Scope
Future by Design aims to inspire a global dialogue around climate change, while showcasing radical thinking about the role design can play in shaping our future and responding to urgent environmental issues. Through an action research approach, it engages young people across different countries in healthy debate and positive action through the medium of design.
Innovative approach
- Through its active approach, the project encourages participants to co-design and co-create enabling environments for international discussions on climate change.
- It brings together multidisciplinary cohorts of students in the UK and Ghana to explore ways of creating spaces conducive to knowledge exchange around the impact of climate change on water – an urgent issue in both countries.
Supporting young people
The research nurtures new voices in the climate conversation by promoting and supporting international collaboration between young people, aged 18-29, to address the challenges of water scarcity and abundance. Through a series of podcasts and workshops, the young participants also get the chance to discuss and exchange knowledge and skills from their local environments on the theme of co-designing for climate change.
Contributing to climate action
The project has directly resulted in new enabling environments for international discussions on climate change – including a hybrid, eco-sustainable, accessible ‘open landscape classroom’ in the grounds of Scotland’s Cove Park, and an open classroom in a public space in Ghana. It is informing new pedagogical models to address climate programming and new ways to help young people contribute to shared climate goals.
Reinforcing COP26 priorities
This project examines the critical role that architecture, design, fashion and craft play in shaping our collective future, with design’s pivotal role in building an environmentally sustainable future as the catalyst. It promotes the importance of site-specificity when discussing climate action, and the need to nurture cross-cultural perspectives.
Who’s involved?
It brings together an international artists’ residency in Cove Park, on Scotland’s west coast, Ghanaian-Filipino agro-waste designer Mae-ling Lokko and Scottish architect Tom Morton. It involves students from the Mackintosh School of Architecture, in Glasgow, and the interdisciplinary Ashesi Entrepreneurship Center, in Ghana.
Why the British Council?
As trusted cultural facilitators, the British Council uses its creative expertise to strengthen global research collaborations. We also draw on our vast experience of working with young people and our trusted network of stakeholders across the design and climate sectors – in the UK and globally.
Contact James.Perkins@britishcouncil.org for more information.