Design Field
Research Strand

Solar material mapping: Wonky Brick

Mapping material routes from the Solar display

 
Author: Alys Hargreaves

Contaminating our current thinking

Cher Potter, Future Observatory's Curatorial Director discusses the role of design research with the Design Researchers in Residence Solar cohort.
 
Cher Potter

What is the potential legacy of a research project?

In late May, we held a networking event at the Design Museum for the researchers and industry partners involved in our Design Accelerator, Design Exchange Partnership and Design Researchers in
 
Author: Leilah Hirson-Comley

Future Observatory Journal launches with issue on bioregioning

“If ever there was a time to consider alternative ways of building a future, it is now. What we do this decade will shape the rest of the century. But what if, rather than fetishising innovation, what
 
Author: Justin McGuirk

Nine new biodiversity research projects join the Design Exchange Partnerships programme

Supporting biodiversity is becoming an increasingly urgent focus of design research practice. With many ecosystems and species in decline, human interdependence on natural systems is ever more
 

“Learning from each other”

At the end of November, we held a forum for the researchers and academic partners on our Design Exchange Partnership and Design Accelerator programmes. Marking the end of both cohorts’ research
 
Author: Leilah Hirson-Comley

Future Observatory opens display space at the Design Museum

Future Observatory and the Design Museum today open a free display space dedicated to design research responding to environmental crises. Located on the museum’s second floor balcony, the Future
 

Islands: material mapping

Islands: Material Mapping attempts to make visible some of the journeys of the materials used in Design Researchers in Residence: Islands
 
Author: Liesl Maria Bragança

Reducing the environmental impact of exhibitions

Have you ever walked around an exhibition and wondered what happens to everything when the show is over? To the exhibits, the beautifully-built walls, plinths and cases? Where does all this stuff go?
 
Author: URGE Collective

‘You can fit the tools you need to make a stone beam in a suitcase’

Over 30% of global carbon emissions are produced by construction. To meet national and international climate targets, the UK therefore needs to radically rethink the materials with which it builds.
 
Leilah Hirson-Comley

Restore: Material Mapping

Restore: Material Mapping attempts to make visible some of the journeys of the materials used in Design Researchers in Residence: Restore.
 
Author: Leyla Salih

The Museum as a Catalyst

Museums are changing. They can be catalysts, proactively supporting a just and sustainable future.
 
Author: Justin McGuirk

Questions of Scale: reflecting on our first symposium

“The first question any design researcher with an innovative idea encounters is, how do you scale that up?”