Design Emergency
Episodes
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn celebrate the Hidden Heroines of Design on International Women’s Day 2026
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Happy International Women’s Day! One of Alice and Paola’s favourite episodes of Design Emergency every year is the International Women’s Day Spe...
Beatriz Colomina and Mark Wigley on Biotic Architecture
04 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Architecture has long treated bacteria as an enemy to be controlled—dangerous foreign agents to be sealed out, sterilized, or erased. In their new b...
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn celebrate Women in Tech on Ada Lovelace Day
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, the second Tuesday in October is designated as Ada Lovelace Day as a tribute to its namesake, Ada Lovelace, the 19th century mathematician...
Maya Bird-Murphy on Architecture and Communities
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How can we empower more people, particularly young people from disinvested communities, to engage with architecture, and to use it as a tool to improv...
David Gissen on the Architecture of Disability
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Architecture’s traditional approach to disability revolves around “fixing problems” by securing adaptations that will allow disabled people to a...
Tosin Oshinówò on Designing Africa’s Future
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Design Emergency podcast, the Nigerian architect, Tosin Oshinówò, tells our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, how design and architectu...
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on Design and Infrastructure
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Infrastructure is one of the most important areas of design, but is mostly ignored – until it goes horribly wrong. At a time when global investment ...
Hilary Cottam on Redesigning Work
23 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What is a good working life in the 21st century? And how do we get there? In the latest episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, e...
Sadie Red Wing on Indigenous design
02 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
One of the deepest, most often overlooked emergencies in the design world is the erasure of Indigenous knowledge systems—and the continued exclusion...
Hidden Heroines of Design
08 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who are the Hidden Heroines of Design, the gifted, resourceful and determined women who have achieved so much in design, yet have never been given the...
Julia Watson on Design and Water
19 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the global water crisis and climate emergency intensify, how can design help us to tackle the devastating food shortages, storm surges, rising sea-...
Pirjo Haikola on Designing for the Ocean
29 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Coral are tough clients, as Pirjo Haikola knows well. The Finnish designer is renowned for her work on coral reef conservation and ocean biodiversity....
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on Design and Human Rights
10 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help to defend and strengthen our human rights? And the rights of other species with whom we share our planet? At a time when rights an...
Yvonne Jewkes on Design and Prisons
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help to make our failing prisons fit for purpose? In this episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, discusses the de...
Domestic Data Streamers on data and emotions
23 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Why should we care about data? Not only because “data is the new oil,” as British mathematician Clive Humby famously said in 2006, but also becaus...
Philippe Rahm on Climatic Architecture
01 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can architecture help us to address the escalating climate emergency? There are many ways it can do so: from ensuring that new buildings are desig...
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on Climate Action
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Things are not exactly looking up. While the climate emergency is undeniably advancing, however, a powerful cultural shift is also afoot––away fro...
Jeanne Gang on Architectural Grafting
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As architecture and construction are two of the biggest sources of carbon emissions on our planet, what can architects do to change this? In this epis...
Liam Young on building better worlds
26 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Visions of future worlds by storytellers of all kinds––filmmakers, writers, designers, and other artists––play an important role in our evolut...
Sinéad Burke on Design and Disabilities
05 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can we make our lives fully accessible and inclusive? In this episode of Design Emergency, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn explores this challenge w...
Kate Crawford on Technology and Power
15 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Controlling technology means controlling the world. While this statement rings painfully true today, it is as old as the idea of technology itself. In...
Design and Workers’ Rights
01 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Design has played a critical role in championing, developing and defending workers’ rights throughout history. In this episode of Design Emergency p...
Francesca Coloni on the refugee crisis
03 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help us to address such a tragic, terrifying global emergency as the escalating refugee crisis? What are the priorities for the hu...
Abeer Seikaly on the Power of Memory
20 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode devoted to tradition as a source and a force to build a better future, Paola Antonelli speaks with Jordanian-Palestinian arc...
Hidden Heroines of Design
08 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Who are the Hidden Heroines of Design, the gifted and ambitious women who have achieved so much in design, yet have never been given the recognition t...
Sputniko! aka Hiro Ozaki on speculative design and visionary entrepreneurship
21 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hiro Ozaki, aka Sputniko! (her high-school nickname) is a designer / multimedia artist / musician / educator / entrepreneur whose unique and multi-pro...
