Shows
Design EmergencyHilary Cottam on Redesigning WorkWhat is a good working life in the 21st century? And how do we get there? In the latest episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, explores these issues with the pioneering social designer and social activist Hilary Cottam, who conducted five years of intensive research into how we could – and should – redesign all aspects of work, for her new book, The Work We Need: A 21st Century Reimagining..Hilary traveled throughout the UK and US – from the post-industrial cities of Barnsley and Grimsby in northern England, to Palo Alto, the tech capital of the US...2025-04-2331 minDesign EmergencySadie Red Wing on Indigenous designOne of the deepest, most often overlooked emergencies in the design world is the erasure of Indigenous knowledge systems—and the continued exclusion of Indigenous voices from the platforms where futures are imagined. Why is it an emergency? Because plurality, intended as the active celebration of diversity, is not just a matter of common sense and respect, but also a matter of survival. Native cultures that have developed deep wisdom about the environment over centuries can offer powerful suggestions on how to deal with the climate crisis that global ignorance has precipitated.In this episode of De...2025-04-0236 minDesign EmergencyHidden Heroines of DesignWho are the Hidden Heroines of Design, the gifted, resourceful and determined women who have achieved so much in design, yet have never been given the recognition they so richly deserve? And why, do so many women, and people who are queer, trans or of colour, still find it so much harder to fulfil their design ambitions than their white cis-male peers?.To celebrate International Women’s Day 2025, our cofounders, Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn, have each identified three Hidden Heroines of Design who have either been unfairly forgotten, or never fully acknowledged for their ac...2025-03-0824 minDesign EmergencyJulia Watson on Design and WaterAs the global water crisis and climate emergency intensify, how can design help us to tackle the devastating food shortages, storm surges, rising sea-levels and other problems we face? On this episode of Design Emergency, the Australian designer, ecologist and activist, Julia Watson, tells our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn how indigenous communities in remote parts of our planet have developed ancient, nature-based design solutions to these threats..Julia shares examples of how natural water systems, many of them designed centuries ago, are already helping us to protect and replenish our dwindling water supplies, as well as...2025-02-1941 minDesign EmergencyPirjo Haikola on Designing for the OceanCoral are tough clients, as Pirjo Haikola knows well. The Finnish designer is renowned for her work on coral reef conservation and ocean biodiversity. Now based at the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville, North Queensland, right by the Great Barrier Reef, Pirjo is also a skilled diver. Spending significant time observing and documenting marine life firsthand has given her a unique perspective on the delicate dynamics of ocean ecosystems, and allows her to ground her designs in the realities of the underwater environment, ensuring they are not only innovative but also ecologically sensitive and i...2025-01-2927 minDesign EmergencyPaola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on Design and Human RightsHow can design help to defend and strengthen our human rights? And the rights of other species with whom we share our planet? At a time when rights and freedoms are under threat all over the world, Design Emergency’s cofounders, Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn, are marking Human Rights Day 2024 with a special episode on practical ways in which design is helping to protect our rights in exceptionally vulnerable places..From an emergency treatment centre for people with disabilities in Gaza and a shelter for isolated elderly seniors in Ukraine, to floating sanitation systems to...2024-12-1026 minDesign EmergencyYvonne Jewkes on Design and PrisonsHow can design help to make our failing prisons fit for purpose? In this episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, discusses the design deficiencies of one of the most troubled areas of many societies, our prison systems, and what can be done to make them rehabilitative rather than brutalizing, with the British criminologist, Yvonne Jewkes..Yvonne, who is Professor of Criminology at the University of Bath, where she also teaches in the School of Architecture, has visited over a hundred prisons worldwide to assess why they are failing, how they can be improved...2024-11-1339 min
