Nicolás, by Matías (Spanish) Nicolás, por Matías 0:00 / 0:00

Nicolás Bronzina

Futures Designer working with AI, sociology, and design fiction

Madrid ↔ Buenos Aires

I build prototypes and design-fiction artifacts that turn research into decisions organizations can act on.

Construyo prototipos y artefactos de diseño ficción que transforman investigación en decisiones sobre las que las organizaciones pueden actuar.

Nicolás Bronzina profile picture

My starting point is never technology. It’s someone specific, in a specific situation, dealing with a future that arrived without asking. I trained as a sociologist before becoming a designer, and it shows: I’m less interested in what the future looks like than in who has to live in it, and how.

Mi punto de partida nunca es una tecnología. Es alguien concreto, en una situación concreta, lidiando con un futuro que llegó sin avisar. Me formé como sociólogo antes de volverme diseñador, y se nota: me interesa menos cómo va a verse el futuro que quién va a tener que vivir en él, y cómo.

As Managing Partner at BPP Analytics & Design, I combine sociological research, futures design, and experimentation to support high-stakes strategic decisions. At Heated Studio, which I co-founded, I help organizations imagine and prototype climate futures.

Como Managing Partner en BPP Analytics & Design, combino investigación sociológica, diseño de futuros y experimentación para sostener decisiones estratégicas de alto impacto. En Heated Studio, que cofundé, ayudo a organizaciones a imaginar y prototipar futuros climáticos.

I designed and teach the Emerging Technologies course for UDIT Madrid’s Online Master’s in UX Design, built on a position that treats AI neither with fear nor fascination, but as a cultural force to examine.

Diseñé y dicto el curso de Tecnologías Emergentes para el Máster Online en Diseño UX de UDIT Madrid, construido sobre una postura que trata a la IA ni con miedo ni con fascinación, sino como una fuerza cultural a examinar.

Earlier, at Near Future Laboratory and Girardin & Nova, I delivered design-fiction projects for global clients across telecommunications, finance, defense, and mobility, turning abstract risk into artifacts teams can argue about.

Antes, en Near Future Laboratory y Girardin & Nova, entregué proyectos de diseño ficción para clientes globales en telecomunicaciones, finanzas, defensa y movilidad, transformando riesgo abstracto en artefactos sobre los que los equipos pueden discutir.

I document my practice through Otros Futuros, a YouTube channel where speculative thinking becomes tangible work, and publish MARGIN.SIGNALS, an independent zine tracking weak signals from cultural margins before they harden into trends.

Documento mi práctica mediante Otros Futuros, un canal de YouTube donde el pensamiento especulativo se vuelve trabajo tangible, y publico MARGIN.SIGNALS, un zine independiente que rastrea señales débiles desde los márgenes culturales antes de que se solidifiquen en tendencias.

I was born in Buenos Aires, a city that teaches you early that scenarios flip. That turned out to be professional training.

Nací en Buenos Aires, una ciudad que te enseña temprano que los escenarios se dan vuelta. Eso resultó ser formación profesional.

Working on something that doesn’t have a clear future yet? Let’s talk (send email).

¿Trabajando en algo que todavía no tiene un futuro claro? Hablemos (enviar email).

Selected Projects

Proyectos

These projects turn uncertain conditions into artifacts, experiences, and systems that people can examine, discuss, and act on.

Estos proyectos convierten condiciones inciertas en artefactos, experiencias y sistemas que las personas pueden examinar, discutir y sobre los que pueden actuar.

  1. Rescoldo

    TL;DR: A diegetic archive of a seven-course dinner at Lanín 234, Barracas — documented as if autumn 2030 had already happened, built around the question of what Argentine cuisine would have to become to deserve this table.

    TL;DR: Archivo diegético de una cena de siete pasos en Lanín 234, Barracas — documentado como si el otoño de 2030 ya hubiera ocurrido, construido alrededor de la pregunta de qué tendría que volverse la gastronomía argentina para merecer esta mesa.

    Seven courses at Lanín 234, Barracas — natural wines, beeswax candles from a 78-year-old beekeeper, a long table under a paraíso tree, documented as if autumn 2030 had already closed. The archive treats a single dinner as a prototype: if this is what Argentine gastronomy looks like in ten years, what had to change for it to get here?

    Siete pasos en Lanín 234, Barracas: vinos naturales, velas de cera de un apicultor de 78 años, una mesa larga bajo un paraíso, documentados como si el otoño de 2030 ya hubiera cerrado. El archivo trata una sola cena como prototipo: si esto es lo que parece la gastronomía argentina en diez años, ¿qué tuvo que cambiar para llegar acá?

  2. Adaptive Museums

    TL;DR: An interactive prototype set inside a civic institution during extreme heat — redesignated as emergency infrastructure and forced to choose what to protect: the collection, the building, or the neighborhood outside.

