A review of projects from the AHRC/EPSRC Designing for the 21st Century Initiative

7th December 2009 @ RIBA, London
12.30 – 17.30 Symposium
17.30 – 18.30 Book Launch

The Designing For The 21st Century research initiative has supported 41 interdisciplinary research projects between January 2005 and December 2010. The first phase of funding supported research clusters that operated during 2005. Over a 12-month period these clusters organised over 120 workshops across the UK. The second phase of funding has supported 20 substantive research projects, which have been undertaken between 2006 and 2009. Both Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects have reported the findings from their work back to their respective academic communities.

This final event organised in support of the Designing For The 21st Century research initiative provides an opportunity to bring project participants together to reflect on the new understanding generated through their research. One of the initiative’s main aims was to ‘Help Stimulate New Ways of Design Thinking To Meet the Challenges of Designing for 21st Century Society’. The symposium will feature presentations from D21 project holders who will each explore what their contribution to design thinking might be. The Reflections symposium will be followed by the launch of the book 'Designing for the 21st Century Volume 2: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings,' published by Gower Publishing, in which each of the Phase 2 projects has contributed a chapter describing their research journey, the research methods used in their project activity and the new insights generated for Designing in the 21st Century.

Itinerary

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch & registration

13.30 – 17.15 Presentations
- Reflections on the Designing for the 21st Century Initiative
Prof Tom Inns, Initiative Director
- Reflections on Phase 1 Clusters and Phase 2 Research Projects
Metadesigning Metadesign (to achieve a synergy-of-synergies)
Prof John Wood, Goldsmiths College, London
- Branded Meeting Places
Prof Richard Coyne, University of Edinburgh
- Practice and Process: integration through Considerate Design and personalised fashion
Prof Sandy Black, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts
- Design ideation and the ‘Creative Generalist’
Dr Sharon Baurley, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London
- Towards a new approach to designing convivial and healthy public spaces in the 21st Century
Prof Lamine Mahjoubi, University of the West of England
- Complexity, Design and the Future
Prof Jeffrey Johnson et al., Open University, Milton Keynes
- Sustainable journeys to sustainable systems
Prof Alison McKay, University of Leeds
- DePTH: Designing for Physicality
Prof Alan Dix, University of Lancaster

17.30 – 18.30 Drinks and Canapés - Book Launch
- Designing for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings (published by Gower Publishing)
Prof Shearer West, Director of Research, AHRC, Bristol

There is no charge for this event. Please register by indicating clearly whether you are attending the symposium, the book launch or both events and whether you require lunch.
e: design21@dundee.ac.uk