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The current year’s Design Researchers in Residence
Photo: Anselm Ebulue

The Design Researchers in Residence programme supports early-career design researchers for a year with a research project on a specific topic. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the residency is part of the London Design Museum’s Future Observatory programme for design research, which aims to help the UK find answers to the climate crisis. Each year, four researchers from different design disciplines are accepted. During their time in London, they are supported by mentors, given studio space at the Design Museum and a stipend. Their research is presented in public events, an exhibition and a publication published by the Design Museum.

The theme of the year 2022/23 is “islands”. These are not considered in isolation, but are defined by the connections that form at their edges: to seas and oceans, to their ecosystems, and to other islands near and far. In this respect, they are imagined as interdependent nodes in networks, which seems plausible in an age of hyperconnectivity, where submarine cables run from Canada to Southport and from Japan to Cornwall, transmitting news and images from all over the world. This September, the first Island Forum will also bring representatives of island communities from across the UK to Orkney in north-east Scotland to discuss common challenges in the age of climate crisis. With over 6,000 individual islands making up the “British Isles”, the UK itself is seen as a vast and diverse archipelago rather than a single nation.

The current cohort of Design Researchers in Residence explores the continuum of isolation and connectedness that characterises islands as an ecological, geographical and social construct. Rhiarna Dhaliwal is a British-Indian architectural designer and educator working on global ecological and political systems. During her residency she is researching the environmental impact of deep sea mining. Marianna Janowicz is an architect and writer with a particular interest in sites of reproductive and gendered labour. Her project looks at domestic practices such as laundry and their relationship to public infrastructures and resource use. Isabel Lea is a creative director, graphic designer and researcher with an interest in sociolinguistics and climate knowledge. Her research focuses on untranslatable terms and expressions for land and weather phenomena used in the Gaelic language and explores their role in promoting climate action. James Peplow Powell is an architect specialising in sustainable and ecological design. He studies the relationships between humans and non-human species on islands such as Tinos in Greece and the Outer Hebrides in Scotland.

The exhibition of the class of 2022/23, which runs until 24 September, gives visitors the opportunity to learn more about approaches to design research and to find out about new proposals for the future of design through films, drawings and objects.


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