ICYMI: World Design Congress talks available on demand

Whether you missed the World Design Congress earlier this month or were there but couldn’t see it all, there’s still time to revisit the highlights.

Hours of talks are still available to watch on demand here for just £5, with online passes on sale until October 10 (according to the ticketing page).

URGE has picked out six talks to get you started, but there are many more to watch over the next two weeks.

Day 1 . Tuesday

Designing the Economy We Need: Missions, Doughnuts, and Radical Collaboration

Kate Raworth · Mariana Mazzucato · Danny Sriskandarajah

A provocative call to redesign not just products, but entire economies, business models, and policies. Be inspired by a regenerative, inclusive economic vision and how to achieve change through radical collaboration between designers, policymakers, and industry leaders.

The Legacy We Leave

Tori Tsui · Brian Eno · Max Fraser

An intergenerational conversation about the role of creativity in times of crisis. Musician Brian Eno and climate activist Tori Tsui join Max Fraser to explore how art and design can help process eco-anxiety, inspire collective action, and offer a future worth working toward. Expect honesty, urgency, and hope.

Day 2 . Wednesday

Global Greenprints: Designing Resilient Futures with Leyla Acaroglu

Leyla Acaroglu

Leyla challenges the foundations of industrial design, calling for a bold shift from extraction to regeneration, and from control to collaboration with nature. Systems thinking and ecological insight can enable us to embrace nature’s interconnectedness and transform design into a force for planetary health and resilience.

Global Greenprints: Designing Resilient Futures with The Aral Sea

Jan Boelen · Oktyabr Dospanov

What if we design at the scale of an entire region? This session explores projects from LUMA Atelier (Camargue, France) and previews the Aral School, a bold initiative to restore the ecology, culture, and economy of Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan, where the Aral Sea has lost 90% of its original size since the 1960s.

Designing the Age of Stewardship

Indy Johar

Indy Johar reframes design as a practice of stewardship. This is a call to action for designers to take responsibility for the futures they shape and to move beyond object-making to systemic, care-driven transformation. A call to action for the design economy to act as imagineers of the future and custodians of the planet.

Thriving Cities: Designing for Future Prosperity

James Lee · Patricia Brown · Michael Pawlyn · Rowan Moore · Kathryn Firth

What will it take to build cities that thrive in a changing climate? This session explores walkable neighbourhoods, zero-waste districts and climate-smart mobility, sharing practical ideas for inclusive, regenerative, biodiversity-positive places. URGE's Michael Pawlyn is among the speakers.

Climate Action Cards Launched at the Congress

Design Declares and URGE's Alexie Sommer launched the Climate Action Cards at the Congress, a co-creation with the Design Council produced by GF Smith with renewable energy, zero waste to landfill and Colorplan paper.

The cards present 52 planet-positive actions (one for each week of the year), and are designed to shift practice, business, and mindset.

Sets are £30 with all proceeds supporting Design Declares to engage communication, digital, industrial and service designers in climate-positive practice. They are now shipping within five working days.

Available on the Morrama website.