Unbound Trajectories

We are a Zurich-based lab and consultancy working across research, strategy, and transdisciplinary design. Collaborating with leading organisations, clients, and partners, we develop ideas, programmes, services, and solutions that address contemporary challenges of change and the conditions shaping our shared future.
Questions of transformation and development are inherently complex, layered, and multifaceted. Operating as a conceptual think tank, strategic consultancy, and creative developer, we explore perspectives beyond established boundaries and develop plausible scenarios alongside concrete responses tailored to the needs of our clients and partners.
The transdisciplinary experts involved in our projects draw on methodologies from science, research, art and design, organisational strategy, and management. These are combined with imagination and critical thinking to support individuals, businesses, and public and private organisations in realising their ambitions as agents of transformation and progress.

The projects undertaken by Unbound Trajectories and its predecessor practices have resulted in a wide range of material and immaterial outcomes. These include visions and conceptual strategies, editorial projects and visual communication, as well as architectural and spatial concepts for universities, laboratories, knowledge centres, archives and museums.
This work draws on more than 25 years of interconnected experience across design, the arts, research and education, public administration, business and NGOs. Working across Switzerland, the Netherlands, Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States, we move fluently between different professional, institutional and cultural contexts.
As a contemporary, research-driven office, we continually reconsider the role and purpose of design in a changing knowledge society. We explore how design can contribute to critical inquiry, institutional development and social transformation, while drawing on diverse forms of knowledge, research and practice to expand its own possibilities.

Clients and Partners

We have worked with clients and commissioners and collaborated with partners such as:

Association of Dutch Designers BNO (Amsterdam)
Bureau Europa (Maastricht)
Krisis Unit (Milan)
Club of Rome (Winterthur)
Council of Europe (Strasbourg)
Erasmus Student Network (Brussels)
ERYICA, European Youth Information Counselling Agency (Luxemburg)
Excellence Foundation Zurich/ Department of Economics, University of Zurich
Fotomuseum Winterthur
Graphic Design Festival Breda
Kosmopolis (Amsterdam)
GescheidenisLab (Rotterdam)
Gwangju Design Biennale 2011 (Gwangju, KR)
Helvetia Baloise Group (Vienna/ Winterthur)
International Council of Design, ICoD (Montreal)
Kashf Foundation (Lahore)
Archithese (Zurich)
RVD, Ministry of General Affairs (The Hague)
NOMIS Foundation (Zurich)
Premsela Dutch Platform for Design and Fashion (Amsterdam)
State Archive Canton of Basel-Stadt
State Archive Canton St. Gallen
Studio Ai Weiwei (Beijing)
UNICEF Netherlands (The Hague)
Varus Publishers (Bonn)
Volume Magazine, Archis Foundation (Amsterdam)
18th World Jamboree Holland 1995 Foundation (Leusden)
Greater Zurich Area (Zurich)

See for academic engagements: Evert Ypma

Team

Unbound Trajectories is a virtual office, assembling multidisciplinary teams tailored to each project. We understand strategy and creative work as collaborative processes. By bringing together diverse personalities, backgrounds, perspectives and capabilities, we strengthen the quality of our teams, ideas, workflows and outcomes. Critical scrutiny, ethical standards, integrity and taking responsibility guide every collaboration.