Design Researchers in Residence – 2024/2025

The Programme

• Design Researchers in Residence is Future Observatory’s programme for design research into the climate crisis hosted at the Design Museum. This funded residency supports thinkers at the start of their careers to develop new research on environmental concerns centred around a particular theme.
• This year’s theme is Artificial. For the residency programme Future Observatory are interested in design research projects exploring the limits of human-centrism in a more-than-human world.
• 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.
• Each year the residency accommodates four researchers, working in different design disciplines to develop a piece of independent research in response to the theme and brief. Towards the end of the residency, the work of the four residents is presented in a free display at the Design Museum and in an accompanying print catalogue.
• Each resident is provided with a commissioning budget of £6,000 and a bursary of £11,400, as well as studio space at the museum and a programme of mentorship, training and seminars from experts both in and outside the Design Museum.

2024/25 Theme: Artificial

• What are the limits of human-centric design in a more-than-human world?

As always, Design Researchers in Residence is open to designers and researchers from disciplines including but not limited to: architecture, fashion, digital culture, critical theory, product design, graphic design, interaction design, system design, material studies and design history.