Parola ProgettoPaola Antonelli: if you look at the world through design, you can never be boredIn this inaugural special live episode of Parola Progetto, recorded at Salotto in Brooklyn and presented in English, we are honored to host Paola Antonelli.As the Senior Curator of the Department of Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the museum’s Director of Research and Development, Antonelli brings a wealth of experience and insight. During our conversation, we delve into her distinguished career at MoMA, discussing the dynamics of success and rejection, the evolving role of curating, and how museums function as research and development hubs for society. Antonelli offers her perspectives on...2024-11-0158 minDesign EmergencyDomestic Data Streamers on data and emotionsWhy should we care about data? Not only because “data is the new oil,” as British mathematician Clive Humby famously said in 2006, but also because data sets can contain the values, culture, and future of communities and society. In other words, data is us. Domestic Data Streamers, a design studio based in Barcelona since 2013, has worked to redefine how we engage with data, moving from visualization through diagrams and other graphic tools to actual data interaction and performance. In this episode, Paola Antonelli speaks with founding partner and director Pau Garcia and creative and research director Marta Handenawer.2024-10-2334 minDesign EmergencyPhilippe Rahm on Climatic ArchitectureHow can architecture help us to address the escalating climate emergency? There are many ways it can do so: from ensuring that new buildings are designed to radically reduce carbon emissions during construction, to doing the same in terms of how they will function..The Swiss architect, Philippe Rahm, is at the forefront of this process through his experiments with what he calls climatic architecture, the theme – and title - of his latest book. In this episode of Design Emergency, Philippe tells our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn how he developed the concept of climatic architecture and is...2024-10-0239 minDesign EmergencyAyana Elizabeth Johnson on Climate ActionThings are not exactly looking up. While the climate emergency is undeniably advancing, however, a powerful cultural shift is also afoot––away from doomsday alarmism or resignation, and towards optimism.Despite being a wide-awake scientist, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is among those who are presenting to the world the constructive, energetic, even joyful side of the fight for climate justice.Ayana is a marine biologist; the founder of Urban Ocean Lab, a think tank dedicated to addressing climate issues in coastal cities; a frequent advisor on environmental policy and strategy to governmental agencies, foundations, and...2024-09-1231 minDesign EmergencyJeanne Gang on Architectural GraftingAs architecture and construction are two of the biggest sources of carbon emissions on our planet, what can architects do to change this? In this episode of Design Emergency, the US architect, Jeanne Gang, tells our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn how she and her colleagues at Studio Gang in Chicago are designing new ways of reusing and repurposing existing buildings, as an ecologically responsible alternative to building new ones, through a process she calls “architectural grafting”..Jeanne is a prolific and ingenious architect whose work at Studio Gang includes: the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts and the...2024-07-1738 minDesign EmergencyLiam Young on building better worldsVisions of future worlds by storytellers of all kinds––filmmakers, writers, designers, and other artists––play an important role in our evolution. Whether they are utopias or dystopias, visual or verbal, they invite us to imagine what we could make of ourselves and of our planet, for good and for bad. Australian architect Liam Young is among the most respected and effective contemporary speculative designers and world-builders, focusing on the imagination of better worlds in which humankind recognizes its place and responsibility within nature––climate fiction.The climate crisis is real, and real ideas and solutions need to be i...2024-06-2638 min
Design EmergencySinéad Burke on Design and DisabilitiesHow can we make our lives fully accessible and inclusive? In this episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn explores this challenge with Sinéad Burke, whose mission is to campaign for inclusion and accessibility for everyone, for disabled people in particular..Having started out as a teacher in her native Ireland, Sinéad became increasingly involved in disability activism, determined to help fellow little people – she is who is 3 feet 5 inches tall - and everyone else in the 15% of the global population – more than 1 billion people – who lives with some form of disability..2024-06-0555 min
