DESIGN FUTURES SYMPOSIUM

About Design Futures Symposium

Join Paola Antonelli, one of the most influential curators in the design world, for a deep dive into how design can shape a better future. The Design Futures Symposium 2022 will focus on the design of the future and the future of design, assembling a host of distinguished designers and thinkers from Singapore and around the world. Together they will probe some of the critical ways in which design is fundamental to strategies for the future; and an enzyme for progress.

Says Paola Antonelli, “The title of this year’s symposium ‘Agency for the Future: Design and the Quest for a Better World’, points to a dual meaning. On one hand, it highlights Singapore’s unique approach, based on modelling, prototyping, testing, and perfecting solutions for preferable futures, as in a design process. On the other hand, it points to individual citizens and their ability and responsibility. Who has agency to determine and build the future? It is not only official bodies or corporations; agency lies in each of us, through the decisions we make and the actions we take every day.”

(From left) Paola Antonelli, Prof. Lim Siong Guan, Dr. Emi Kiyota, Thomas Heatherwick, and Natsai Audrey Chieza. More speakers to be added.

The line-up of speakers include Prof. Lim Siong Guan, Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (Singapore); Dr. Emi Kiyota, Associate Professor, National University of Singapore and Director (Programme), Health District @ Queenstown (Singapore); Thomas Heatherwick, founder of award-winning British design and architecture studio Heatherwick Studio; and Natsai Audrey Chieza, Founder and CEO of R&D studio Faber Futures that creates biologically inspired materials. More speakers will be unveiled closer to the festival.

Organiser

DesignSingapore Council

DesignSingapore Council’s (Dsg) vision is for Singapore to be an innovation-driven economy and a loveable city through design by 2025. As the national agency that promotes design, Dsg’s mission is to develop the design sector, help Singapore use design for innovation and growth, and make life better in this UNESCO Creative City of Design.

DesignZ | Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD)

DesignZ is the next generation Design Centre set up to further reinforce Design as a core offering of SUTD through 4 main areas: Research, Innovation, Services & Education (RISE). The main objective is to establish an integrated partnership with the public and private sectors by offering advocacy and leadership in Design through RISE, focusing on sustainability & circularity approaches to solve challenges and bring about transformations of recognizable value to the industry and society at large.