Limbo Accra on unfinished buildings
07 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How can we make productive use of the unfinished buildings that litter our towns, cities and landscapes? In this episode of Design Emergency, Dominiqu...
Anjali Singhvi on investigative visual journalism
24 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Investigative visual journalism is a fairly new discipline that combines traditional investigative reporting techniques with digital forensic and s...
Olalekan Jeyifous on eco-fiction and world-building
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What could - and should - our future look like? Olalekan Jeyifous is committed to designing irresistible visions of a future in which humanity makes t...
Claudia Chwalisz on design and democracy
29 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At a time when democracy is under threat in many places, what can design do to defend it? How can it help to reinvent our democractic systems and make...
Omar Degan on architecture and fragility
15 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our world is becoming ever more fragile, as more and more migrants across the planet from the country to booming cities, and as more and more refugees...
Aqui Thami on design and communities
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help to heal fragile people, who have experienced abuse, poverty and oppression? In this episode, the Indian artist, activist and socia...
Veena Sahajwalla on turning waste into new materials
20 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the climate emergency escalates, it is clear that the solutions we need are those that can be applied at scale. The materials scientist Veena Sahaj...
Fernando Laposse on the materials of design
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, the Mexican designer Fernando Laposse talks with our cofounder Paola Antonelli about his practice, which focuses on the culture and t...
Magdalene Odundo on pots
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Magdalene Odundo has made some of the greatest pots of our time. In this episode of Design Emergency, she talks to our cofounder, Alice Rawsthorn, abo...
Yasmeen Lari on design and disasters
06 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Few people have more experience of disaster relief than the great Pakistani architect Yasmeen Lari. In this episode, she tells Design Emergency’s co...
Deema Assaf on greening the desert
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the climate emergency intensifies, how can design help us to repair and revive our ecosystems? In this episode, Design Emergency’s cofounder, Ali...
Gabriel Fontana on redesigning sports
18 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help us to make the most of the benefits of playing and following sports regardless of our differences? In this episode of the Design E...
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on Design and Violence
05 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can design protect us from violence? What can it do to identify new forms of violence, and old ones? Alert us to their dangers? Shield us from the...
Piet Oudolf on design and plants
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Having discovered the joys of gardening while selling Christmas trees at a garden centre, Piet Oudolf has become one of the most influential plantsmen...
Federica Fragapane on information design
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
At this turbulent, often terrifying time, we urgently need to understand what is happening in our world, and what the consequences will be. How can de...
Slava Balbek on designing for Ukraine
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are design’s role and responsibilities in horrific wars like Vladimir Putin’s illegal. conflict in Ukraine? How can designers help their coun...
Julia Watson on indigenous design
22 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can we develop safe, sustainable ways of designing, making and building? In this episode, Alice Rawsthorn talks to Julia Watson, the designer, aca...
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on the Hidden Heroines of Design
08 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Design has always been a man’s world. A white cis-man’s world to be precise. Thankfully, there have always been gifted and inspiring exceptions wh...
Sissel Tolaas on smell and design
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, our cofounder Paola Antonelli interviews Sissel Tolaas, the Berlin-based Norwegian artist, chemist, and researcher who has dedic...
Nifemi Marcus-Bello on design and identity
08 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn interviews Nifemi Marcus-Bello, the Nigerian designer who is at the forefront of the dynamic new design...
Formafantasma on investigative design
25 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we need investigative design? In this episode, the Italian designers Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi tell our cofounder, Paola Antonelli, ...
Fabrizio Urettini on design and the refugee crisis
11 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How can design help to curb the human tragedy of the global refugee crisis? In this episode, our cofounder Alice Rawsthorn interviews Fabrizio Urettin...
Mae-ling Lokko on building with agrowaste
21 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The several billions of tons of agricultural waste produced each year worldwide - by raising plants and animals, and including stalks, husks, hulls, a...
Paola Antonelli and Alice Rawsthorn on design and human rights
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of design’s most important – and inspiring – roles throughout history has been to champion human rights. At a time when those rights are und...
David Adjaye on architecture in Africa
23 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
We’re off! Our interviewee for this first episode of the Design Emergency podcast is the Ghanaian-British architect, David Adjaye. As well as design...
Design Emergency
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Design Emergency is a collaboration between the curator, Paola Antonelli, and writer, Alice Rawsthorn, to explore design’s potential to help us to b...