ideas for humanity:
a cookbook for planetary health
common design studio
editions
home
2026
For this year's Common Design Studio the overarching theme is ‘HOME.’ We will encourage students to delve into the deeper, intrinsic aspects of data that shape our lives and influence our daily functions, rather than just focusing on numbers and digits.
CDS 2026 will unfold as an online design sprint between 3-13 July 2026. Students are expected to work collaboratively in teams, and produce innovative design proposals.
This intensive two week design studio will examine HOME from as many different angles as possible, understand it through our design research processes, and propose ‘recipes’ for activating and improving our thinking and relationship with HOME. The studio’s results will be gathered, published online and exhibited at Experiment 29 design studio at the close of the studio.
2026 studio partners
RMIT Melbourne
(Neal Haslem, Chris Henschke)
Elisava
(Roger Paez)
RMIT Vietnam
(Michal Teague)
BITS Mumbai
(Mandar Kale)
4 universities
207 students
15 lecturers
15 recipies
data
2025
For this year's Common Design Studio the overarching theme is ‘DATA—Beyond Numbers.’ We encourage students to delve into the deeper, intrinsic aspects of data that shape our lives and influence our daily functions, rather than just focusing on numbers and digits.
This intensive two week design studio will examine DATA from as many different angles as possible, understand it through our design research processes, and propose ‘recipes’ for activating and improving our thinking and relationship with DATA. The studio’s results will be gathered, published online and exhibited in Melbourne Design Week 2025.
In what ways is DATA different to other materials, in terms of its properties and qualities?
In what ways can we utilise such qualities and properties to expand design disciplines?
In what ways can we learn from such behaviours and agencies to expand design practices?