    TL;DR: Un prototipo interactivo situado dentro de una institución cívica durante calor extremo — reclasificada como infraestructura de emergencia y obligada a elegir qué proteger: la colección, el edificio o el barrio de afuera.

    A museum during a heat emergency, redesignated as civil shelter. The prototype puts you in the position of the institution: managing collection risk, visitor flow, and neighborhood demand at once — three missions it was never designed to hold simultaneously.

    Un museo durante una emergencia de calor, reclasificado como refugio civil. El prototipo te pone en el lugar de la institución: gestionando el riesgo de la colección, el flujo de visitantes y la demanda del barrio al mismo tiempo — tres misiones para las que nunca fue diseñada.

  3. Estación Fresca

    TL;DR: The diegetic website of Buenos Aires’ first intra-market cool station — activated during the 2031 heatwave Norma, with flag codes, cool routes, and a neighborhood watch network built from the shops next door.

    TL;DR: El sitio web diegético de la primera estación de frescura intra-mercado de Buenos Aires — activada durante la ola de calor Norma de 2031, con códigos de bandera, rutas frescas y una red vecinal construida desde los locales de al lado.

    When the city hits 40°C, a 19th-century market becomes civil infrastructure. The Estación Fresca diegetic site exists as if it were published during heatwave Norma in 2031: it tells you which entrance is coolest, which shops have opened their back rooms, how to read the flag system on the door. A second artifact from the Mercado San Telmo 203□ universe — designed to inhabit the same future, not just describe it.

    Cuando la ciudad llega a 40°C, un mercado del siglo XIX se convierte en infraestructura civil. El sitio diegético de Estación Fresca existe como si se hubiera publicado durante la ola de calor Norma en 2031: te dice qué entrada está más fresca, qué locales abrieron sus fondos, cómo leer el sistema de banderas en la puerta. Un segundo artefacto del universo Mercado San Telmo 203□ — diseñado para habitar el mismo futuro, no solo describirlo.

  4. Red de Aguante

    TL;DR: A playable design fiction set in a near-future Buenos Aires where the grid has failed — built around the decisions self-organized communities face when the systems they depend on stop responding.

    TL;DR: Un diseño ficción jugable ambientado en un Buenos Aires de futuro cercano donde la red falló — construido alrededor de las decisiones que enfrentan las comunidades autoorganizadas cuando los sistemas de los que dependen dejan de responder.

    Buenos Aires, near future. The grid has failed. Water is rationed. What do people do? A playable design fiction co-created by LAB de Mundanidad Forzada and Heated Studio, built around the decisions that self-organized communities face when the systems they depend on stop responding. Not a game about survival — a game about governance at the scale the state can no longer reach.

    Buenos Aires, futuro cercano. La red falló. El agua está racionada. ¿Qué hace la gente? Un diseño ficción jugable co-creado por LAB de Mundanidad Forzada y Heated Studio, construido alrededor de las decisiones que enfrentan las comunidades autoorganizadas cuando los sistemas de los que dependen dejan de responder. No es un juego de supervivencia — es un juego sobre gobernanza a la escala a la que el Estado ya no puede llegar.

  5. Cuidados en Red

    TL;DR: A design fiction for an aging city whose care infrastructure was built for a different century — imagining what a neighborhood-scale care network would look like if designed today.

    TL;DR: Un diseño ficción para una ciudad que envejece con una infraestructura de cuidado construida para otro siglo — imaginando cómo sería una red de cuidado a escala de barrio si se diseñara hoy.

    Buenos Aires has one of the oldest populations in Latin America and a care infrastructure that wasn’t built for it. This design fiction imagines what elder care networks would look like if designed now — peer-based, neighborhood-scale, built around the relationships that already exist rather than the institutions that don’t reach.

    Buenos Aires tiene una de las poblaciones más envejecidas de América Latina y una infraestructura de cuidado que no fue construida para eso. Este diseño ficción imagina cómo serían las redes de cuidado de adultos mayores si se diseñaran ahora — basadas en pares, a escala de barrio, construidas alrededor de las relaciones que ya existen en lugar de las instituciones que no alcanzan.

  6. OFFicial

    TL;DR: A voice assistant prototype for people navigating integration after displacement — designed to collect the kinds of information institutions were never built to ask for.

    TL;DR: Prototipo de asistente de voz para personas en proceso de integración tras el desplazamiento — diseñado para recopilar el tipo de información que las instituciones nunca fueron construidas para preguntar.

    A voice assistant for people navigating integration after displacement. Built around the gap between what institutions need to know and what they know how to ask — using conversation rather than forms to surface the things that don’t fit in a field.

    Un asistente de voz para personas en proceso de integración tras el desplazamiento. Construido alrededor de la brecha entre lo que las instituciones necesitan saber y lo que saben cómo preguntar: usando conversación en lugar de formularios para revelar lo que no cabe en un campo.