Design EmergencyKate Crawford on Technology and PowerControlling technology means controlling the world. While this statement rings painfully true today, it is as old as the idea of technology itself. In other words, as old as humanity. In this episode, Paola Antonelli interviews renowned researcher, author, and artist Kate Crawford, a leading voice on the social, ethical, and planetary implications of all technologies––artificial intelligence in particular. Kate uses art and information design to manifest histories and connections that would otherwise remain invisible because of their long time span and complexity. The interview is centered around one of Kate’s latest collaborations with artist...2024-05-1531 minDesign EmergencyKate Crawford on Technology and PowerControlling technology means controlling the world. While this statement rings painfully true today, it is as old as the idea of technology itself. In other words, as old as humanity. In this episode, Paola Antonelli interviews renowned researcher, author, and artist Kate Crawford, a leading voice on the social, ethical, and planetary implications of all technologies––artificial intelligence in particular. Kate uses art and information design to manifest histories and connections that would otherwise remain invisible because of their long time span and complexity. The interview is centered around one of Kate’s latest collaborations with artist...2024-05-1531 min
Design EmergencyDesign and Workers’ RightsDesign has played a critical role in championing, developing and defending workers’ rights throughout history. In this episode of Design Emergency podcast, cofounders Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn, describe design’s impact on workers’ rights and on the constantly changing nature of work over the years..As well as discussing the design of the symbols and actions – from the red flag, to the valiant Bryant & May Match Girls’ Strike in East London - with which workers have campaigned for fair pay and decent working conditions, Alice and Paola will describe model workplaces, like that of the French...2024-05-0130 min
DDCAST - Was ist gut? Design, Kommunikation, ArchitekturDDCAST 189 - Tulga Beyerle "Die Museumsdirektorin"
Tulga Beyerle (*1964, Wien) ist seit dem 1. Dezember 2018 Direktorin des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe (MK&G) Hamburg. Ausgehend vom programmatischen Gründungsgedanken von Kunstgewerbemuseen über die Vorbildsammlung Gestaltungsqualität zu prägen, ist es ein wesentliches Anliegen Tulga Beyerles das Museum als Möglichkeitsraum und Plattform für Diskurs und Verhandlung über die Fragen der Gestaltung unserer Welt zu verstehen. Als ausgewiesene Designexpertin war sie von 2014 bis 2018 Direktorin des Kunstgewerbemuseums Dresden, Schloss Pillnitz und zugleich Mitglied der Geschäftsführung der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, einem der führenden Museumsverbunde in Deutschland. Zuvor war sie Co-Leiterin der Vienna Design Week, die s...2024-04-1437 min
Design EmergencyFrancesca Coloni on the refugee crisisHow can design help us to address such a tragic, terrifying global emergency as the escalating refugee crisis? What are the priorities for the humanitarian design teams striving to assuage such a catastrophe? What have they learnt from their practical experience in terms of what works, and what doesn’t? In this episode of Design Emergency, Francesca Coloni, Chief of the Technical Support team in the Division of Resilience and Solutions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)shares her experience of 20 years working on the frontline of the refugee crisis with our co-founder, Alice Rawsthorn.. ...2024-04-0321 min
Design EmergencyAbeer Seikaly on the Power of MemoryIn this episode devoted to tradition as a source and a force to build a better future, Paola Antonelli speaks with Jordanian-Palestinian architect Abeer Seikaly, whose interdisciplinary work is centered around acts of memory––her own, her family’s, and her people’s. Her research draws from ancestral Arab knowledge––particularly the textile weaving craft of Bedouin women in the Jordanian section of the Badia desert––and wields tradition as a social technology for cultural empowerment. Abeer discusses with Paola the lessons she has learned and how she has translated them in her design work and in the cultural lands...2024-03-2029 min
Design EmergencyHidden Heroines of DesignWho are the Hidden Heroines of Design, the gifted and ambitious women who have achieved so much in design, yet have never been given the recognition they so richly deserved? And why, at a time when there is widespread recognition of the need to ensure that every aspect of our lives is as divers and inclusive as possible, do so many women still find it much, much tougher to realise their design ambitions than their cis-male peers or, to be specific, their white cis-male peers?.In this episode of Design Emergency podcast, our cofounders, Paola...2024-03-0829 min
Design EmergencySputniko! aka Hiro Ozaki on speculative design and visionary entrepreneurshipHiro Ozaki, aka Sputniko! (her high-school nickname) is a designer / multimedia artist / musician / educator / entrepreneur whose unique and multi-pronged career exemplifies a new, promising course for design and its transformative role for society. Hiro has gone from imagining future scenarios––richly described with stills and movies starring gifted young heroines and their fantastical objects, set to catchy J-pop music with explanatory lyrics––to launching a highly successful company that might soon go through an IPO in Japan. Tellingly, the company, called Care, still upholds the topics that Hiro highlighted with her early speculations, especially issues related to gender an...2024-02-2126 min
