Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
Food Morphology: food forms matter
UBA, Argentine Republic
From Passive List to Active Script: Menu Design as a Strategic Agent for Restaurant Sustainability Transformation
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China)
Material Driven Design Education: Exploring Circularity and Regeneration through Waste-Based Experimentation
1: Politecnico di Milano, Italy; 2: Xi'an Jiaotong University, China
The Transformative Nature of Food and the Transition of Traditional Desserts into Industrial Products: A Case Study Through a Transformational Design Lens
İstanbul Ticaret University, Turkiye
Løp Gård: revitalyzing history through food and performance
Nordlandsmuseet, Norway
Perception-based design: An approach for engineering sustainable biobased materials
1: School of Architecture and Product Design, University of Limerick, Limerick V94T9PX, Ireland; 2: School of Product Design, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; 3: Biomolecular Interaction Centre, University of Canterbury, Christchurch 8041, New Zealand; 4: The Biological Materials Group, Biomimetics, Faculty 5, HSB–City University of Applied Sciences Bremen, 28199 Bremen, Germany; 5: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 4940 Hautcharage, Luxembourg
Designing for food system transformation: Navigating cultural complexity in cross-regional platform design
EPFL+ECAL LAB, EPFL, Switzerland
Learnings from Peruvian Gastronomy for the Transculturalization of Design Practices
1: Socionatural, Peru; 2: Lancaster University, UK; 3: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Peru
Cooking rush: Designing and evaluating a cross-cultural dietary board game for Chinese international students through research through design
Independent Scholar
Understanding food waste practices in cross-cultural food adaptation: The case of Chinese students in the UK
1: ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK; 2: School of Arts, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK
From Conflict to Care: A design learning experiment on food justice in Rio de Janeiro
1: Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano, Italy; 2: Department of Design, Pontifícia Universidade Católica (PUC) do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Exploring how packaging transparency and processing level affect acceptance of edible insects in Taiwan
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
We invite anyone interested in the Queer(ing) Design Research Studio to join us for lunch, conversation, and playing with prototypes and provocations.
The paradox of richness: A discourse-centered framework for equitable visualization
1: School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan, China; 2: Changsha University of Science & Technology, Changsha, Hunan, China; 3: Innovation Institute of Industrial Design and Machine Intelligence, Hunan University, Quanzhou, Fujian, China
Dialoguing with Design: How LLMs Mediate Multimodal Workflows in Zero-Waste Fashion
The University of Edinburgh
When play becomes language: Transforming international student experience through environmental art and eco-social design
1: Humak University of Applied Sciences, Finland; 2: Kyushu University, Faculty of Design, Japan
Within the dialogue box: Exploring designer activities and linguistic features in collaboration with textual GenAI
1: School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, China; 2: School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom; 3: College of Engineering and Design, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
Conversing with scenario data: exploring experienced designers’ data-informed reasoning strategies in smart product concept exploration
School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, China
Infrastructuring transitional bio-materialities: Case of the BioMakerStudio
Department of Design, Aalto University, Finland
Mediating material transitions. A digital library for circular upholstery material selection.
1: University of Bologna, Italy; 2: Polytechnic of Milan
Deep Materialities - investigating the complex socio-technical entanglements of materials towards the designing of resilient futures
ENS PARIS SACLAY, France
Reflecting with Eco Material Libraries: Bridging Material Experimentation, Teaching, and Sustainability Discourse
1: University of California Davis, United States of America; 2: Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; 3: University of Colorado Boulder, United States of America
Re-Materialising Design: Material Agency and the Reconfiguration of Creative Practice
TU Delft, Netherlands, The
Systematic material experimentation with photosynthetic biomineralisation across waste substrates for circular product design
1: Living Systems Lab, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London N1C 4AA, United Kingdom; 2: Algal Innovation Centre, Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3EA, United Kingdom; 3: Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, London N1C 4AA, United Kingdom
Material in Transition: Rethinking the Value of British Wool in Sustainable and Circular Futures
University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Locality as a Driver for Transitional Materialities
1: Atilim University; 2: Middle East Technical University; 3: Free University of Bozen-Bolzano
Mapping Circular Design pathways for wearables: An annotated portfolio at the intersection of Material-Driven Design and Bio-HCI
Design Department, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
In kinship with harakeke phormium tenax: how one plant and its materials facilitate transitional knowledge through inter-indigenous and inter-cultural exchange.
