designers in residence Digital showcase
Designers in Residence 2020: Care | Members and Patrons
Explore how the Designers in Residence responded to the theme of Care and get closer to the designers with exclusive Q&As.
#DesignersInResidence
digital showcase
Designers in Residence Showcase
The Designers in Residence created a dedicated microsite to showcase their projects digitally.
Please note the microsite will be available until August 2021.
Access the microsite now
Meet the residents
Get closer to the Designers with exclusive Q&As
Explore how designers responded to the theme of Care uncovering their individual projects and reading exclusive Q&As.
Abiola Onabule
Abiola Onabule is a London-based fashion designer creating clothing inspired by elements of her own Nigerian cultural heritage.
For her residency, she has been investigating how the exchange of craft and skills can become part of the act of care and conversation, through an exploration into the past, present and future stories of West African women living in the UK.
Click below to discover Abiola's project and read an exclusive Q&A.
Cynthia Voza Lusilu
Cynthia Voza Lusilu is a London-based designer and researcher using design thinking and participatory practices to engage with marginalised communities.
For her residency, she has been exploring mental health in Black British communities, designing a new support system that builds resilience and shapes healing spaces. Cynthia is also interested in the role that civic structures can play in reducing mental distress and achieving healthier cities.
Click below to discover Cynthia's project and read an exclusive Q&A.
Enni-Kukka Tuomala
Enni-Kukka Tuomala is a Finnish designer and artist. Her work aims to transform empathy from an individual feeling to a collective power for social change through installations, environments, tools and games.
For her residency, Tuomala aims to design an immersive empathy training programme, with a personal empathy trainer, an empathy gym, tools and exercises, to challenge perceptions of empathy, practice it and learn how to incorporate it into daily lives.
Click below to discover Enni-Kukka's project and read an exclusive Q&A.
Ioana Man
Ioana is a multidisciplinary designer working between architecture, set design and critical practice. Her work aims to highlight the importance of microbial biodiversity in the built environment and the necessity to distribute its benefits fairly.
Ioana’s proposal is to develop a new body of work exploring how architecture can work with biology to create a more sustainable built environment that embodies health and justice.
Click below to discover Ioana's project and read an exclusive Q&A.
2020 Theme
Theme: Care
As we enter a new decade characterised by technological acceleration, 24/7 working, and climate uncertainty, there is a crucial role for design in supporting the ways we care for ourselves, each other and the planet.
It is clear that humans are impacting the ecological resilience and diversity of life on Earth. Designers are responding by exploring alternative tools and production systems that can protect and restore. Increasingly they are thinking about soil and biodiversity, how to supply clean water or revive endangered ecosystems. And, as designers always have, they continue to rethink how to keep people sheltered, fed and mobile.
Meanwhile, in healthcare, digital applications and devices are being designed to track the body’s performance, shifting the management of health away from medical professionals and into the hands of patients themselves. Paradoxically, these technologies are fuelling a data tracking culture that may be affecting our wellbeing. By contrast, designing holistic systems that encourage slower living and social bonding, and that manage resources equitably and sustainably, is imperative for communities to become more resilient.
Related events
online talk
Designing with Care
Join a panel discussion with the 2020 Designers in Residence exploring design’s relationship to care.
Online workshop
Introduction to Indigo - Adire
Join this introductory workshop led by Abiola Onabule and Lucille Junkere exploring the processes and cultural history of adire - the indigo-dyed patterned cloth made by Yoruba dyers in South-Western Nigeria.
designers in residence
The Designers in Residence programme at the Design Museum is a core part of the museum's activity, supporting emerging designers, from any discipline, with time and space away from their regular environment to reflect, research and consider new ways of developing their practice.
#DesignersinResidence
Last year