Flourishing in the World

The second event in our online Design Summit series on the 22^ndApril 2021 explores:

How can design enable us to flourish in the world? The environmental impact of our products, places, and services has led to significant and, in some cases, irreversible changes. It is time to rethink the priorities and associations between the social, technological, and the global. How do we design for people and planet to prosper, now and in the future?

This invitation only event hosted by Distinguished Professor Deyan Sudjicbrings together distinguished experts from the International Design community. Flourishing in the World will feature bold and brilliant provocations to stimulate positive debate from:

Guest speakers

Sevra Davies, Director for Architecture Design Fashion at the British Council.

Sevra Davis is Director for Architecture Design Fashion at the British Council. She leads the British Council’s cultural relations mission through the lenses of architecture, design, fashion craft and associated disciplines. Her work involves connecting creative practitioners and organisations around the world in service to knowledge exchange, knowledge creation and how creativity can address global challenges. She oversees projects such as Crafting Futures, focused on the future of craft globally; Making Matters, focused on the future of circular design and making; as well as being the Commissioner for the British Pavilion at the bi-annual Venice Architecture Biennale. Sevra is an experienced designer, design advocate and leader in design for social innovation. Sevra studied architecture and urban design and worked in professional practice for over ten years in the US, the UK and Finland before moving to roles focused on design enabling. Prior to joining the British Council, she was Head of Learning at the Design Museum and Director Design at the RSA. At the RSA, she developed design research and design education programmes focused on design for positive social, environmental and economic impact. At the RSA, she also oversaw the annual RSA Student Design Awards programme, including its global expansion, more than doubling its income and the programme’s breadth and profile. She speaks and writes frequently about the role of design in an increasingly complex world and in April 2018 co-authored a report for Innovate UK titled ‘Unlocking the creative potential of 21st century industry.’

Sevra’s provocation title is: Making a Difference by Design

Jenny E. Sabin, Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and Associate Dean for Design Initiatives, Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, Cornell University. Director, Sabin Lab. Principal, Jenny Sabin Studio.

Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer whose work is at the forefront of a new direction for 21st century architectural practice — one that investigates the intersections of architecture and science, and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures. Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and Associate Dean for Design at Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning where she established a new advanced research degree in Matter Design Computation. She is principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio based in Ithaca and Director of the Sabin Lab at Cornell AAP. In 2006, she co-founded the Sabin+Jones LabStudio, a hybrid research and design unit, together with biologist, Peter Lloyd Jones. Sabin holds degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts 2010 and was named a USA Knight Fellow in Architecture. In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Architectural Record’s national Women in Architecture Awards selected her for the 2016 Innovator in design award. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including in the acclaimed 9th ArchiLab Naturalizing Architecture at FRAC Centre, Orleans, France and most recently as part of Beauty, the 5th Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. In 2017, Sabin won MoMA & MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program with her submission, Lumen.

Jenny’s talk explores: Transdisciplinary Design: Next Generation Bio-Inspired Materials

Ravi Naidoo, Founder and Managing Director of Interactive Africa and Design Indaba.

Ravi Naidoo is the founder and Managing Director of Interactive Africa, the Cape Town-based media and project management company famous for the First African in Space Mission. Ravi is possibly best known for establishing the international Design Indaba, which has become recognized as one of the world’s leading design institutions through its flagship conference and festival annually held in Cape Town. Ravi has been selected as the 2015 recipient of the prestigious Sir Misha Black Award for his contribution to design education in South Africa, and is a renowned player on the field of creativity and design throughout Africa. He sits on the jury of the Index Awards (the world’s richest design prize) in Copenhagen, and holds a seat on the jury of the Dutch Design Awards. In 2015, Ravi himself was awarded the Sir Misha Black Medal for Distinguished Services to Design Education for placing design at the heart of economic and educational revival in South Africa. Ravi was a judge for the D&AD Impact Awards 2016, and has also been appointed as Chairman of the 2017 IXDA Awards. In 2017, Ravi was awarded The Design Prize in the communications category, a global annual award program to celebrate excellence on a global scale.He also curated the inaugural editions of Design Commons, a new design conference produced in partnership with Helsinki Design Week; and Antenna, an interactive platform where 20 graduates from around the globe present the ideas that will shape the future.

Ravi’s provocation title is: Urban Acupuncture: A case for Design as a Transformer.

Leon Cruickshank, Professor of Design and Creative Exchange and Director of Research at ImaginationLancaster. Leon is the Beyond Imagination project lead and co-leads the Community and Public Sector cluster. Leon’s provocation proposes: Leave pure speculation to the philosophers… Design researchers, take your ideas into the world to help it Flourish.

Dr Emmanuel Tsekleves, is a Senior Lecturer in Design Interactions and leads both the International and Health themes in ImaginationLancaster. Emmanuel directs the Design Research Society Special Interest Group on Global Health. His  provocation is titled: I just want you to come back.

Dr Rupert Griffithsis a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in the City & Urban Cluster in ImaginationLancaster. Rupert’s provocation will propose: The Anthropocene Warrants a New Standard Time: Using Design Practice to Propose a More-than-human Temporal Commons.

Dr Katherine Ellsworth Krebsis a Senior Research Associate for Sustainability in ImaginationLancaster. Katherine’s provocation is titled: Just toys? Playing with sustainable materiality, inclusivity and skills for flourishing in the 21^st century.

DrMichael Stead is a Lecturer in Design and a member of the Factory and Workplace cluster in ImaginationLancaster. Michael’s provocation poses the question: Sustainability – Designing for a Utopia or Dystopia?

Proceedings of all three Design Summits will be curated into a ImaginationLancaster Design Summit publication with unique contributions from speakers, hosts and esteemed guests.