GDF DAY 3: INNER SELVES

Details

As part of the London Design Biennale programme, from 10 - 12 June 2025 the Global Design Forum will host a series of talks and panel discussions at King's College London, under the title ‘Design and the Invisible’. How can we dismantle outdated systems and forge radical new ones? Join Samuel Ross, Mariana Mazzucato, Kengo Kuma and dozens more of the world’s most exciting designers and thinkers for a series of talks that will rethink the hidden powers shaping our world.

12 June | DAY 3: INNER SELVES
Unleashing inner impulses. Design is a mirror for our deepest passions, values and instincts – reflecting our identities, cultures and communal ties. We make the intangible tangible – from cultural myth-making to the soul of craft – interrogating how creative minds translate our inner worlds into tangible forms.

Samuel Ross and Victoria Broackes in conversation with Charlene Prempeh
Time: 18:00 - 19:00 BST
For this year's London Design Biennale, artistic director Samuel Ross proposed the theme Surface Reflections, which delves into how both personal histories and experiences inform who we are and what we create.
In this conversation, he unravels the contemporary experiences of modernity that shape his multidisciplinary work, as well as his perception of design more broadly, while Biennale director Victoria Broackes explains how these ideas underpin the ideas of the national pavilions exhibiting across the exhibition.
Chair: Biennale jury member Charlene Prempeh, a journalist and founder of creative studio and art consultancy A Vibe Called Tech
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Beyond Borders: Can design heal the rift between global and local?
Time: 16:15 - 17:30 BST
Amid tensions between globalisation and nationalism, there's an urgent need to foster common solutions to collective problems – so we bring together designers who are exploring new forms of belonging and collaboration through design. Stella Mutegi and Kabage Karanja of Nairobi-based architecture practice Cave Bureau, tell us how they disrupted national boundaries at the exhibition they co-curated for this year’s British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Jean-Michel Geridan, director of Le Signe, the National Centre for Graphic Design in France, explores the role of visual communication in creating shared meaning and identity. And Amrita Mahindroo, co-founder of London-based Da Costa Mahindroo Architects, which works on projects around the world that are contributing to the construction of national identity, explains how she sees design as an instrument of soft diplomacy.
Chair: Samta Nadeem, curatorial director of the global media house and curatorial agency STIR, our digital media partner.
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Hand, Heart and Machine: craft in an age of automation
Time: 13:30 - 14:30 BST
Automation promises efficiency, but at what cost to the human?
Held in partnership with Goldsmiths' Fair, this talk probes into what vanishes when machines replace hands, the existential opportunities offered by science, the emotional resonance of the making process and how design can bridge the gap between craft and industry. The speakers include Thomas Thwaites, Steve Ali, Carole Collett, and Shai Akram.
Chair: Annie Warburton, chief executive of the Goldsmiths' Company, one of the 12 Great Livery Companies of the City of London, which through its foundation supports creative, technical and vocational skills in craft.
As part of the talk there will be a demonstration by Stanisław Kośmiński, a wood carver whose work is featured as part of the Poland pavilion at the London Design Biennale.
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Visit the Global Design Forum Eventbrite Page to book your free spot.