In Focus: Research

The World Around, a New York-based organization dedicated to amplifying progressive global architecture, and Future Observatory, the Design Museum’s national research programme for the green transition, are pleased to invite you to join us for In Focus: Research, a co-curated, collaborative public program that will take place on Saturday March 16, 2024 at the Design Museum in London and will be broadcast free online. Register to watch here.

In Focus: Research is dedicated to the power and necessity of research as a design tool. The conditions and constraints that contemporary architects and designers must respond to in their daily work—climatic, social, economic, material, technological—are in a state of radical transformation, and access to and interpretation of cutting-edge research is a critical element in design and culture today. The symposium positions research as a critical tool for architects and those in overlapping fields who are actively addressing, anticipating and mitigating the issues of tomorrow by deeply examining conditions today. The World Around’s inaugural London event is curated by Beatrice Galilee, founder and executive director of The World Around, and Justin McGuirk, the director of Future Observatory. 

A pioneering group of practitioners will touch on the intersection of architecture and other disciplines from economics and urbanism, to biodesign, water management, forensic investigations, and the aftermath of colonial-era resource extraction.

Speakers include
Samir Bantal, AMO—Probing the historical and cultural contexts in which buildings are designed and made, and aiming to widen the aperture of global thinking to include diverse perspectives.

Eyal Weizman, Forensic Architecture—Uncovering truths obscured by enablers of state and corporate violence using architectural representations and digital modeling.

Sammy Baloji, Twenty Nine Studio—Disseminating new perspectives of the long-term consequences of extractive mining in post-colonial DRC.

Natsai Audrey Chieza, Faber Futures—Applying cutting-edge biological technologies in response to urgent global challenges.

Julia King, Julia King Associates—Understanding cultural and institutional relationships in areas of dense urban development, to collaboratively design and build site-specific interventions.

Adrian Lahoud, Royal College of Art—Enlarging our understanding of scale in architecture, as a practice implicated in expansive global flows of materials and labor.

Henk Ovink, Global Commission on the Economics of Water—Advocating for water awareness to address the world’s pressing needs and help initiate transformative interventions.

Indy Johar, Dark Matter Labs—Analyzing the shifts in economic, regulatory and policy structures required to manifest transformations in our food, housing, land, material and nature systems.

Feifei Zhou, Feral Atlas—Exploring the spatial, cultural, and ecological impacts of the Anthropocene and the industrialized built environment.

The World Around’s “In Focus” series is a traveling collaborative conference which addresses specific topical issues in contemporary architecture. In Focus: Research follows its recent “In Focus" programming with Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain at Triennale Milano (2023) and Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam (2022).

In Focus: Research is presented with Event Partner the Design Museum in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Dezeen is the Media Partner of The World Around and will host the event livestream. Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is The World Around’s Global Cultural Partner. 

For inquiries about partnering with The World Around please contact: inquiries@theworldaround.com