Design EmergencyLimbo Accra on unfinished buildingsHow can we make productive use of the unfinished buildings that litter our towns, cities and landscapes? In this episode of Design Emergency, Dominique Petit-Frère and Emil Grip, founders of Limbo Accra, a spatial design studio based in Ghana and the US, tell our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn about their mission to ensure that we make the most of the possibilities to reimagine, rebuild and reuse the thousands of concrete relics, which were abandoned before construction was completed..Unfinished buildings are a largely ignored, yet wasteful and damaging aspect of architecture and construction. Dominique, who w...2024-02-0733 min
Design EmergencyAnjali Singhvi on investigative visual journalism“Investigative visual journalism is a fairly new discipline that combines traditional investigative reporting techniques with digital forensic and spatial analysis of evidence,” says Anjali Singhvi, senior staff editor for spatial investigations at The New York Times in this Design Emergency podcast interview with our cofounder, Paola Antonelli. “It involves using a lot of open-source visual materials such as photos, videos, data, drawings, architectural plans, to explain complex stories and to reconstruct news events.”.In this episode, Anjali tells Paola how she has drawn on her background in architecture, and the journalistic skills she has honed at The N...2024-01-2437 min
Design EmergencyOlalekan Jeyifous on eco-fiction and world-buildingWhat could - and should - our future look like? Olalekan Jeyifous is committed to designing irresistible visions of a future in which humanity makes the best out of its many mistakes and thrives within the strictures of its self-inflicted handicaps. By doing so, he has had a remarkable effect on the architecture world - and beyond.From the Venice Architecture Biennale, where he won the Silver Lion in 2023, to the Museum of Modern Art, his work always delights and puzzles. Could these really be our futures? In this episode of the Design Emergency podcast, Olalekan...2023-12-1432 min
Design EmergencyClaudia Chwalisz on design and democracyAt a time when democracy is under threat in many places, what can design do to defend it? How can it help to reinvent our democractic systems and make them fit for purpose? In this episode, author and activist, Claudia Chwalisz tells Design Emergency’s cofounder Alice Rawsthorn why and how she is leading a global campaign to redesign democracy as founder and CEO of the international non-profit research and action institute, DemocracyNext.Born in Canada to a Polish family, Claudia has devoted the last decade to re-imagining democracy, first through her work at the Organisation of...2023-11-2946 min
Design EmergencyOmar Degan on architecture and fragilityOur world is becoming ever more fragile, as more and more migrants across the planet from the country to booming cities, and as more and more refugees are displaced from their homes to makeshift emergency villages that become permanent and expand uncontrollably. What can architecture do to address this? In this episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder Paola Antonelli interviews the Italian-born, Somali architect Omar Degan about his work in using design to support vulnerable communities. .Omar tells Paola how he and his team at DO Architecture and Design are focusing on specialize emergency architecture...2023-11-1530 min
Design EmergencyAqui Thami on design and communitiesHow can design help to heal fragile people, who have experienced abuse, poverty and oppression? In this episode, the Indian artist, activist and social designer Aqui Thami tells Design Emergency’s cofounder Alice Rawsthorn how she does this by designing new opportunities for healing and learning for vulnerable women and girls, for and trans and queer people.Aqui has personally experienced violence and bigotry as a janjati, or indigenous artist, who was born in the Himalayas. She tells Alice how since moving to Mumbai on her own as a teenager, she has addressed this by designing an...2023-11-0143 min
Design EmergencyVeena Sahajwalla on turning waste into new materialsAs the climate emergency escalates, it is clear that the solutions we need are those that can be applied at scale. The materials scientist Veena Sahajwalla is at the forefront as she is already designing and delivering such solutions. In this episode, Veena tells Design Emergency’s cofounder, Paola Antonelli, how she is recycling huge quantities of abandoned tyres, clothing and other waste into new materials..Born in India, where she was the only woman on her university engineering course, Veena then studied in Canada and the US, and is now based in Australia, where sh...2023-10-2032 min
