The Buckminster Game is an English-speaking, educational enrichment and adventure programme for teenagers from all over the world. The duration of the programme spans over nine consecutive months, consisting of weekly online sessions on Saturdays (1,5h) and three short residential periods in Bruges, Belgium (3-5 days each).

The educational objective of the programme is to equip our Players with a set of mental models, emotional capabilities and attitudes, cognitive habits, social skills, and intellectual foundations that will prepare them for individuation and thriving in the complex, uncertain, and open-ended reality. The programme is particularly beneficial for fast and challenging learners: for young people whose unique learning styles and interests demand interdisciplinary big-picture thinking and require a psychologically savvy holding environment. To learn more about our underlying philosophy and approach, please see the Buckminster Concept page.

Every morning, a powerful ancient wizard used to send his two ravens to fly over the world and report back to him. Every evening, the ravens would come back, sit on his shoulders, and whisper the news. One raven, who was also the wizard’s own mind, did all the remembering. The other, the wizard’s thought, would always bring an idea that has never been thought before… ‘They fly each day over the spacious earth’—sang their master when the birds were gone—’For the Thought I fear lest he come not home, but for the Mind my care is more’.

And indeed, one summer evening, just as the wizard feared and as you might have guessed, the ravens did not return. Something entirely different happened instead, elsewhere, and to someone who would have never expected that two birds might fly into her small attic room and give her a message to the world.

What to make of this story and was it even real? Nobody today can tell. Only the eldest people of Bruges still remember Erica and her strangely coloured bead. Sometimes they seem as if they were ready to tell you her story, but then they suddenly turn silent–and only keep smiling to themselves…

Unravel the mystery of the ravens’ forgotten visit to Bruges (or were they ravens at all?), while learning some cartography, mythology, art history, astronomy, science-fiction, psychology, martial arts, dance, economy, graphic design, animation, poetry, acting, coding, cryptography, and philosophy on the way!

Ready to be challenged? Enter the Game!

*In order to secure your place, you may apply before completing the task. If you choose this option, you will be asked to deliver the task within 4 weeks after submitting your application.

Game houses

The Buckminster Game is a continuous, open-ended reality: newcomers are joining always somewhere in the middle, like life. What has happened before remains in the memory of those who have been there earlier, so it is always a good idea for the new Players to try and investigate what the previous cohorts of Players have already found out.

New cohorts of Players join the Game three times during the year: in March, September, and November, each forming a new small community, virtually ‘housed’ together. The social structure of the Game, with each cohort working together while cultivating relationships with those located elsewhere, provides a rich social scene for experiential learning about group processes and dynamics. The Game is designed such that it repetitively brings to everyone’s conscious reflection the socio-emotional puzzle: how each of us can become increasingly masterful in the art of living as a unique individual, as a member of a small group, and as a player in a larger complex structure… simultaneously?

The current social structure of the Game includes:

• The House of the Golden Goblet: from November 2021 to November 2022,
• The House of the Blue Frog: from March 2022 to February 2023,
• The House of the Perennial Red: from September 2022 to July 2023 — currently accepting applications.

Admission criteria 2022

There are three admission criteria for joining the Game at the House of the Perennial Red in 2022:

• Born in the years: 2007-2013,
• Conversational fluency in English, subject to the applicant’s self-assessment declaration,
• Submission of the encrypted letter an the encryption key in two separate files, as described above.

Curriculum adjustment request letters for the schools

The dates of the (optional) residential sessions in Bruges may happen to coincide with the regular school days of many Players who are not based in Belgium. Whenever this is the case and an arrangement with the school is necessary, the Buckminster College will issue a letter for the school, requesting that an individual adjustment of the school duty is implemented so that the student can be excused from school for the periods of the residential sessions in Bruges, due to their participation in the educational acceleration and enrichment programme of the Buckminster College.

The entire duration of the enrollment in the Game consists of:

The House of the Golden Goblet

— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 13 November 2021 to 25 June 2022 29 October 2022*,

— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),

— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:

• • 3-6 November 2021 (3 nights),
  • 2-5 March 2022 (3 nights) – cancelled due to COVID restrictions,
  • 4-9 July 2022 (5 nights) – to be confirmed by 4 May 2022,
  • and 3-6 November 2022 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 31 August (Players) and 3 September 2022 (Buckminster College).

*The duration of this trajectory has been extended from 9 to 12 months due to the COVID cancellation in March 2022.

The House of the Blue Frog

— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 12 March 2022 to 11 February 2023*,

— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),

— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:

• • 2-5 March 2022 (3 nights) – cancelled due to COVID restrictions,
  • 4-9 July 2022 (5 nights) – to be confirmed by 4 May 2022,
  • 3-6 November 2022 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 31 August (Players) and 3 September 2022 (Buckminster College),
  • and 22-25 February 2023 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 22 November (Players) and 24 November 2022 (Buckminster College).

*The duration of this trajectory has been extended from 9 to 12 months due to the COVID cancellation in March 2022.

The House of the Perennial Red

— weekly online sessions at the Buckminster’s Flying Castle (browser-based): Saturdays, 11am-12:30pm CET, from 3 September 2022 to 21 June 2023,

— three individual coaching sessions of 20-30 minutes each (online),

— and optional residential sessions in Bruges, Belgium:

• • 3-6 November 2022 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 31 August (Players) and 3 September 2022 (Buckminster College),
  • 22-25 February 2023 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 22 November (Players) and 24 November 2022 (Buckminster College),
  • and 3-8 July 2023 (3 nights) – to be confirmed by 3 April (Players) and 5 April 2023 (Buckminster College).

In order to subscribe to the calendar of your House with a personal calendar tool (Google or else), try to click on the blue ‘plus’ sign and see what happens…

The House of the Golden Goblet

• • The enrollment fee, covering the general participation, online activities, and coaching sessions: 470 Euro, paid in full upon the confirmation of enrollment;
  • (optional) November bundle fee due on 6.09.2021, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the November residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (cancelled) March bundle fee due on 5.01.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the March 2022 residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (optional) July bundle fee due on 9.05.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the July residential session in Bruges: 485 Euro;
  • (optional) November bundle fee due on 6.09.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the November residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro.

The House of the Blue Frog

• • The enrollment fee, covering the general participation, online activities, and coaching sessions: 470 Euro. The enrollment fee may be paid in full upon the confirmation of enrollment, or optionally split into six monthly installments of 82 Euro;
  • (cancelled) March bundle fee due on 5.01.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the March 2022 residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (optional) July bundle fee due on 9.05.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the July residential session in Bruges: 485 Euro;
  • (optional) November bundle fee due on 6.09.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the November residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (optional) February bundle fee due on 23.12.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the March residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro.

The House of the Perennial Red

• • The enrollment fee, covering the general participation, online activities, and coaching sessions: 470 Euro. The enrollment fee must be paid in full upon the confirmation of enrollment;
  • (optional) November bundle fee due on 6.09.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the November residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (optional) February bundle fee due on 23.12.2022, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the March residential session in Bruges: 390 Euro;
  • (optional) July bundle fee due on 8.05.2023, covering the instruction, lodgings, meals, guardianship, and insurance for the July residential session in Bruges: 485 Euro.

Siblings discount

The Buckminster College offers a 20% reduction of the bundle fee(s) for each sibling who is participating in the Game at the same time. The discount applies to the bundle fee(s) for the residential sessions in Bruges in which the siblings participate simultaneously, either in the same of a different House. The siblings discount is not applicable to the Enrollment fee.