free display Design Researchers in Residence 2022/23
Design Researchers in Residence: Islands
Discover how design research can play an important role in shaping a liveable future. Over the course of this year, our four Design Researchers in Residence have responded to the theme of 'Islands' through a diverse selection of projects that cover architecture, interiors, graphics, multispecies design and engineering.
Image by Anselm Ebulue
This display brings together the 2022/23 cohort of Design Researchers in Residence, four emerging researchers based at the Design Museum working on projects which respond to the climate crisis. The display gives visitors an opportunity to understand how design research takes place and to experience new proposals for the future of design through films, drawings and other objects.
The 2022/23 Design Researchers in Residence are Rhiarna Dhaliwal, Marianna Janowicz, Isabel Lea and James Peplow Powell.
Design Researchers in Residence is Future Observatory’s programme for design researchers hosted at the Design Museum. The residency supports four thinkers at the start of their careers to spend a year developing a new research project in response to a theme. This year’s theme is Islands, and researchers were encouraged to apply to the open call with projects touching on topics including marine ecosystems; rising sea levels and coastal communities; food sovereignty; importation and supply chains; islander identities and cultural connections.
Design Researchers in Residence builds upon the Design Museum’s distinguished Designers in Residence programme that ran from 2007 to 2020.
Future Observatory is a new programme for design research supporting the UK's response to the climate crisis. Future Observatory is coordinated by the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
the residents
Rhiarna Dhaliwal
Dhaliwal is a British-Indian architectural designer and educator whose work investigates global environmental and political systems that impact the future of landscapes and ecosystems. For her residency, Dhaliwal's research will be exploring the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining.
Marianna Janowicz
Janowicz is an architect, educator and writer with a particular interest in sites of reproductive and gendered labour. Her project will consider domestic practices such as laundry, and their relationship to public infrastructures and resource-use in the context of the climate crisis.
Isabel Lea
Lea is a creative director, graphic designer and researcher with an interest in sociolinguistics and forgotten climate knowledge. Lea's research will centre on untranslatable terms and expressions for land and weather phenomena used in the Gaelic language, considering their role in furthering climate action.
This programme is generously supported by Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Idlewild Trust.
Arts and Humanities Research Council
The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funds world-class, independent researchers in a wide range of subjects from history and archaeology to philosophy and languages, design and effectiveness of digital content and the impact of artificial intelligence.
Idlewild Trust
Idlewild Trust is an independent grant-making trust that supports conservation and the arts, including programmes that address the lack of opportunities for musicians, dancers, actors, writers, artists, designers and those involved creatively in the arts at an early stage in their career.
Background image by Plan B