Design EmergencyFernando Laposse on the materials of designIn this episode, the Mexican designer Fernando Laposse talks with our cofounder Paola Antonelli about his practice, which focuses on the culture and the materials of non-urban communities, especially in his native Mexico. After studying product design, Fernando has focused his practice on working with rural communities in Mexico to develop new design materials from locally grown plant fibers, such as sisal, loofah and corn leaves, using processes that are steeped in the traditions of those places..Fernando’s interest in Mexico’s ecosystems has led him to find new ways of transforming natural materials such...2023-10-0425 min
Design EmergencyMagdalene Odundo on potsMagdalene Odundo has made some of the greatest pots of our time. In this episode of Design Emergency, she talks to our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, about how she discovered the joys and challenges of making ceramics and their symbolic value in expressing our cultural identities.Born in Kenya in 1950, Magdalene spent her childhood there and in India before moving to the UK to study art in Cambridge, where she flung herself into student debates on identity politics. She then studied at what is now the University for the Creative Arts in the Surrey market town of...2023-09-2047 min
Art Insiders New York Podcast hosted by Anders HolstDESIGN - Interview with Paola AntonelliPaola Antonelli is the Senior Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, where she also serves as the founding Director of Research and Development. She has been described as "one of the 25 most incisive design visionaries in the world" by TIME magazine.
In this interview Paola talks about her vision of what design is. She believes that design touches every aspect of society, and that design has a civic responsibility towards humanity and the planet. “Design is the enzyme that makes progress happen”.
Her biggest ambition is to enhance...2023-09-1441 min
Design EmergencyYasmeen Lari on design and disastersFew people have more experience of disaster relief than the great Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari. In this episode, she tells Design Emergency’s cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, how she has dedicated nearly 40 years to helping people throughout Pakistan to rebuild their lives and communities after earthquakes, floods and other devastating disasters.Born in what is now Pakistan in 1941, Yasmeen became its first professional woman architect by starting a practice in Karachi. In 1980, she co-founded the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan to conserve the country’s historic architecture and quit her practice in 2000 to focus on that work. Five year...2023-09-0639 min
Design EmergencyDeema Assaf on greening the desertAs the climate emergency intensifies, how can design help us to repair and revive our ecosystems? In this episode, Design Emergency’s cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, hears how the Jordanian architect Deema Assaf is using her design skills to develop new solutions to the severe ecological threats facing her country by reviving the beautiful forests, which once flourished throughout Jordan, but disappeared centuries ago leaving most of its land as desert.Jordan is one of the world’s driest countries. Years of drought have left it with desert on 75% of its land and forests on just 1%. Deema, who...2023-08-0229 min
Design EmergencyGabriel Fontana on redesigning sportsHow can design help us to make the most of the benefits of playing and following sports regardless of our differences? In this episode of the Design Emergency podcast, our cofounder Paola Antonelli interviews the French social designer Gabriel Fontana who is designing new types of sports and sports equipment intended to make the experience as inclusive and empowering as possible..Gabriel, whose practice is based in Paris and Rotterdam, focuses his work on schools, where most of us are introduced to sport as a competitive form of team work. As Gabriel explains: “Dominant ideas re...2023-07-1827 minDesign EmergencyPaola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on Design and ViolenceHow can design protect us from violence? What can it do to identify new forms of violence, and old ones? Alert us to their dangers? Shield us from them? Repair the damage they cause? And prevent repetitions? In this episode, Design Emergency’s cofounders, curator Paola Antonelli and author Alice Rawsthorn, discuss one of design’s most important roles: defending us from violence.Paola and Alice discuss how design has done this throughout history, while noting that our vulnerability to violence is escalating at a time when our lives are increasingly turbulent, and violence is evolving at u...2023-07-0531 minDesign EmergencyPiet Oudolf on design and plantsHaving discovered the joys of gardening while selling Christmas trees at a garden