer 2017

Photo: Your teacher trainer, Tikvah Breimer Florence, Breimer 2018.

Photo: Breimer 2018. The land belongs to those who work its soil. Zapata.

Photo: Breimer 2017
Photo: Breimer 2017

Photo: Breimer 2018

Biodynamic stay in Italy
Since most of your teammembers may be used to staying in endless similar hotels - we consciously offer something refreshing in its simplicity.

Photo: Rina. Breimer 2017


Photo: Rina. Fagetto Azienda Agricola Agrituristica

The location of the atelier is in a high quality bed and breakfast, one that gives you a chance to breathe and calms you with its beauty. It is situated in an inspiring environment that has added meaning to the objectives of the atelier, showing a more organic way of life.

Deep off the beaten track of the roads in Tuscany, Italy, our StudioBlended lead, Tikvah Breimer, allows participants into her life in Italy, to meet Battista and Rina. Battista is an architect and lecturer himself, who together with Rina decided to give up his working life in Florence and invest in this property to work on the land and grow crops, biodynamically. Rina cooks wonderfully, and treats every lecturer coming in, as the most special person in the world. Together they will allow the participants to immerse themselves in a calming and inspiring environment. 

It is also possible to rent a car upon arrival at Pisa airport, which will allow day trips in the afternoon. For instance, to see Oscar Niemeyers auditorium in Ravello, or bathe in the Thermae close by.

The idea is to stay for a week, to unplug from other duties and avoid hassles of travel, create more opportunities and possibilities for spontaneous meetings with the trainer. All stay for the entire week, to unwind, and be readily available.

We are already organizing ourselves to try and see whether we can offer morning exercise sessions, to train you as a corporate athlete – very much in line with the human capability of resilience. Everything is optional for you to join, spontaneously. We do get up early, to make the most of our most productive brain-time in the morning, and allow you daylight for a siesta in the heat of the day, and then off to day-trips!

The evenings are full of wonder, the best of local foods, new company and colored by the season.

Everyone returns home well rested with new resilience  - even the trainer, to show by example that it is possible to deliver a course/training with human resilience.

You can find the Azienda Agricola Agrituristica here and get a pre-taste of its welcoming atmosphere.

Photo: Azienda Agricola Agrituristica

Photo: Breimer 2018

Arrangements
StudioBlended will arrange everything for you with our local partner, from the pick-up at Pisa airport, the overnight stays and all your meals, homemade from local produce.

Your team members only need to book their respective flights to Pisa, Italy. We chose this entry to Italy, because it is easily reached from across Europe, and the world.

The atelier requires organisation, development of material and time investment, as well as local coordination. We do not make a profit as a foundation; we only cover our honest salaries, and costs in the total price of the atelier per person.

The price agreed is all-inclusive, and is a fixed price per person all inclusive (ie. not dependent on group size, and excl. flight, which may vary depending on distance, hence best arranged by participants themselves), but fluctuates depending on the time needed to design and develop your unique curriculum on the ground.

We take as a maximum 10 participants per atelier. As a psycholoical price limit we are as inventive as we can be, and stay around 7000,- euro p.p. (excl. VAT to be paid in the country that buys in the service). This limit is on purpose for us: is a good way to also stay simple.

The experience is unforgettable for all of us.

Registration
We organise an atelier as a retreat, including a unique bespoke curriculum design, for you upon request.

If you are a company, especially if you’re working on climate matters, do contact us for an open conversation on the possiblities uniquely for your team.

If you are an employer and see possibilities in the atelier and retreat for your teaching staff, for instance in terms of retainment or to create a community of practice at your faculty - please feel free to contact our teacher trainer Tikvah Breimer directly, and dialogue about your needs, possibilities and opportunitiestikvah@studioblended.com

^{We are here especially for you as unique educational professional, to come alongside you as you work on the curriculum design of your module, course, training or degree, so that you can offer good and resilient educationin all simplicity.}

Photo: Azienda Agricola Agrituristica


Photo: Azienda Agricola Agrituristica 2021


Photo: Fagetto Azienda Agricola Agrituristica. If you wish to bring some Meditteranean sensations back home, Battista and Rina make the most exclusive olive oil right from the estate. In case you cannot find a moment in time to join the atelier - feel free to contact Rina directly to place an order. Be mindful of the shipping costs though - we recommend you come in person!   

We are here especially for you as unique professional, to come alongside you and partner with you, as you work on a (climate / urban / architecture) curriculum, so that you can offer effective and resilient education in all simplicity.