Toi Rauwhārangi (College of Creative Arts), Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa (Massey University)
Reused earthenware in the wall: Learning from vernacular dwellings as a source of tacit knowledge for material circularity
1: Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkiye; 2: İstanbul University, Turkiye
Transitional materials and collaborative craft: European–Indonesian design practices from the Design Matters Lab programme toward a resilient future
Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
Join members of the DRS Sustainability & Transitions SIG over lunch.
A hierarchical and ontology-based taxonomy of stimuli–smart materials–transformation effects in 4D printing as a new interactive modality
Brunel University of London, United Kingdom
Preserving material integrity: Designing for value retention in imperfect, discarded materials
Aalborg University, Denmark
Can textiles be alive? Exploring transitional materialities through microbial biosensors and textile fluidics
1: Northeastern University, United States of America; 2: Harvard University, United States of America
Perceived Quality and Future Applications of Transparent Wood: Insights from an International Focus Group
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Hybrid craft practices for sustainable materialities and narratives through digital fabrication
1: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Western University, Canada; 2: School of Design, Fanshawe College, Canada; 3: Department of Visual Arts, Western University, Canada; 4: Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism & Collaborative Specialization in Environment and Sustainability, Western University, Canada; 5: Ivey Business School, Western University, Canada
(Re)framing timber values: Cascade use metrics as a dynamic policy tool
1: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Lausanne (EPFL), RIOT Lab; 2: Royal Danish Academy, Center for IT and Architecture
In vegetal terms: Temporal lenses in human-plant interaction
1: School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong S.A.R. (China); 2: School of Architecture, Design and Planning, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Making-with Biomaterials: Attuning to More-than-Human Temporalities in Growth and Decay Practices
RMIT, Australia School of Design
Incommensurable durations: Fungal time and the limits of attunement in multispecies design
1: School of Science, University of New South Wales, Canberra; 2: School of Art and Design, Australian National University, Canberra
Putting an ear to the ground: Attending to Frictions in Human-machine-soil Temporalities
Dept. of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
Tagus estuary color swatch – Materials as affective mediators in more-than-human temporalities
1: ITI/LARSyS, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; 2: ITI/LARSyS, Faculdade de Belas Artes, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Design for Coastal Futures: Rethinking Space and Time with a More-than-Human and Transcultural Lens.
1: ImaginationLancaster, Lancaster University, United Kingdom; 2: Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Recognize ourselves, understand and transform: An approach to a Latin American feminist design methodology
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Escuela de Diseño
Maintaining Counterpublics: Archival Recursion and Prefiguration
University of Florida, United States of America
Designing Archipelagic AI: Challenging the coloniality of AI through speculative metaphors
1: ITI/LARSyS, IST - University of Lisbon, Portugal; 2: Umeå University, Sweden
Default bodies: challenging gendered norms in fighting games through participatory design
Glasgow Caledonian Univerisity, United Kingdom
Design things in search for public concern: A study of how urban lighting is scripted in the City of Gothenburg
1: University of Gothenburg, Sweden; 2: University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Who designs the designer? An anticolonial response to the world that design us back
1: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia de Pernambuco; 2: Loughborough University London, United Kingdom; 3: Federal University of Technology – Paraná; 4: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná
The Meet-up is an opportunity for Explorations convenors to share ideas about how Explorations delivered at DRS2026 can become captured, formatted and shared using the DRS Digital Library. Explorations is a new stream to DRS2026, fostering and supporting design research and knowledge dissemination beyond traditional paper formats. Explorations emphasise experimentation, participation, and shared inquiry in the production of design-based knowledge. The goal is to create an environment where participants can test emerging practices, explore complex issues through methods of construction and performance, and collectively reflect on the knowledge generated through such processes, particularly if that knowledge is mediated, supported and leading to non-textual outcomes.
