About us
Founded in 2024 by Fabien Girardin and Nicolas Nova, Girardin & Nova is a multidisciplinary agency which addresses pressing planetary matters from the digitization of cities to the implications of environmental change. Assisted by a group of regular contributors (designers, researchers, entrepreneurs and technologists) their approach mixes creativity and imagination with observation, logic and structure.
Fabien and Nicolas met twenty years ago at University of Geneva. They started their academic journey at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technologies in Lausanne (EPFL) in the domains of Human-Computer Interaction and Ubiquitous Computing. Based on their research and alongside Professor Pierre Dillenbourg they founded Simpliquity a spin-off to develop an air-travel detection system for the Boeing Corp. In 2009, they co-founded Lift Lab with entrepreneur Laurent Haug, the consulting arm of the Lift Conference series on technology and society. As the conference changed ownership in 2011, they merged their activites with California-based researcher Julian Bleecker and designer Nick Foster under the name Near Future Laboratory .
Throughout the years, Fabien and Nicolas have worked with over 100 clients – from multinational companies and governments to NGOs and start-ups — to produce knowledge on new ideas or emerging technologies. They experienced first-hand what it means to run a company that lasts, to co-create and launch products, to finance and conduct research projects, to lead teams of talented technologists, to help executives make sense of socio-technological evolutions, to publish critically-acclaimed books, to stretch peoples imagination through public exhibits and to teach and mentor young professionals. Together, they contributed to the origin, utility and impact of the practice of Design Fiction . Besides futures research, they also developed unique approaches in field research and observations as well as prototyping in Data Science .
Throughout these years, Fabien and Nicolas have worked with over 100 clients – from multinational companies and governments to NGOs and start-ups — to produce knowledge on new ideas or emerging technologies. They experienced first-hand what it means to run a company that lasts, to co-create and launch products, to finance and conduct research projects, to lead teams of talented technologists, to help executives make sense of socio-technological evolutions, to publish critically-acclaimed books, to stretch people imagination through public exhibits, to teach and mentor young professionals. Together, they influenced the world of Design as pioneers of Design Fiction. They have published a guide about that practice, its origins, its utility and its impact. It is called The Manual of Design Fiction .
