DESIGN FUTURES FORUM 2025: BRAVING COMPLEXITIES

Adi Reza is the CEO and Co-founder of MYCL, a biotech startup pioneering sustainable materials from mycelium for fashion and construction. With a degree in architecture from Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Adi has led MYCL to international acclaim, including the Earthshot Prize and MIT Solve finalist honors. Passionate about social entrepreneurship, he empowers communities while advancing climate-friendly innovation.

Feifei Zhou is a Chinese-born spatial and visual designer, and the founder of spatial design studio terriStories. Her work explores spatial, cultural, and ecological impacts of the industrialised built and natural environment. Using narrative-based spatial analysis, she collaborates extensively with social and natural scientists to translate empirical observations and scientific research into visual representations that aim to both clarify intricate more-than-human relations and open new questions.

Grace is a serial entrepreneur who is now dedicating her life to climate change. After a 15-year career in building startup and impact ecosystems, she led a VC fund as a Kauffman Fellow. She received her MBA from Oxford and a Masters in Organisational Change from INSEAD.

Aric Chen is Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the non-profit, London-based cultural foundation established by the late architect Zaha Hadid. Previously, he served as General and Artistic Director of Nieuwe Instituut, the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture; Professor at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University (Shanghai); and Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, Hong Kong.

Dr Fred Hersch is a doctor, product leader and corporate social innovator helping to reimagine access to care by catalysing digital health innovation through open technologies, AI, and human-centred design. He is a Senior Product Manager at Google and Product Lead for Open Health Stack, a suite of open source components designed to make it easier for developers everywhere to build “next-gen” digital health solutions. In 2025, Fred was recognized as a Schwab Foundation, Corporate Social Innovator for this work.

Theodoric Chew is the Co-founder & CEO of Intellect, Asia Pacific’s largest employee mental health benefits company, serving over 3 million users globally. A Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honoree, he began his entrepreneurial journey at 16, later founding a content platform that was acquired at 20. He previously led marketing at Voyagin (acquired by Rakuten) and growth at Entrepreneur First before launching Intellect in 2019, now trusted by companies like Shopee, Grab, Singtel, and backed by top global investors.

Ong Ker-Shing is a designer and educator, co-founder of Lekker Architects, and Associate Professor (Practice) at NUS Department of Architecture. She is a registered Architect, with Masters degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Shing has won multiple awards for her design work, including Singapore’s President*s Design Award of the Year twice. With Lekker, she works to advance interdisciplinary approaches to design for social impact and well-being.

Alice Bucknell is a North American artist, writer and educator based in Los Angeles. Their work explores the affective dimensions of video games as interfaces for understanding complex systems, relationships, and forms of knowledge. Bucknell is generally interested in the limits of scientific knowledge and systems thinking, speculative fiction as a critical method, and the ecological dimensions of video games that can dissolve binaries like humans versus environment, natural versus synthetic intelligence, and self versus world.

Director of Bangkok-based, Chat Architects, Chatpong Chuenrudeemol is an architect deeply impacted by the beauty and ugliness of Bangkok. His projects aim to capture the true essence of his birth city and are rooted in his research of “Bangkok Bastards”- the local live street vernacular often overlooked for their informality, but brimming with architectural invention and cultural authenticity. Chat is also focused on teaching his strategies on documenting “Bastard Arhitecture”, leading community-building design studios at Chulalongkorn University’s Intenational Programme in Design and Architecture.

Dr Lily Yeo heads NTUC Health’s Active Ageing Centres, Singapore’s largest network supporting seniors to age well. She spearheads strategic growth and service transformation, shaping inclusive and engaging community spaces for ageing. With a PhD in Chemistry and an MSc in Applied Gerontology, Dr Lily brings over 20 years of leadership across corporate R&D, sales, and social innovation. Passionate about community well-being, she contributes to national initiatives in innovation, digitalisation, and healthy ageing, creating meaningful impact for seniors and society.

