Creating living environments for inhabitants, patients, or visitors requires “careful design,” which notes that interaction, movement, and transformation occur during the action rather than solely focusing on the outcome.
Please scroll down for the programme of our Dialogues: Living Environments
The Living Environment refers to the spaces and places that people create, interact with and transition through in their daily lives. Designers bring a unique perspective to what a living environment is and what it can be. Some designers focus on crafting materials to build or modify these environments, while others aim to enhance the ways people experience and interact within and between these spaces. Living Environments can sometimes be healing, temporary or transitional, like hospitals, residential care or support services. Such spaces require careful design taking note that the interaction, movement and transformation happen during the action rather than solely focusing on the outcome. By purposefully designing these interactions, capacities, and transitions, we can support individual capacities and strengthen our society.
Dialogues: Living Environment
Natlab, Monday 19 October 9:45-12:30
Programme following soon
Thriving Planet explores how design can dismantle unsustainable practices and seed regenerative futures. Join us to discover projects that question the present, inspire new possibilities for the future, and open pathways to change in times of crisis.
Please scroll down for our Dialogues Programme Thriving Planet in Natlab
As societies surpass planetary limits, design must move beyond growth-driven models and short-term fixes. A thriving planet depends on abandoning extractive and unsustainable practices and fostering regenerative ones that align human and ecological wellbeing. The Thriving Planet theme track highlights projects that are both critical and inspirational, demonstrating design’s capacity to spark radical change and nurture new forms of aliveness in the midst of environmental crisis.
Dialogues: Thriving Planet
Natlab, Tuesday 20 October 9:45-12:30
Programme following soon
Digital futures aren’t fixed, they’re created. From AI as a playful design material to slowing down for richer experiences, this theme invites us to reimagine how and why we design today.
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The Digital Future theme looks at how design is constantly evolving, shaped by technology, culture, and society. This year’s projects explore AI in two ways: as a creative material that sparks new ideas, and as a tool to slow down and create more meaningful experiences. Instead of fixed predictions, they offer open possibilities, reminding us that digital futures are built through curiosity, care, and imagination, always reshaping how we design today.
Dialogues: Digital Futures
Natlab, Wednesday 21 October 9:30-12:30
Programme following soon
Design can support people and societies in creating and sustaining wellbeing. How can design harmonize individuals, communities and larger systems for healthier and more fulfilling lives?
Join us in exploring the boundaries where design meets health—at the edges of care, community, and daily life.
Please scroll down for our Design Research Programme Health & Wellbeing in Natlab
Our health and wellbeing are dynamic, shaped by our bodies, relationships, technologies, and environments. This year’s track presents eleven projects that reveal how design acts across boundaries: from daily rehabilitation to digital connections, from food rituals to material cycles, from designer wellbeing to community bonding. In an era where most people interact increasingly with technology and screens dominate our attention, these projects call for concrete action to align design with our biology, resilience, and care.
Dialogues: Health & Wellbeing
Natlab, Thursday 22 October, 9:45-12:30
Programme following soon
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While we cannot escape reality, we can steer its design through today's actions. Through words of kindness, recognition of other-hood and invitation to participate, we aim to represent a call-for-action for designers: now more than ever we decide to act through participation, connection, communication.
Dialogues: Equal Society & Politics of Design
Natlab, Friday 23 October 9:45-12:30
Programme following soon