Global Design Forum at London Design Festival 2025

Details

For London Design Festival 2025, the Global Design Forum (GDF) returns to the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington from September 13 – 15, with STIR as its Curatorial Partner. The talks, panels and sessions have been organised under the theme Design At/From The Seams.

This edition of GDF is guest curated by Samta Nadeem, Curatorial Director at STIR and is supported by Programme Partner Lotus and Session Partners Sony, L-Acoustics and ADFF:STIR. Over the course of three days, designers will examine the interdependences, pluralities and multiplicities embedded in design discourse. The various sessions and dialogues will attempt to unpack the multiple worlds straddled by design, subverting the tenuous notion of singularity, or a set paradigm for design. By placing design at and even originating from the seam, the thought leadership programme hopes to shed light on the radical interconnectedness that affects, drives and transforms our designed world. At the forum, STIR will also announce the launch of ADFF London edition with a special screening of the film Green over Gray: Emilio Ambasz, followed by a conversation with its director Francesca Molteni.

Here is the detailed programme for GDF:

13 September | COGNITIVE FRONTIERS
Sessions will highlight how various intelligences collide in order to redefine the possibilities in the thought and practice of design.

Talks include
Synthesising Synapses
As intersections become desired, how do we navigate complex frontiers through design?
Speakers: Freya Salway, head of the lab at Google Arts & Culture; Amit Gupta, founder and editor-in-chief at STIR; Leo Warner, founder and director of production design company 59 Productions; Cher Potter, forecast editor at the Future Observatory, Design Museum; Moderator: Samta Nadeem, curatorial director, STIR
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In Dialogue - Worldbuilding and the Built World
Join multidisciplinary artist LionHeart and writer and educator Shumi Bose for a performative discourse, delivering a series of corresponding monologues that meet dialogically through the audience.
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Creating the Future - Insights from Sony Design
Join Alexander Sjöstedt, Senior Design Manager and art director and Rikke Gertsen Constein, CMF art director at Sony to discover the visionary insights of Sony and their impact on the future of creativity and technology.
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ADFF:STIR Curtain Raiser - London Launch
STIR announces the launch of ADFF in London with a special screening of the film 'Green Over Gray: Emilio Ambasz' followed by a conversation with director Francesca Molteni.
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14 September | SPECULATIVE CERTAINTIES
GDF programme partner Lotus invites audiences to envision futures where the unpredictable meets the inevitable.

Talks include
Future Legacies
In an era shaped by digital footprints, what is the meaning of legacy?
Speakers: Gareth Rees, lead strategic designer, LOTUS, Nigel Cottier, co-founder of Accept&Proceed and Kay Watson, head of arts technologies, Serpentine Galleries; Moderator: Anmol Ahuja, features editor, STIR
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Natural Cultures
What are the new paradigms emerging from the tension between progress and ecological safety?
Speakers: Caroline Till, co-founder of FranklinTill, London-based materials designer Seetal Solanki, founder of Grymsdyke Farm, Guan Lee and Marie Camille Lecoq, head of CMF and sustainability, LOTUS; Moderator: Riya Patel, writer and curator
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Analogue Memories
How does design blend materiality and memory to create meaning?
Speakers: Ben Payne, vice president, LOTUS, product designer Andu Masebo, London-based designer Lee Broom and Rana Haddad, co-founder of design studio 200grs.; Moderator: RAnnie Warburton, CEO, The Goldsmiths' Company
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15 September | (IN)FINITE REALITIES
Dialogues that reveal the many ways of knowing, being and doing and where it can take us.

Talks include
Re-bordering from the centre
How do cities emerge, decline, and relocate as creative hubs? What happens when the "centre" moves, and how might re-bordering help us see design not as tied to one place, but as something fluid and always in motion?
Speakers: Marta Foresti, founder of research collective LAGO, Torange Khonsari, founder of urban design practice Public Works, interior designer James Lee, and Tom Lloyd, co-founder of British design studio PearsonLloyd; Moderator: Debika Ray, writer and editor
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Beyond Silence: How the Unseen Shapes Place and Belonging
This session delves into the ways sound can shape emotional and spatial experiences—from immersive art installations to public environments and cultural venues.
Speakers: Kristian Krogh, partner and lighting design director at Lighting Design Collective, sound designer Andrew Beaton and Paul Bavister, project director, Flanagan Lawrence; Moderator: Elizabeth Dellert, head of development, LDF
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Exploring Transformative Practices in the Built Environment
The discussion will centre around – whether material, civic, spatial or systemic – to support life-ennobling, regenerative futures.
Speakers: Freya Bruce, co-founder, Recollective; Anna Parker, Intervention Architecture; Simon Lovatt, Calch Cymru; Prashant Patel, Rescued Clay; Moderator: Roo Dhissou, V&A Emerging Designer Commission recipient
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V&A x LDF: Addressing urgent issues through art, design and museum practices
An afternoon round table session exploring ways in which institutions and artists can (and must) collaborate to bring ecology and technology to the forefront of design discourse.
Speakers: Alicja Patanowska and Studio Above&Below; Moderators: Carrie Chan and Kristian Volsing, V&A x LDF curator

There is no charge to attend the talks, but advance booking is required as capacity is limited.