Thomas Thwaites is a design researcher, and author of two acclaimed books; The Toaster Project, and Goatman: How I took a holiday from being human. His work explores the social impacts of technology as we struggle to find a sustainable future. It is exhibited worldwide, with projects held in the permanent collections of national museums including the Victoria & Albert Museum (London) and the Boijmans Museum (Rotterdam). He has won multiple awards, including the the renowned ‘Ig Nobel Prize’ for Biology, and holds an MA in Design Interactions from the Royal College of Art, and a BSc. from University College, London.

Alice Bucknell is a North American artist, writer and educator based in Los Angeles. Their work explores the affective dimensions of video games as interfaces for understanding complex systems, relationships, and forms of knowledge. Bucknell is generally interested in the limits of scientific knowledge and systems thinking, speculative fiction as a critical method, and the ecological dimensions of video games that can dissolve binaries like humans versus environment, natural versus synthetic intelligence, and self versus world.

Louis is a Partner at Assemble, where his work has focused on the social side of architecture. Louis has worked with both local authorities and philanthropists to set up community-led educational organisations both in the UK and in the United States empowering people to make change in their environment. Louis is also a dedicated builder and craftsman whose work embodies the belief that good design emerges from a deep understanding of craft. He has an interest in industrial space in the city, often working to make robust spaces for people working in the noisier, messier industries which are so often pushed out of the city.

Liam Young is a designer, director and BAFTA nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. Described by the BBC as ‘the man designing our futures’, his visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today. As a worldbuilder he visualises the cities, spaces and props of our imaginary futures for the film and television industry and with his own films he has premiered with platforms ranging from Channel 4, Tribeca, Venice Biennale, the BBC and the Guardian, and they have been collected by MoMA, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria amongst many others.

A thought leader in AI, Dr Khanna has been recognized as a groundbreaking entrepreneur by Forbes, named to Edelman’s Top 50 AI Creators (2025), and featured in Salesforce’s 16 AI Influencers to Know (2024). Committed to diversity in tech, she founded the charity 21C Girls, which taught thousands of students the basics of AI and coding in Singapore, and currently provides scholarships for mid-career women through her education company Amplify.

Alice Bucknell is a North American artist, writer and educator based in Los Angeles. Their work explores the affective dimensions of video games as interfaces for understanding complex systems, relationships, and forms of knowledge. Bucknell is generally interested in the limits of scientific knowledge and systems thinking, speculative fiction as a critical method, and the ecological dimensions of video games that can dissolve binaries like humans versus environment, natural versus synthetic intelligence, and self versus world.

Louis is a Partner at Assemble, where his work has focused on the social side of architecture. Louis has worked with both local authorities and philanthropists to set up community-led educational organisations both in the UK and in the United States empowering people to make change in their environment. Louis is also a dedicated builder and craftsman whose work embodies the belief that good design emerges from a deep understanding of craft. He has an interest in industrial space in the city, often working to make robust spaces for people working in the noisier, messier industries which are so often pushed out of the city.

Liam Young is a designer, director and BAFTA nominated producer who operates in the spaces between design, fiction and futures. Described by the BBC as ‘the man designing our futures’, his visionary films and speculative worlds are both extraordinary images of tomorrow and urgent examinations of the environmental questions facing us today. As a worldbuilder he visualises the cities, spaces and props of our imaginary futures for the film and television industry and with his own films he has premiered with platforms ranging from Channel 4, Tribeca, Venice Biennale, the BBC and the Guardian, and they have been collected by MoMA, Smithsonian, Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum and the National Gallery of Victoria amongst many others.

Aric Chen is Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the non-profit, London-based cultural foundation established by the late architect Zaha Hadid. Previously, he served as General and Artistic Director of Nieuwe Instituut, the Netherlands’ national museum and institute for architecture, design and digital culture; Professor at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University (Shanghai); and Lead Curator for Design and Architecture at M+, Hong Kong.

Ong Ker-Shing is a designer and educator, co-founder of Lekker Architects, and Associate Professor (Practice) at NUS Department of Architecture. She is a registered Architect, with Masters degrees in Architecture and Landscape Architecture from Harvard Graduate School of Design. Shing has won multiple awards for her design work, including Singapore’s President*s Design Award of the Year twice. With Lekker, she works to advance interdisciplinary approaches to design for social impact and well-being.