Can Craft Save the World?

Date: 11 Jan, 2026 | Time: 13:15 | Experimental Theatre

This session examines two ways of thinking that shape how we imagine solutions and futures, borrowing its title from a column by Katie Treggiden for STIR. 
In a world increasingly driven by frameworks, speed and scalable solutions, design thinking has become the dominant model for creativity and problem-solving. But what happens when we begin not with problems, users or abstractions but with materials, hands, time and care?
This session stages a provocative exchange between design thinking and craft thinking — two fundamentally different ways of knowing, learning and shaping the world. The speakers will examine how Craft Thinking grounded in embodied knowledge, material intelligence and cultural memory might offers a powerful counterpoint to the formulaic tendencies of contemporary innovation culture.
Moving beyond theory, the conversation will explore what a curriculum of craft thinking might look like: one that prioritises making as thinking, process over product, and depth over speed. Drawing from architecture, fashion, craft education, curation and contemporary design practice, the panel will ask how we might redesign creative education and professional practice for a future that is more sustainable, meaningful and human.