PRO-DES. Localising design research for Scientific publishing. A case study of research and experimentation in Italy
1: Politecnico di Milano, Italy; 2: Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna
InfoDesign journal: Tensions and contradictions in twenty years of information design research in Brazil
1: University of São Paulo, Brazil; 2: University of Brasília, Brazil; 3: Federal University of Health Sciences of Porto Alegre, Brazil
Knowledge Products from Applied Design Research
1: HU University of Applied Sciences; 2: Inholland University of Applied Sciences; 3: Saxion University of Applied Sciences
From Scientific Publication to Scientific Impact: Designing Research for Reach and Engagement
University of Twente, Netherlands
Designing Knowledge Otherwise: The Bembo Officina Editoriale as a Case for Alternative Academic Publishing
1: Università Iuav di Venezia, Italy; 2: Alpaca Società Cooperativa; 3: Chialab SRL
Designing for learning rhythms: A taxonomy of trajectory-aware interventions in online learning
Institute of Design at Illinois Tech, United States of America
Unlocking dormant products: Systemic leverage points and strategies for household circularity
1: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; 2: University of Antwerp, Belgium
The R’s Have It: Navigating the Playground of Design for Health through Design Rationale
NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, The
Three lenses, one wicked problem: Navigating pluralism to address consumer confusion in Australia
1: School of Media and Communication, RMIT University, Building 9, Level 4, 124 Latrobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 Australia; 2: School of Design, RMIT University, Building 9, Level 5, 124 Latrobe Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3001 Australia; 3: End Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, Wine Innovation Central Building, Level 1, Waite Campus, Urrbrae, South Australia, 5064 Australia
The Fuzzy Front-End of Transformation: An Inquiry Protocol for Intervention Design
1: Aalto University School of Engineering, Finland; 2: Faculty of Art & Design, University of Lapland
Surfacing design requirements. A conceptual framework for entity identification in Smart Product-Service Systems
1: University of Bath, United Kingdom; 2: University of Bath, United Kingdom; 3: North Carolina State University, United States; 4: University of Bath, United Kingdom
Causal loop diagrams as a tool in textile innovation trajectories
1: Saxion University of Applied Sciences; 2: University of Twente
Plural epistemologies in systemic design: Bridging eastern wisdom and western traditions
Tongji University, China, People's Republic of
Methodologies as complex systems: Practicing pluralism in systemic design for transformations toward regeneration
COBALT (Collaborative for Bioregional Action Learning & Transformation)
Acknowledging the Blind Men and the Elephant in the Room
Independent Academic, India
Mapping How Design Engages with Systems Thinking in Complex Healthcare Systems: A Scoping Review
The University of Edingburgh, United Kingdom
Made to misfit: Critical design as a tool for pluriversal thinking in design education
1: University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Science, Department of Product Development; 2: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, Department of Literary and Cultural Analysis (ASCA)
Introducing systems thinking in design education: Exploring systems through breakfast
1: Deutscher Werkbund Sachsen-Anhalt; 2: Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Đồng-design: Designing togetherness as a systemic approach to Vietnam’s textile and apparel transformation
RMIT International University
Resilient design pedagogies: Examining sustainability's translation into contemporary design education
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Game Design as an educational method
1: Kristiania University of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway; 2: Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA; 3: The University of Skövde, Skövde, Sweden
Speculative Co-Imagination: Participatory Visualization Informed by Design Fiction
1: Tsinghua University, China, People's Republic of; 2: Hunan University, China, People's Republic of; 3: Central Academy of Fine Arts, China, People's Republic of; 4: Wuhan University of Communication, China, People's Republic of
Transforming a precarious equilibrium: Embracing complexity in public design practices
1: TU Delft, The Netherlands; 2: Dutch Design Foundation, The Netherlands
Care-full systems: Applying Tronto’s ethics of care into systemic design processes
University of Antwerp, Faculty of Design Sciences, Belgium
Participatory design as emotional infrastructure: Supporting collective reflection and resilience after the pandemic
University of Southampton, United Kingdom
Pen-palling systems change: a collaborative approach to growing individual agency in light of global polycrises
Linnaeus University, Sweden
Care-ful sensemaking: Co-mapping lived experiences and biases in hormonal self-management tools
University of Twente, The Netherlands
Pedagogies under Pressure in a Design-for-Transitions Era
Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Department of Design, Organisation and Strategy, Creative Processes Section, Netherlands.
