This September London’s Barbican Centre became the epicentre of global design discourse as more than 1,200 leaders from design, business, policy, and academia gathered for the World Design Congress. Returning to the UK for the first time in fifty years, the event marked a pivotal moment—one that underscored the critical role of design in addressing the escalating climate crisis.
Under the banner #DesignForPlanet, the two-day programme convened designers, businesses, academics, and policymakers around a single, urgent question: how can design shape a regenerative future? Across keynote talks, panel discussions, and hands-on workshops, the atmosphere was charged with bold ideas, urgent challenges, and enduring hope—all building momentum towards the practical projects and systemic interventions capable of transforming how we design for life on Earth.
Anchored by the theme Design for Planet, the programme explored how design thinking and practice are being harnessed to decarbonise industries, restore ecosystems, and drive systemic change. More than 135 speakers from over 20 countries offered visionary perspectives, including Thomas Heatherwick (Heatherwick Studio), Professor Mariana Mazzucato (UCL), Kate Raworth (Doughnut Economics), Brian Eno, Priya Ahluwalia (Ahluwalia) , Jayden Ali (JA Projects), climate activist Tori Tsui, Suhair Khan (open-ended), and Charlot Magayi, winner of the Earthshot Prize, among many others.
Among the keynotes was Natsai Audrey Chieza’s systems-led perspective on building a regenerative bioeconomy from the ground up. Her talk illuminated a design pathway rooted in material transformation, supply chain decarbonisation, distributed biomanufacturing, and the creation of restorative networks. Through the work of Faber Futures, she took the audience on a journey to understand how technology and social needs can be brought into alignment with nature—delivering tangible, real-world impact and redefining how innovation connects with the living systems that sustain us.
The Congress was realised in collaboration with many of London’s leading cultural and design institutions—including the Greater London Authority, the Design Museum, and the London Design Festival. Huge thank you to Minnie Moll, Cat Drew, ModusBPCM, and Rioco Green and your wider teams. Together, they shaped an ambitious platform that not only celebrated design’s capacity to catalyse change but also deepened the global dialogue on how creativity, science, and systems thinking must work together to drive the transformative action our planet now demands.