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 common design studio 

.the design challenge 

2025
DATA – beyond numbers 

The Common Design Studio is a long-running collaboration between global partners in design education. It tackles the big challenges facing today’s world. The studio brings design students together to generate new ideas and provocations in relation to those challenges.

This project has a design-led focus on developing actionable strategies for a beneficial, sustainable, holistic relationship with the earth, its diverse peoples, its flora and fauna, addressing some of the risks to our interconnected ecologies. 

 

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.

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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?

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2024
radical gardening in urban spaces 

For the 2022 Common Design Studio the overarching theme of 'Radical Gardening in Urban Spaces' provided a direction for all the student groups. We collectively aim to offer more than preventative measures - instead looking to positive futures made possible through knowledge sharing and design as a means of action. 

2023
radical gardening in urban spaces 

For the 2022 Common Design Studio the overarching theme of 'Radical Gardening in Urban Spaces' provided a direction for all the student groups. We collectively aim to offer more than preventative measures - instead looking to positive futures made possible through knowledge sharing and design as a means of action. 

2022
radical gardening in urban spaces 

For the 2022 Common Design Studio the overarching theme of 'Radical Gardening in Urban Spaces' provided a direction for all the student groups. We collectively aim to offer more than preventative measures - instead looking to positive futures made possible through knowledge sharing and design as a means of action. 

2021
a cookbook for planetary health

In 2021 the studio focused engagement as ‘Ideas for Humanity’, in a Cookbook for Planetary Health. This design sprint established the model of rapid development of proposals and sharing recipes for action via this website.  

 studio partners 

UAL / LCC 

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Design School 
London College of Communication 

London 

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Joel Karamath 

Digby Usher

Laura Lovell-Anderson

Amy Henry 

Marion Lagedamont 

RMIT Melbourne

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School of Design 
RMIT University 

Melbourne 

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Neal Haslem 

Blair Wilde

Elisava 

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School of Design

& Engineering 

Barcelona 

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Albert Fuster 

Roger Paez

RMIT Vietnam 

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School of Communication 
& Design
 

Vietnam 

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Manny Ling 

Andrew Stiff 

Ace Duc Anh Nguyen 

Michal Teague 

Becky Lu

Sweii Chong 

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