These talks will be an opportunity to inspire your thinking during Unit X, and for those who attend in person, you can claim RISE points as additional credits! All talks will be recorded and available afterward on this webpage.

A little info about our partner this year, Design Factory…

Manchester Design Factory is a new innovation hub at Manchester School of Art. It is a vehicle for our community of practitioners, researchers, and students to design locally-based sustainable development with the potential to reach well beyond our city. We take a participatory approach to designing innovation that is social and inclusive. The first project that we are working on is the Arts Council-funded Creative Campus project in Stockport. Through this activity, the Design Factory will be able to apply design thinking and doing to the theme of ‘Repurpose’, working with creative businesses and social enterprises to actively develop sustainable ways of collectively thriving. Stockport can be a microcosm for creating positive change which works with what we have, and by design amplifies what we need more of.

Elise and Anton, Zoetmulder

We are ZOETMULDER. A design agency for architecture, interior, urbanism and design.

We blend these specialisms by carefully dealing with human scale, atmosphere and sustainable materials. We pay attention to both the minor detail and the bigger picture. We create an atmosphere fitting the local characteristics. We pay attention to available sustainable resources. In this way our broad material knowledge connects sustainability with scale and atmosphere.

We explore these topics in our research projects and develop them into design tools. These tools are applied in practice for our architectural design projects in education, cultural interiors and housing.

Liam McGroarty, YOUTH

YOUTH is a design studio based in Manchester. Our aim is to continually challenge both the creative industry and ourselves. We believe the role of design is greater than simply making spaces look good. We create outcomes that find the balance between life and style, culture and commerce.

Our approach is collaborative and our output is honest — raw and real, yet highly refined and considered. Driven by a team of unconventional thinkers who’s youthful grit and conceptual rigour is met with a commitment to design detail and delivery.

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