Writing

Escritura

A collection of essays, workshops, frameworks, and investigations into how people imagine, design, and live through uncertain futures.

Una colección de ensayos, talleres, frameworks e investigaciones sobre cómo las personas imaginan, diseñan y viven a través de futuros inciertos.

AI and Personal Software

IA y Software Personal

Notes on building with tools I’m still figuring out — and the everyday friction of working alongside machines.

Notas sobre construir con herramientas que todavía estoy descubriendo — y la fricción cotidiana de trabajar junto a las máquinas.

Retro desk with computer, coffee and ethernet cable — AI and personal software
  1. Teaching Artificial Intelligence to UX Designers: Notes from a masterclass with Fabien Girardin and Rohit Gupta for UX design students at UDIT
  2. Making Software Without Having Learned to Program: A perspective from Latin America
  3. The Hand of God Now Lasts Three Seconds
  4. Training Creatures I Don't Understand
  5. They Asked Me If I Was a Bot
  6. No, the plane doesn’t have AI. And that opens up more interesting questions than the ones it tries to answer

Futures of Food

Futuros gastronómicos

Food as a futures problem: what climate, culture, and politics are doing to what we eat — and what we might eat next.

La gastronomía como problema de futuros: lo que el clima, la cultura y la política le están haciendo a lo que comemos — y lo que podríamos comer después.

Empanadas with design fiction elements exploring future Argentinean cuisine
  1. A Manifesto for a New Argentinean Cuisine
  2. What is carbon-neutral gastronomy?
  3. What is ethical meat and sustainable proteins tasting?
  4. The gastronomic offer of San Telmo Market in a 15-minute city

Futures of Climate

Futuros climáticos

Cities adapting to a climate that didn’t ask permission. Work with students, institutions, and communities across Madrid and Buenos Aires.

Ciudades adaptándose a un clima que no pidió permiso. Trabajo con estudiantes, instituciones y comunidades en Madrid y Buenos Aires.

Climate design fiction prototype exploring heat adaptation
  1. Day 3 of Norma: Notes from the first summer of Cool Station №1, inside the San Telmo market
  2. Inhabiting the future: climate design fiction with French spatial design master's students
  3. How I Prototyped an Alternative Future Climate with Design Fiction & GenAI
  4. How Madrid could adapt to extreme heat without losing its essence
  5. A speculative tour of San Telmo Market in a future Buenos Aires
  6. Collective trauma and community resilience after a climate disaster

Editorial

Editorial

A channel and publication for documenting practice, following weak signals, and making speculative thinking tangible.

Un canal y una publicación para documentar la práctica, seguir señales débiles y hacer tangible el pensamiento especulativo.

Otros Futuros YouTube channel banner

Otros Futuros

Futures design, design fiction, speculative design.

Diseño de futuros, diseño ficción, diseño especulativo.

I’m a futures designer. I build prototypes and speculative artifacts for organizations that have to make decisions without knowing what comes next.

Soy diseñador de futuros. Construyo prototipos y artefactos especulativos para organizaciones que tienen que tomar decisiones sin saber lo que viene.

Weak signals from the present. Futures-thinking methods. Speculative experiments, live. The orientation is toward making things: show the future, don’t tell the future.

Señales débiles del presente. Métodos de pensamiento de futuros. Experimentos especulativos, en vivo. La orientación es hacia hacer cosas: mostrar el futuro, no contarlo.

What I’ve learned, what I’ve applied, what I’m still testing — from practice.

Lo que aprendí, lo que apliqué, lo que sigo testeando — desde la práctica.

New content every week.

Contenido nuevo cada semana.

Watch →

Ver →

MARGIN.SIGNALS Release 001 prototype

MARGIN.SIGNALS

An independent publication tracking weak signals from cultural margins before they reshape the industry.

Una publicación independiente que rastrea señales débiles desde los márgenes culturales antes de que transformen la industria.

Release 001: Specialty.Coffee.Margins

What happens when coffee's margins challenge its center? This trendspotting fanzine explores master plant protocols, intentional defect fermentation, and decolonised cupping: patterns of hierarchy inversion you'll see elsewhere soon.

¿Qué pasa cuando los márgenes del café desafían su centro? Este fanzine de trendspotting explora protocolos de plantas maestras, fermentación de defectos intencional y cata decolonizada: patrones de inversión jerárquica que vas a ver pronto en otros lados.

Limited prototype run. Access by direct request only.

Tirada de prototipo limitada. Acceso solo bajo pedido directo.

Digital edition
€8
Edición digital
€8
Physical edition (limited print)
€15
Edición física (impresión limitada)
€15
Dual bundle (digital + print)
€24
Bundle dual (digital + impreso)
€24

Request your copy at nicolas.bronzina@gmail.com or via @margin.signals on Instagram.

