18.03.2024
London Design Biennale Summit at Chatham House
The third London Design Biennale Summit was held at Chatham House, a leading institute for fostering independent thought and dialogue on key social and environmental issues. The event featured discussions on bioeconomy, technological innovation, and a more equitable, regenerative approach to design. Moderated by Charlene Prempeh of A Vibe Called Tech, our founder, Natsai Audrey Chieza, participated on a panel with Trish O’Flynn from Jigsaw Foresight and Dorothy Chou from Google DeepMind. The discussion explored the trends, implications, and opportunities presented by biotechnology and AI. The conversation was thoughtful and nuanced, thanks to Charlene’s skillful moderation and the insights shared by the panellists. You can watch it in full here.
Other highlights from the summit featured our dear friend Sinéad Burke, CEO of Tilting the Lens, who delivered a powerful keynote, highlighting the significant societal cost when accessibility is treated as an afterthought in design. In a panel on our readiness for a bio-based future, former Brazilian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Isabella Teixeira, stressed that achieving a just transition requires an understanding of how power operates, setting the necessary context for designers to pursue meaningful change.
Connecting design with policy is essential to integrating technology into society to deliver an equitable social and environmental transformation over the course of this century. More work needs to be done to take insights from these kinds of discussions and embed them into frameworks for real systemic change.