centre, Piet Oudolf has become one of the most influential plantsmen and garden designers of our time. In this episode of Design Emergency, he tells our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, how his years of research into plants and their behaviour and love of wild gardens have revived obscure species and transformed our expectations of gardens and landscapes.Piet spoke to Alice from Hummelo in the eastern Netherlands where he lives, works and, together with his wife Anja, has established a living laboratory of plants...2023-06-2132 minDesign EmergencyFederica Fragapane on information designAt this turbulent, often terrifying time, we urgently need to understand what is happening in our world, and what the consequences will be. How can design help us to do so? In this episode of Design Emergency, Paola Antonelli talks with Federica Fragapane, the Italian information designer who is at the forefront of using data visualization, which involves analysing huge quantities of complex data and interpreting it in digital imagery, to expose the damage caused by human rights abuses, climate crimes and other threats.Federica explains the importance of visualizing contentious social, political and ecological issues...2023-06-0725 minDesign EmergencySlava Balbek on designing for UkraineWhat are design’s role and responsibilities in horrific wars like Vladimir Putin’s illegal. conflict in Ukraine? How can designers help their countries during – and after – such terrible tragedies? In this episode, Alice Rawsthorn talks with a designer who is confronting all those challenges – and more – the Ukrainian architect and interior designer, Slava Balbek.As founder of Balbek Bureau in Kyiv, Slava runs one of Ukraine’s leading architecture and design groups. When Alice first interviewed him for Design Emergency in March 2022, a few weeks after Putin’s invasion, Slava and his colleagues were already running a commun...2023-05-2436 min
Legal Design PodcastEpisode 57: Design in Times of Crisis with Alice Rawsthorn and Ayşe Elif YildirimToday, we have planned something extraordinary for you. We finished the last season with a little riddle and asked our audience to guess who was the Special Legal Design Santa in our season finale. We received some answers, thank you for those, and the promised prize was drawn. Our lucky winner is Elif Yildirim, a lawyer and legal design student from Turkey and we invited Elif to plan and co-host an episode with us and what an episode it turned out to be!
Alice Rawsthorn, a British Design Critic and author joined us to discuss about design a...2023-03-2941 minDesign EmergencyJulia Watson on indigenous designHow can we develop safe, sustainable ways of designing, making and building? In this episode, Alice Rawsthorn talks to Julia Watson, the designer, academic and activist whose years of research into the ancient nature-based technologies and sacred landscapes created by indigenous communities in remote parts of our planet promise to produce ingenious solutions to the devastating damage caused by the climate emergency.Raised in Australia and based in the US, Julia spent 20 years researching the diverse ways in which isolated communities have drawn on ancient wisdom and readily available natural materials to design ecologically responsible ways...2023-03-2243 minDesign EmergencyPaola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on the Hidden Heroines of DesignDesign has always been a man’s world. A white cis-man’s world to be precise. Thankfully, there have always been gifted and inspiring exceptions who have overcome the obstacles to make important contributions to design. This episode of the Design Emergency podcast celebrates some of the incredible women who have done so, as our co-founders, Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn pay tribute to the Hidden Heroines of Design..In this episode you’ll hear the stories of seven exceptionally talented and determined women whose courage, skills and resilience enabled them to defy gender bias by deve...2023-03-0832 minDesign EmergencySissel Tolaas on smell and designIn this episode, our cofounder Paola Antonelli interviews Sissel Tolaas, the Berlin-based Norwegian artist, chemist, and researcher who has dedicated her life to exploring smell in all its facets and expressions. With a background in chemistry and linguistics, Sissel has developed an interdisciplinary practice that spans the fields of art, science, and technology, with a particular focus on olfactory communication and the role of smell in human experience.Over the course of her career, Sissel has conducted extensive research on the human sense of smell, exploring everything from the molecular structure of odors to the cultural a...2023-02-2234 minDesign EmergencyNifemi Marcus-Bello on design and identityIn this episode, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn interviews Nifemi Marcus-Bello, the Nigerian designer who is at the forefront of the dynamic new design culture now emerging in West Africa. Nifemi describes