Participatory place-shaping through collaborative counterstorying
1: Elon University, United States of America; 2: Elon University, United States of America; 3: Elon University, United States of America; 4: African American Cultural Arts and History Center, United States of America
Designing within Superdiversity: Encountering Forms of Systemic Participation Through Layered Exploration of an Immigrant Neighbourhood
1: Independent Design Researcher; 2: University of Twente, Netherlands
Speculative socially engaged design interventions in menopause health and post-extractive environmental regeneration
University of New South Wales, Australia
Towards equitable participation of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people in co-design research: An initial working framework
1: School of Design and Creative Arts, Loughborough University, United Kingdom; 2: Ergonomics Research Centre, University of Guadalajara, Mexico; 3: School of Science, College of Science and Engineering, University of Derby, United Kingdom
Co-designing equitable engagement - Home health assessment in healthcare practice in Scotland
University of strathclyde, United Kingdom
Time: 12:45-13:45
Journal Editors discuss current themes and issues with journals and publication including:
- What to do about the growing use and influence of AI?
- How to turn a conference paper into a journal paper?
- Diversity in journals and publication
- Publishing research through design
- Do journal metrics matter any more?
- How can I become a journal editor?
Panel:
Peter Lloyd, Designing (Moderator)
Louise Valentine, The Design Journal
Luca Simeone, CoDesign
Fernando Secomandi, Designing
Owain Pedgely, Designing
Yaw Ofosu-Asare, Designing
Colin Gray, Designing
Boundary objects for systemic insight: Relational and embodied Systemic Co-Design case studies
1: Inholland University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands; 2: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Unstructuring data, activating dialogue: How situated knowledges shape participatory Systemic Design practices
Politecnico di Torino, Italy
Participatory visual mapping as a systemic data collection method in complex, high-pressure context
University of Arts London, United Kingdom
Fostering emergence in behavioral public policy: A systemic behavioral design framework
Institute of Design, Illinois Tech, United States of America
Changing the Lens: Micro-Systemic Change through Design Interventions
Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Practicing prototyping within Transition Design: materials, competences and meanings
Service Design Lab - Aalborg University (Copenhagen), Denmark
Growing pains of sustainability: Scale, care, and counter-infrastructures
1: HAAU Architecture Studio; 2: École Spéciale d'Architecture, Paris
Scaffolding Transition Pathways: Integrating SES Resilience as a Dialogic Tool for Community-based Co-Design
1: University of Auckland, New Zealand; 2: Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong SAR, China
Design for Mending the Rift: Rethinking Sustainable Design from an Eco-Marxist Perspective
1: School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, China; 2: Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, Japan
Against the Given: Reframing the Brief for Transformative Design Practices
1: Elisava (UVic-UCC), Catalonia, Spain; 2: ENS Paris-Saclay, France
Disruption as an ecologizing co-design method
Jade University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Architecture, Oldenburg, Germany
Staging dramaturgies: supporting urban curators in navigating sustainability transitions
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands, The
Intermediary ecologies and participatory infrastructures in wind power planning – towards a practice of design for just transitions
1: London College of Communication, University of Arts London, CoDesign4Transitions; 2: London College of Communication, University of Arts London, CoDesign4Transitions; 3: Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon Colleges of Arts, University of Arts London, CoDesign4Transitions
Redesigning transition arenas for power-sensitive participation
Aalto University, Finland
The role of participatory architecture in urban transition
1: Lancaster University, United Kingdom; 2: Universidad de A Coruña, Spain
Keeping it Real with Responsible Futuring: Reflecting on the Epistemic and Political Ambition of a Transdisciplinary Approach for Societal Transitions
1: University of Twente, Netherlands, The; 2: Future Compass
Transdisciplinarity in practice: Challenges and transformative potentials of Participatory Design in Sociobiodiversity contexts
1: University of São Paulo, Brazil; 2: Biodiversity and Biotechnology Directorate / SEMIL; 3: Embrapa Environment Research Center
Grounding the Interspecies Playground: A More-than-Human Framework for the GOCCIA Project
Department of Design - Politecnico di Milano
Minamata’s Ecological Encounters Codesheet: Designing Remembrance Lenses through more-than-human and media archaeology
Keio University
Multispecies convivial learning: Art-based interventions at a Japanese public junior high school
Kyoto Institute of Technology
More-than-Human Perspectives in Teaching Technology Design: From Research to Classroom, to the Real World?
