Dundee's V&A hosts design for planet festival
The festival kicked off today with 100 designers in attendance
Last updated 9th Nov 2021
The V&A at Dundee's waterfront has been filled up with 100 designers as the museum hosts the design for planet festival.
The two day festival kicked off today at the museum with over 4,000 designers from across the world participating virtually alongside those there in person.
The design for planet festival aims to champion the impact that design can have on the fight against climate change.
Running at the same time as COP26 the festival is looking to galvanize the UK's over one and a half million strong design community to address the climate emergency.
The V&A is hosting two days of talks and practical workshops alongside delivering designers with the tools that they need to create the conditions to work more sustainably. There are over 50 speakers from all across the design world.
Minnie Moll, CEO at design council, says: "We are in an absolute crisis. This is an emergency, the climate crisis and in truth design, to some extent is part of what has brought us to the brink. Design needs to be a really key part of how we get out of this situation that we are in right now."
She added: "Because design is actually at the start design shapes things. 80% of the environmental impact of any product is determined at the design stage. 80%, so that's why that design thinking at the beginning is so key to be designing for planet."
Building on that she added: "If there is not sustainability built into the brief then we are urging designers to be bold and brave and really question and challenge that brief. We have to be imagining that planet was at the table, that planet was the client and making sure that we are designing with the planet at the heart of what we do. "
Immy Kaur from Civic Square Birmingham is one of the speakers at the event. She said: "In these two days we're hearing about the structural shifts, we're hearing about the activism. We're hearing about the things that we need to hospice and compost in our own disciplines and say that no longer serves us. We're hearing from the global self, from indigenous practitioners.
"But really what do we do with that? And I think that's a really important challenge to all of us to make sure we're not re-creating the conditions where we spend some great days together, having great coffee and feeling inspired but we then actually go home, whatever home looks like. Whether that's a big institution or our literal household and start to understand our role.
"I think it's a case of individual responsibility in that but also as it's COP26 this week, it's also about making sure our voices heard and we are giving form to some of that re-imagination. So that people can see, they can see the alternative and the alternative feels more irresistible and more exciting and makes sense. I think that we've got to really actively engage with that and that will be the challenge of our lifetimes. I would imagine this cohort of people here will need to spend that next two decades, at least, actively engaging with that."
