Global Design Forum 2025: Design and the Invisible

Details

From 10 to 12 June at King’s College London, Global Design Forum will host a series talks and panel discussions under the title ‘Design and the Invisible’ as part of the London Design Biennale. There is no charge to attend the talks, but advance booking is required as capacity is limited.

How can outdated systems be dismantled and radical new ones forged? In June, designer Samuel Ross, economist Mariana Mazzucato, architect Kengo Kuma and dozens more of the world’s most exciting creative thinkers will gather for a series of talks that rethink the hidden powers shaping the world. Beneath every object, building and space lies an entangled network of invisible forces – financial flows, digital networks, contested borders and unspoken cultural codes that shape lives and govern the world.

Inspired by artistic director Samuel Ross’ Biennale theme, Surface Reflections, the forum pulls back the curtain on these unseen drivers of design. Over three days, leading designers, architects, economists, activists and technologists will shine a light on the impulses that come from within, those that lie outside, and those that connect, envisioning a future where design’s transformative power is freed from invisible constraints.

10 June | DAY 1: OUTER FORCES
Design under external pressure. Vanishing resources, hardening borders, societies fractured by conflict and inequality – designers today operate against a backdrop of extraordinary external pressure. We confront these seemingly immovable forces, platforming innovators who are not just pushing the limits, but scaling and redefining them.
Talks include
Kengo Kuma and Leonie Bell in conversation with Will Gompertz.
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Scarcity and Power: The geopolitics of resource extraction.
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My Generation: Can design bridge the age gap?
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11 June | DAY 2: POWER LINES
Rewiring connective networks. The complex web of infrastructure governs the flow of money, materials, products and people across the world. How can we harness these physical and abstract systems – rewire data flows, rethink labour practices, redesign financial rules and rebuild trust – to better serve our needs?
Talks include
Mariana Mazzucato in conversation with Gus Casely-Hayford.
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Who owns ideas? Intellectual property in an age of AI.
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Glass Walls: Can trust be designed into systems and spaces?
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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.
Talks include
Samuel Ross and Victoria Broackes in conversation with Charlene Prempeh
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Beyond Borders: Can design heal the rift between global and local?
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Hand, Heart and Machine: craft in an age of automation
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Visit the Global Design Forum Eventbrite Page for updates as talks as the programme is finalised.