Three key note speakers and nine symposia leaders will invite participants to map out a design vision for the world of 2050
A glittering array of leading figures from the world of design has been confirmed as speakers and symposia-leaders for the 50th Anniversary Icsid Congress, being held in Singapore this November.
Organisers of the 26th International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) World Design Congress announced the addition of three key-note speakers and three further symposia leaders for the event in addition to the six already confirmed. The congress, sub-titled “Design Difference: Designing our world 2050”, will involve participants helping create and debate potential design solutions to some of the key challenges facing the world of tomorrow. Already delegates from 25 countries have confirmed their attendance.
Keynote speakers for the conference will be:
Emily Pilloton, founder and executive director of Project H Design, a nonprofit organisation that enables product design initiatives for Humanity, Habitats, Health, and Happiness, and author of "Design Revolution: 100 Products that Empower People" (release date Sept. 2009).
Ged Davis, Co-President, Global Energy Assessment, advisor to international institutions and companies, director of Low Carbon Accelerator Limited, governor of the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa, and a member of the INDEX Design Awards Jury.
Thomas Heatherwick, Honorary Fellow of the RIBA and a Senior Fellow at the Royal College of Art in the UK. Heatherwick has won the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and in 2004 was the youngest practitioner to be appointed as a Royal Designer for Industry.
Prof. Carlos Hinrichsen, Icsid President said: “The experience of the keynote speakers and their combined backgrounds in government, industry, and the non-profit sectors, further strengthen the purpose of the Congress – to stimulate a dialogue about the discipline of design and how it has and will continue to shape the future of the world.
“Attendees will contribute to this discussion, and should be prepared to be engaged in a thought-provoking, and creatively-enriching experience. The congress will be a wonderful occasion for all those inspired by the power of design to deliver a better world.”
The 50th anniversary Icsid Congress will be like no other, as it will consist of a series of interactive mini-symposia, involving delegates in a creative process to map out plans for a better-designed world of 2050. The event will give those attending an opportunity to work with leading designers to address a series of key questions for the future of the humanity – such as the environment people will live and work in, the healthcare systems they will rely on, the transport systems which will required even how the earth’s population in 2050 might be fed. The solutions which are developed will have a life beyond the conference, as they will be shared with other design groups, and stakeholders such as governments, around the world.
An additional three new Design 2050 symposia-leaders have been confirmed for the Congress:
Feng Zhu, founder and creative art director of the FZD School of Design, will be leading the “Entertainment 2050” studio, examining the possible future of entertainment including films, games, social networking, and other forms, such as fashion, consumer products, and television.
Toshiko Mori, Robert P. Hubbard Prof. of Architecture at Harvard University, will lead the “Blindspots of Design 2050” studio, aiming to develop new ways of using design as a greater analytic tool to link previously segregated disciplines in both public and private sector organisations.
David Nelson and Stefan Behling of Foster + Partners who have won over 550 awards and citations for design excellence, including the RIBA Stirling Prize World Solar Prize will be leading the “Sustainable Cities 2050” studio. This will envision the congress’s host-city, Singapore, 40 years from now, focusing on urban sustainability.
The six previously confirmed symposia leaders and their topics are:
Chris Luebkeman, Arup Group: NetZero 2050
Bill Mitchell, MIT Media Lab: Reinventing the Automobile 2050
Richard Hassell and Wong Munn Sum, WOHA: Architects save the World
Ravi Naidoo, Design Indaba: Protofarm 2050
Chris Bangle, Chris Bangle Associates: Personal Emotional Mobility 2050
Stefano Marzano and Clive van Heerden, Philips Design: Healthcare 2050
Panel discussions at the end of each of the three days of deliberations at the congress will be chaired by Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Dr Milton Tan, Director of DesignSingapore Council, and Chairman of the International Advisory Panel of the Congress said: "This year's Icsid World Design Congress will be different. Nine international design leaders will be in Singapore not simply to give speeches but to make visionary design propositions for the year 2050. Anyone concerned about how we should live in the future, and what we can do about it, should feel compelled to be here!"
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