Pedí tu copia a nicolas.bronzina@gmail.com o vía @margin.signals en Instagram.

Field notes

Sound, ritual, tools, places, and everyday forms of attention that sit alongside my main practice.

Play•ground

An ongoing music project exploring sound as an instrument, an environment, and a way of being present. Play•ground moves between web-based instruments, live audio, spatial listening, and inhabitable sound.

play•ground mk-1

Web-based music creation tool. 8-track drum sequencer, synthesizer, 4-slot looper with mic input.

play•ground mk-2

two decks and a mixer in the browser. drop two records, grab the disc, crossfade.

play•ground mk-air

Experience live audio that exists only in the moment: no recording, no archive. Broadcasts that challenge your relationship with permanence and presence.

play•ground mk-dwell

A habitable sound space. Your cursor is your position. Move toward a corner and a sound emerges, move away and it fades. The center breathes.

Coffee

An ongoing investigation into coffee as culture, ritual, equipment, labor, taste, and place.

Coffee.txt

Specialty coffee guide for Madrid.

Coffee Decoded

Practical guide to home coffee equipment.

Curriculum

Currículum

Experience
Experiencia

UDIT, Universidad de Diseño, Innovación y Tecnología (Madrid, Spain)

Emerging Technologies Curriculum Designer · Online Master’s in UX Design

Designed and authored the Emerging Technologies course for UDIT Madrid’s Online Master’s in UX Design. The six-ECTS course examines how technologies emerge, stabilize, and reshape design practice through science and technology studies, philosophy of technology, speculative design, and AI as both material and tool.

Across six units, students develop an AI system from their own UX practice, moving from observation to speculative prototyping and professional proposals. The course is grounded in a position of neither fear nor fascination toward AI.

Lab de Mundanidad Forzada

Research Coordinator & Lab Initiator

Coordinate collaborative experiments that help teams understand forced mundanity through ethnographic methods and design interventions. The lab creates research frameworks that can be adapted to different organizational and cultural contexts.

Heated Studio

Co-founder & Design Fiction Lead

Help organizations prepare for climate futures through design-fiction prototypes and strategic foresight, turning abstract climate risks into tangible strategies that teams can examine and test.

BPP Analytics & Design

Managing Partner

Combine sociological research, futures design, and experimentation to transform uncertainty into strategic clarity and actionable insight.

Girardin & Nova

Design Researcher

Delivered design-fiction projects for global organizations across telecommunications, financial services, defense, and mobility, helping teams navigate sector transformation and anticipate emerging challenges.

Near Future Laboratory

Design Researcher

Explored emerging technology futures for mobility sectors through design fiction, creating prototypes that helped organizations anticipate social and technological transformation before it arrived.

Teaching
Docencia

Universidad ORT Uruguay (Montevideo, Uruguay)

Guest Professor · Master’s in Strategic Design and Innovation

Taught students to transform abstract future scenarios into tangible diegetic artifacts through speculative prototyping. Working from STEEP-mapped scenarios, student teams produced four artifacts while learning three operational principles:

  • Artifacts think: objects process ideas; they do not simply illustrate them.
  • Ecosystems validate: surrounding contexts make speculation credible.
  • Friction is the material: everyday imperfections ground future visions in reality.

ESAA La Martinière-Diderot (Lyon, France)

Guest Lecturer · DSAA Design Espace

Delivered a talk and hands-on activity on climate design fiction for spatial-design master’s students visiting Madrid. The session introduced future-mundane methods and diegetic artifacts through Matadero as a living case study.

Led an intensive masterclass with Fabien Girardin and Rohit Gupta, introducing UX designers to AI-enhanced design-fiction methods and practical tools for anticipating the effects of emerging technologies on their work.

Domus Academy (Milan, Italy)

Guest Workshop Co-facilitator

Guided design students in developing speculative urban futures for extreme-heat scenarios, introducing weak-signals analysis and climate-foresight methods.

Presented frameworks for integrating futures design into public policy and proposed a Futures Anticipation Unit to help government navigate uncertainty through institutional design fiction.

Education
Educación

Master’s Degree in User Experience for the Design of Digital Products and Services

Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology

Certification in Future Thinking & Forecasting

Core expertise

I help organizations prepare for uncertain futures through design fiction, futures prototyping, sociological research, and AI-enhanced experimentation. My work turns weak signals and abstract risks into tangible strategies, artifacts, and situations that teams can examine, discuss, and act on.

Methods: Design fiction · Futures prototyping · Speculative scenarios · Strategic foresight · Weak-signals analysis · Ethnographic research · Workshop facilitation · AI-enhanced prototyping

Sectors: Climate adaptation · Urban resilience · Mobility · Defense · Financial services · Telecommunications