how he draws on his research into West African design and making – past and present – to develop new objects that reflect the region’s cultural identity..Born in Nigeria, Nifemi was brought up there and in Zambia, before moving to the UK to study industrial design in Leeds. After completing his master’s degree in 2013, he returned to Lagos and worked for the architect Kunlé Ad...2023-02-0841 minDesign EmergencyFormafantasma on investigative designWhy do we need investigative design? In this episode, the Italian designers Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi tell our cofounder, Paola Antonelli, about their pioneering work in investigating design's impact on complex, often contentious areas of our lives, from the toxic, often illegal global trade in digital waste to the social, to the environmental devastation and exploitative employment practices associated with the timber industry..Having met as students, Simone and Andrea founded the design studio Formafantasma in the Dutch city of Eindhoven in 2009. It now has offices in Milan and in Rotterdam. Their practice is...2023-01-2532 minDesign EmergencyFabrizio Urettini on design and the refugee crisisHow can design help to curb the human tragedy of the global refugee crisis? In this episode, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn interviews Fabrizio Urettini, the Italian art director, who has devoted the last six years to designing and delivering a remarkably imaginative and effective response to one of our biggest global challenges - the escalating refugee crisis. Helped by friends and fellow designers, Fabrizio has founded and run the Talking Hands workshops in the northern Italian city of Treviso where asylum seekers and migrants living temporarily in the area can learn design and making skills.Fabrizio...2023-01-1127 minDesign EmergencyMae-ling Lokko on building with agrowasteThe several billions of tons of agricultural waste produced each year worldwide - by raising plants and animals, and including stalks, husks, hulls, and manure - is both a problem and an opportunity. In this interview with Design Emergency's cofounder Paola Antonelli, the Ghanaian-Filipino architectural scientist, designer, and entrepreneur Mae-ling Lokko discusses the many effective and elegant ways she has devised to transform agrowaste into building materials that continue the cycle of life as opposed to interrupting it - and redistribute value along the way. Agriculture harks back to roughly 12-15,000 years ago, when our ancestors a...2022-12-2129 minDesign EmergencyPaola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on design and human rightsOne of design’s most important – and inspiring – roles throughout history has been to champion human rights. At a time when those rights are under threat in so many parts of our planet, we – Design Emergency’s co-founders, design curator Paola Antonelli and design critic Alice Rawsthorn – decided to host a special episode to discuss design’s record in helping to defend and strengthen human rights, and to prevent abuses of them. We’ve searched for design interventions in diverse areas of those rights, as defined by the United Nations as “rights inherent to all human beings, regar...2022-12-0732 minDesign EmergencyDavid Adjaye on architecture in AfricaWe’re off! Our interviewee for this first episode of the Design Emergency podcast is the Ghanaian-British architect, David Adjaye. As well as designing some of the most compelling buildings of recent years, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., David is at the forefront of the development of Africa’s dynamic architecture scene. In this interview with Design Emergency’s co-founder, Alice Rawsthorn, he discusses the challenges and opportunities of designing responsibly in the vast, complex, and intensely eclectic African continent. David – Sir David, as he is now – was...2022-11-2334 minDesign EmergencyDesign EmergencyDesign Emergency is a collaboration between the curator, Paola Antonelli, and writer, Alice Rawsthorn, to explore design’s potential to help us to build a better future. On this podcast, you will hear from the designers, architects, engineers, and others, who, we believe, are at the forefront of progress in using design to forge positive change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2022-11-1701 min
RSA EventsDesigning our futures: The 2022 RSA Student Design AwardsDesign Emergency: How can design help us to build a better future?Join us for this special event celebrating the 2021/22 RSA Student Design Awards programme and the power of design to help us build a better future.The 2022 SDA keynote address will be delivered by award-winning design critic, author and co-founder of Design Emergency, Alice Rawsthorn.In her address, Alice will describe how she and MoMA design curator Paola Antonelli are using their research platform, Design Emergency, to explore the work of the global design leaders who are giving us hope by developing in...2022-07-0152 min