1: Malmö University, Sweden; 2: Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands; 3: Aarhus University (DNK), Denmark
Toward an ecology of imagination in Benwell
1: Open Lab - School of Computing- Newcastle University; 2: School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape - Newcastle University
Towards a common language for representation tools in more-than-human design
Koç University, Türkiye
Cecilia Chuan Jiang (Edinburgh); Hanwen Li (Edinburgh); Jiarong Yu (Edinburgh)
Artificial intelligence is increasingly embedded in design research, not only as a tool, but as a force that reshapes how knowledge is produced, experienced, and negotiated. This PhD Hub session invites participants to critically reflect on how AI is transforming research practice across three lenses: methods, experience, and agency. Rather than focusing on technical applications, the session provides a structured space for peer exchange and collective reflection. It opens with a brief framing activity to surface participants' initial perspectives, followed by short provocations using research artefacts as discussion triggers, and structured small-group discussions that support honest articulation of how AI is shaping and unsettling research practice. Groups then share key insights and points of productive disagreement in a collective debrief. Participants will leave with new ways of thinking about their own AI-entangled practice, and connections with peers navigating the same tensions. No prior preparation is required. Participants are welcome to reflect on their own research experiences with AI, or to bring questions and uncertainties about where AI might fit into their work.
Designing with Country: Relational infrastructuring beyond technocratic urbanism
Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia
Practical ways of staying with the trouble: Enacting posthuman ethics through design practice
1: Interactive Technologies Institute, I.S.Técnico, Portugal; 2: Northumbria University, UK
Sounding Territories: Dis/identificatory Codings as Relational Worlding
1: Delft University of Technology; 2: Universidad Pompeu Fabra; 3: Politecnico di Milano; 4: Delft University of Technology
Careful Configurations: An Exploration of Smart Technologies in More-Than-Human Innovation
1: New Design University, Austria; 2: University of Salzburg, Austria; 3: Loughborough University London, United Kingdom
Material agents at work in alternative food networks
1: Istanbul Technical University; 2: Politecnico di Milano
Olfactory prototyping as diplomatic device: Codesigning a MorethanHuman ‘Us’ with two captive pumas
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Chile
Co-evolution in practice: The wolf's disruptive return to the Netherlands
Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, The
From Decoration to Co-Presence: Reconfiguring Human–Plant Relations in Urban Workplaces Through Aesthetic Bio-Feedback
1: Tsinghua University, China; 2: University of Michigan, the United States; 3: Dalian University of Technology, China; 4: Tongji University, China
Designing with Shape-Changing Materials as Co-Agents of Interspecies Encounters
Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Towards More-than-Human Inclusion: Designing Artefacts that Cultivate Attentiveness for Engaging with More-than-Human Worlds
University College London, United Kingdom
Naming and resisting the system of fatphobia in design by a fat, queer designer and educator
The Pennsylvania State University
AGNES as a Critical Wearable: Mediating Age, Materiality, and Embodied Expertise
1: AgeLab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; 2: Advanced Care Research Centre, University of Ediburgh
Reimagining Body–Instrument Relations through Feminist Design Practice: Reflections on an E-textile Musical Interface
City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Re-configuring Body Perception: Colour and Dynamic Pattern Strategies to Challenge Aesthetic Norms
School of Design, College of Creative Arts, Massey University, New Zealand
Reclaiming Embroidery: Uncovering the Potential of Embodied Practice for Women’s Mental Well-being
1: Tongji University, China, People's Republic of; 2: Newcastle University, UK
Disrupting Walking: Rethinking the Practice Through a Podal Extension
Istanbul Technical University, Turkiye
Proximity Ruff: Rehabilitating relationality through postdigital bodies
Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
Situated practices in digital jewellery research: The collective voices of the new generation of jewellers
1: Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom; 2: EK – Erhvervsakademi København - Business Academy Copenhagen
Touchbox: A research toolkit of haptic textile cubes for experiencing, evaluating, and co-designing tangible remote communication
1: DFKI - Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz GmbH, Germany; 2: HFC - Human-Factors-Consult GmbH
Designing emotionally resonant thermal interactions for public speaking support
