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Global Design Forum is a curated thought leadership programme, celebrating design and the minds shaping its future.
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Global Design Forum
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Design At / From The Seams: GDF returns to London Design Festival from 13–15 September 2025.
Returning to the V&A South Kensington's Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, this year’s Global Design Forum will tackle Design At / From The Seams.
The theme goes beyond a singular anything – spotlighting interconnectedness between peoples, practices and the planet – examining radical interdependence that causes, affects and shifts paradigms in our designed world.
This edition is guest-curated by Samta Nadeem, in partnership with STIR.
Across three days, design will be inspected, explored and unpacked through the words and works of diverse practitioners in design, architecture, technology, films, curation and more.
Saturday 13 September | Cognitive Frontiers
Investigating how intelligences collide to redefine the possibilities in thought and practice.
11:00 - 11:45 | Synthesising Synapses
Hear from Freya Salway (Google Arts & Culture), Amit Gupta (STIR), Leo Warner (59 Studio) and Cher Potter (The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts). Chaired by Samta Nadeem (STIR).
12:15 - 13:00 | In Dialogue: Worldbuilding and the Built World
Hear from LionHeart (multidisciplinary artist & poet) and Shumi Bose (academic, curator & editor).
13:30-14:30 | Creating the Future | Insights from Sony designers
Hear from Alexander Sjöstedt (Senior Design Manager and Art Director at Sony, Design Center Europe) and Rikke Gertsen Constein (CMF Art Director at Sony, Design Center Europe). Thanks to Session Partner Sony.
15:00 - 17:00 | ADFF:STIR Curtain RaiserArchitecture & Design Film Festival launches in London
The evening will feature a screening of the film 'Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz' and DirectorFrancesca Molteni (MUSE Factory of Projects) in conversation with Kyle Bergman (ADFF). Thanks to Session Partner ADFF:STIR.
Sunday 14 September | Speculative Certainties | Supported by Programme Partner Lotus
Envisioning futures where the unpredictable meets the inevitable.
11:00 - 12:00 | Future Legacies
In an era shaped by digital footprints, what is the meaning of legacy?
Hear from Gareth Rees (Lead Strategic Designer, Lotus), Kay Watson (Head of Arts Technologies at Serpentine), Nigel Cottier (Design Director, Accept & Proceed). Chaired by Anmol Ahuja (Features Editor, STIR).
12:30 - 13:30 | Natural Cultures
Exploring the tension between progress and ecological safety.
Hear from Caroline Till (Franklin Till), Guan Lee (Founder, Grymsdyke Farm), Marie Camille-Lecoq (Head of CMF & Sustainability, Lotus) and Seetal Solanki (Founder Ma-tt-er). Chaired by Riya Patel (Design writer & curator).
14:30 - 15:30 | Analogue Memories
Blending Materiality and Memory with design
Hear from Ando Masebo (Product Designer), Ben Payne (Vice President of Design, Lotus), Lee Broom (Founder, Lee Broom Studio), Rana Haddad (Co-Founder, 200GRS). Chaired by Annie Warburton.
Monday 15 September | (In)finite Realities
Revealing the many ways of knowing, being and doing and where it can take us.
11:00 - 12:00 | Re-bordering from the centre
How do cities emerge, decline, and relocate as creative hubs?
Hear from Marta Foresti (LAGO), Torange Khonsari (Public Works), James Lee (Publica), and Tom Lloyd (PearsonLloyd). Moderated by Debika Ray (journalist & editor).
12:30 - 13:30 | Beyond Silence
How the unseen shapes place and belonging
Hear from Andrew Beaton (composer & sound designer), Kristian Krogh (LDCOL, Lighting Design Collective), Paul Bavister (Flanagan Lawrence). Moderated by Elizabeth Dellert (consultant, LDF). With thanks to Session Partner L-Acoustics.
14:30 - 15:30 | Transformative Practices
How our practices are challenging inherited structures and redesigning frameworks.
Hear from Freya Bruce (Recollective), Anna Parker (Intervention Architecture), Simon Lovatt (Calch Cymru) and Prashant Patel (Rescued Clay). Moderatoed by Roo Dhissou (designer).
16.00 - 17.00 | Addressing urgencies through art, design and museum practices
An afternoon round table session with artists Alicja Patanowska and Studio Above&Below (Daria Jelonek and Perry-James Sugden), three of this year’s V&A cohort in conversation with V&A curators Carrie Chan and Kristian Volsing.
With thanks to our Curatorial Partner STIR, Programme Partner Lotus and Session Partners Sony, L-Acoustics, and ADFF:STIR.
As part of the London Design Biennale programme, from 10–12 June 2025 the Global Design Forum hosted a series of talks and panel discussions at King's College London, under the title ‘Design and the Invisible’.
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How can we dismantle outdated systems and forge radical new ones? Over three days, Samuel Ross, Mariana Mazzucato, Kengo Kuma and dozens more of the world’s most exciting designers and thinkers came together for a series of talks to rethink the hidden powers shaping our world.
Beneath every object, building and space lies an entangled network of invisible forces – financial flows, digital networks, contested borders and unspoken cultural codes that shape lives and govern the world.
Inspired by artistic director Samuel Ross’ Biennale theme, Surface Reflections, we pulled back the curtain on these unseen drivers of design. Leading designers, architects, economists, activists and technologists will shone a light on the impulses that come from within us, those that lie outside us and those that connect us, and envisage a future where design’s transformative power is freed from invisible constraints.
This edition was supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.
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London Design Festival
13–21 September 2025
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