BetterPodAlice Rawsthorn & Peter Barber: Can design solve homelessness?In the depths of the Covid pandemic, it could be hard to find good news. But design critic Alice Rawsthorn and MOMA curator Paola Antonelli saw hope in the practical solutions coming from the design community.They started an Instagram interview series in which they met designers tackling the biggest challenges of our times – from homelessness to climate change, and the refugee crisis to racism, misogyny, and the collapse of social justice. It was a huge hit with viewers, who were stuck at home and hungry for conversations about how the post-pandemic world could be improved fo...2022-06-1524 min
Time SensitivePaola Antonelli on Solving the World’s Biggest Challenges Through DesignThere is perhaps no one on the planet with a bigger-picture view on the impact of design—in all of its manifestations—than Paola Antonelli. As the Museum of Modern Art’s senior curator of architecture and design as well as its director of R&D, Antonelli consistently expands notions and definitions of what might be considered “design,” and shows how, in no uncertain terms, design connects to practically everything we see, touch, hear, taste, smell, and do. With great passion and energy, she is the ultimate clear-eyed booster of this wide-ranging realm she holds dear. Antonelli’s most recent...2022-05-251h 06
The Grand Tourist with Dan RubinsteinPaola Antonelli: A Curator on a MissionAs one of the leading design curators in the world, MoMA’s Paola Antonelli has consistently led the global conversation in her field. On this episode, Dan speaks with Antonelli about her new book with critic Alice Rawsthorn, “Design Emergency,” getting the job that would change the course of her life, and how design can truly build a better future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.2022-04-2056 min
Material Matters with Grant GibsonPaola Antonelli on curating.As regular listeners will know the idea behind the show is that I speak to a designer, maker, artist or architect about a material or technique with which they’re intrinsically linked and discover how it changed their lives and careers. However, every once in a while I mix the format up a bit and talk to someone who has an overview of the design world. This is one of those occasions.Paola Antonelli is senior curator at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in the Department of Architecture & Design, as well as the institution’s foundi...2020-12-0946 min
Triennale MilanoEnzo Mari Costellazione – Episode 3 – Paola Antonelli“Committed, passionate, ingenious, resourceful, elegant and utterly uncompromising, Enzo Mari is one of the most fascinating designers of our time.”
Design curator Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn discuss Mari’s influence on today’s understanding of design: from his project of the Milanese Panettoni to the masterpiece Proposta per un’Autoprogettazione.2020-10-2226 min
Triennale MilanoEnzo Mari Costellazione – Trailer“Committed, passionate, ingenious, resourceful, elegant and utterly uncompromising, Enzo Mari is one of the most fascinating designers of our time.”
Design critic and writer Alice Rawsthorn collaborates with Hans Ulrich Obrist, curator of the Triennale Milano’s Enzo Mari retrospective, on Enzo Mari Costellazione: a podcast in which Mari’s friends and collaborators share their memories and observations of the designer.
Architect Stefano Boeri describes him as “a constellation”. Curator Paola Antonelli sees him as “the conscience of Italian design”. While designer Martino Gamper remembers Enzo Mari as having “insulted me in a way that I’ve never been insulted by another designer...2020-10-2201 min
Strefa Designu Uniwersytetu SWPSMASTERS: Design Emergency: creativity during pandemic - Alice RawsthornWhat is Design Emergency? It is an Instagram platform created by two of the world's most important women of design: Alice Rawsthorn – design critic, author of the book "Design as an Attitude", who will be our guest, and Paola Antonelli – Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design, and Director of Research and Development at Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City.
During the meeting, Agata Bisping – a producer of design and architecture exhibitions and cultural events – will talk with Alice about unlimited resources, creativity and willingness to reach for new, surprising and innovative solution...2020-09-141h 04
Talk ArtAlice Rawsthorn OBE (QuarARTine special episode)Russell & Robert meet Alice Rawsthorn OBE, the award-winning British design critic and author. Based in London, she is chair of the boards of trustees at Chisenhale Gallery in East London and The Hepworth Wakefield art gallery in Yorkshire. Alice was awarded an OBE for services to design and the arts.We discuss growing up in Manchester, studying at Cambridge University, her role as design critic for New York Times with a weekly column that ran for more than a decade, her experiences as a Turner Prize judge in 1999 and as director of the Design Museum in...2020-05-191h 11