1: School of Design, Hunan University, Changsha, China; 2: Lushan Lab; 3: Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Human Factors Design
Designing Preparatory Haptics: Relational Timing and Bodily Anticipation in Industrial Driving Contexts
1: School of Design, Hunan University; 2: School of Design and Art, Hunan University of Technology and Business; 3: Innovation Institute of Industrial Design and Machine Intelligence, Hunan University, Quanzhou
Designing for the Working Body: Challenges in the Development of Occupational Exoskeletons
Chair of Industrial Design Engineering | Dresden University of Technology
From Commodity to Commons: Creating local eco-systems for the design of sustainable NHS garments in Scotland
1: University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom; 2: University of Edinburgh, Uniter Kingdom; 3: Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom
Cianalas: How Scottish dementia friendly communities shaped design for wellbeing research
1: Heriot-Watt University; 2: University of Dundee
Situated knowledge in rural craft practices: A context-sensitive approach to craft–design collaboration in Fife, Scotland
The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Appropriating Edinburgh’s dead: Exploring the potential of Edinburgh’s historic burial grounds as sites for designerly conversations about grief and loss
1: University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom; 2: Edinburgh Napier University, United Kingdom
"That's Fine..." Uncovering ambiguity through emotional labelling in Scottish design students’ design process
University of Strathclyde, Scotland, United Kingdom
This is a closed meeting for members of the Retail SIG.
Open Design has been a set of practices and an ethos having an impact on professional practice, design activism, including maker culture, education, and design research, as particularly documented through several key European publications in the previous decade. In this Conversation, we aim to revisit open design and problematize how openness is framed, enacted, and claimed by designers and design researchers today, inviting critical examination of its assumptions and implications for equitable participation and inclusion.
To explore this topic, we approach the conversation format from the following themes:
1. Perspectives: How different lived experiences, disciplinary backgrounds, and cultural worldviews shape what becomes visible, valued, or relevant in open design.
2. Positions: The explicit stances, commitments, and value-laden choices designers adopt in open design projects, signalling different forms of agency.
3. Practices: The contemporary abilities, methods, and orientations designers use to engage with open design today, including the shifts, interventions, and systemic levers through which they influence trajectories, redistribute power, and reshape design ecosystems.
Open Design Then. And Now?
1: Umeå University, Sweden; 2: Lancaster University, UK; 3: University of Bologna, Italy; 4: Paraná Federal University, Brazil
We would like to start with giving spoken and visual input and to discuss the following three questions:
1. How do we begin the design process when we can research the past, evaluate the present, but can scarcely predict the future in such uncertain times? What is an alternative to speculative design and how might design research embrace flexibility toward the future.
2. What planetary-level adaptations might offer starting points? We are thinking through air and water as the main planetary lenses - we position them as ‘ocean of water’ and ‘ocean of air’
3. What is planetary resilience? We offer that resilience is embedded with the capacities of anticipation, preparation, recovery, healing, adaptation, and evolution.
With the exigencies of contemporary environmental, social, political, and economic, and nature crises, normal is being perceived as extreme by the generations currently active on this planet and the ‘new extremes’ reflect the pace and intensity of the planetary crises and their manifestations.
This conversation will focus on design through the lens of extreme environments, with the environment as a teacher in designing with limited resources, infrastructure, society and space. We acknowledge that living in the environmental extremes of temperature, pressure and air quality, requires a holistic view on the challenges for supporting life. We approach this conversation by adopting a systems perspective and using design strategies such as adaptability and resilience for the built environment. We invite guests and audience to discuss, interact and sketch; a generative process leading to first activities of critical input into a new framework.
FROM A PLANETARY TRIPOD: Architecture and Design through the lens of the new environmental extremes
1: Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada; 2: University of Innsbruck, Austria; 3: University of Edinburgh, Scotland; 4: University of Copenhagen in the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, Denmark
