Designing Futures

Event details

Designing Futures brings together voices from the humanities, STEM, and the design industry to explore how design education can evolve through interdisciplinary collaboration. Through talks and live discussions, the event examines how architectural design, materials science, atmospheric chemistry, creative arts, history, and heritage conservation intersect in both teaching and practice—and how design thinking can connect global resources and drive creative change across fields.

We warmly invite you to join us for a lunch reception (starting at 12 noon) and sharing session. This will be a welcoming space for conversation, idea exchange, and cross-disciplinary dialogue. Whether you're from design, the humanities, or STEM, we welcome academics, students, industry professionals, and members of the public to join us and share your thoughts over lunch.

We have a variety of speakers, discussing concepts that may impact the future of design:

• Kenneth Graham, Solus Ceramics - Sustainable Materiality: Linking Design Education to High-End Environmental Practice.
• Jin Fan, University of York - Design Teaching Across Disciplines: Practices from Norway, China and the UK.
• Terry Dillion, University of York - Impacts of Occupant Activities on Indoor Air Pollution.
• Nick Jones, University of York - Digital Aesthetics Across Architecture and Screen Media.
• Duncan Marks, York Civic Trust - Planning Club: A Model for Heritage-Led Regeneration and Planning Education.
• Jennifer Altehenger, University of Oxford - Thinking Through Design: How to Research and Teach Contemporary Chinese Design and Its History.