FUTURE OBSERVATORY Annual Programme
Design Researchers in Residence
A programme for emerging design researchers hosted at the Design Museum, coordinated by Future Observatory in partnership with the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council.
DESIGN RESEARCHERS IN RESIDENCE was established to support emerging design thinkers whose research responds to the climate emergency, building upon the museum’s Designers in Residence programme that ran from 2007 to 2020. The residency forms part of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory, delivered in partnership with the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council.
The residency has two main aims: to provide design researchers in the early stages of their careers time and space away from their regular environment to develop and produce new work, and to offer museum visitors an opportunity to engage with live design research projects.
The residency studio, located at the Design Museum, provides a place for the residents to work as well as a space to exhibit their finished projects. During the programme, the selected researchers receive mentorship and a stipend, and their research is displayed through public events, an exhibition and a publication curated and edited by the Design Museum. The residency supports thinkers at the start of their careers to develop new research on environmental concerns and centred around a particular theme.
The residency accommodates four researchers working in different design disciplines each year to develop their individual responses to the year's theme and brief. .
2024/2025 ARTIFICIAL
The 2024/5 residents will respond to the theme of artificial, and will examine the limits of human-centric design in a more-than-human world. Projects on display will confront, blur, contest and dismantle the boundaries between what is natural and what is unnatural.
The programme will culminate in a publication and free public display at the museum in June 2025, through which visitors will learn about a range of impactful new thinking that centres design in the green transition. Information on how to apply below:
Open call
Applications are now open for the next cohort of Design Researchers in Residence at the Design Museum. The theme for this year’s residency is ‘artificial’, and we welcome applications that critically question or blur the boundaries between what is natural and what is unnatural. The deadline for project proposals is 23 September 2024.
Current display
This year's residents will respond to the theme of ‘Solar’, investigating ways in which design can influence our rapidly changing relationship with the heat and light of the sun. Visit the free display to learn about a range of impactful new thinking that centres design in the green transition, open until 22 September 2024.
Previous years
The 2022/2023 residents will develop projects that use the island as a lens to think through varying climate challenges.
The 2022/23 display closed on 1 October 2023.
As we confront the climate crisis, we cannot necessarily rely on a new invention to solve all of our problems. This year’s residency theme asks: rather than making something new, how can design respond to what’s already there?
The 2021/22 display closed on 25 September 2022.
Future Observatory is a national programme for design research supporting the UK’s response to the climate crisis. The programme is coordinated by and based at the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). It brings design researchers together with the networks that can help them have an impact on achieving the UK’s environmental goals.
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