Saturday 24 September, 4pm

Title: Back to the Future: Sustainability in Contemporary Textile Production
Speakers: Polly Leonard, (Chair), Safia Minney, Carin Mansfield, Lisa Whatmough

Outline: Polly Leonard, Founder of leading textile magazine Selvedge, will lead a discussion that considers how in a world of fast fashion, when a new tee shirt can cost less than a cup of coffee, we can reconcile providing income to makers in developing countries while acknowledging the carbon footprint of our clothes. As well as investigating how we can justify making more garments when there are wardrobes bursting with deserted clothes, she will look at pre-Industrial Revolution textile production methods as a possible way to engage with sustainable production for the future.

Biography:

Polly Leonard, Founder of Selvedge Polly Leonard is the Founder of Selvedge, an internationally renowned textile magazine that was launched in 2003. From its modest beginning as a one-off publication, the magazine revolutionised the way textiles are presented and quickly became the world's leading textile publication. As well as a magazine, Polly has since launched an online and bricks and mortar shop, seasonal artisan fairs and creative collaborations with the likes of Anthropologie, The National Trust and the V&A. Polly has a specialist knowledge in all aspects of textiles, with particular interest in the role textiles has played in the evolution of humanity. Selvedge combines her passions for social history, fine art and craft.

http://www.selvedge.org

Safia Minney, MBC FRSA Social Entrepreneur, Author & Founder of People Tree, UK & Japan Safia is recognised internationally as the pioneer of sustainable fashion and one of the best known people in the Fair Trade movement. She is also recognised by the World Economic Forum as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur. Safia launched Global Village in 1991 in Japan out of which People Tree was born and then in London in 2000. She drove the business as CEO, Creative Director, Head of Fair Trade supply chain development and communications. People Tree was the first fashion company to achieve organic and Fair Trade certification in the world. The business brings social impact to over 5000 economically disadvantaged farmers, artisans and tailors. Safia is author of: By Hand; Naked Fashion – The Sustainable Revolution; Slow Fashion – Aesthetics meets Ethics and is currently working on 'Slave to Fashion' campaigning to day eradicate modern slavery. Safia is featured in the movie 'True Cost' as a leading spokesperson on the fashion industry and her pioneering work in delivering social change.

http://www.safia-minney.com

Carin Mansfield, Universal Utility After 15 years as a type of underground movement, Universal Utility brand has found a home called in-ku. Previously selling within the environs of like minded souls i.e. Egg London, Dover street market London & Tokyo and multiple Comme des Garçons stores in Japan, the brand's inventor wanted the Made in England label to be appreciated in London. The product's character represents carefully crafted quality rather than obscure inventive design. Clothing without season, time, age or trend; the philosophy being slow workmanship to create a life long product which won't end up in landfill. Universal utility has always used garment construction techniques which cannot be used in the current fast pace production methods of this age.

http://universalutilityltd.com

Lisa Whatmough, Managing and Creative Director of Squint Limited Lisa founded Squint in 2005 and has spent the last nine years learning the principles of retail, wholesale and manufacturing. Squint was the creation of Lisa Whatmough, who through her passion for textiles and with a very British design sensibility has created a world of richly decorative home wares which are a fusion of fashion and the decorative arts, each UK-made item becoming a piece of contemporary art work. Lisa imbues Squint with her own style and has created a clear visual signature mixing ages and social and artistic heritages to create her own conceptual vision of how we live today. She sells internationally in some of the world's top design and fashion stores.

http://squintlimited.com

Saturday 24 September, 6pm

Title: Biotopia: Towards A Biological Ideal
Speakers: Melissa Sterry, Claudia Pasquero, Heather Barnett, Emma Flynn

Outline: Join design scientist/systems theorist Melissa Sterry, architect/author Claudia Pasquero and bioartist/researcher Heather Barnett as they explore the potentialities of Biotopia and our journey towards a biological urban ideal. Fields explored will include biological systems, computing, materials, and architecture.

Biography:
Design scientist and systems theorist Melissa Sterry is recognised as a world leading authority on the science, technology and thinking that could help build a better world. A recipient of several national and international innovation, creativity and enterprise awards, she is a visiting fellow/lecturer and guest critic at several leading architecture and design research institutes. A PhD researcher at University of Greenwich, her research interests converge in Bionic City, which posits the potential of the city as a complex regenerative and adaptive system that mimics ecological resilience strategies.

Claudia Pasquero director of ecoLogicStudio in London, director of the Urban Morphogenesis Lab in Bartlett UCL, senior staff at IAAC in Barcelona as well Adapt-r research fellow at the Estonian Accademy of Art in Tallinn; Claudia is an architect, author and educator, her work is focused on relationship between ecology and the city. She has been Unit Master at the AA in London and visiting critic at Cornell University upon others. Her projects have been published and exhibited throughout the world, at various Biennales. She is co-author of Systemic Architecture: Operating manual for the self-organizing city, published by Routledge.

Heather Barnett's art practice engages with natural phenomena, complex systems and biological design. Working with live organisms and imaging technologies, her work explores how we observe, influence and understand the world around us. Projects include microbial portraiture, cellular wallpapers, performing cuttlefish, and an ongoing 'collaboration' with an intelligent slime mould, Physarum polycephalum. She is Course Lecturer on the MA Art and Science at Central Saint Martins (University of the Arts London) and chairs London LASER art and science talks.

Emma Flynn leads Research and Development at the London-based architecture practice Astudio. A practicing architect and design researcher, Emma's work broadly focuses on the future architectural landscape in relationship to nature, exploring environmental responsiveness and resilience in the context of climate change and resource depletion. Emma is a tutor in Environmental Design at The Bartlett, UCL; Design Think Tank leader at the London School of Architecture; and works with students at Brunel University as part of the EU Co-Innovate programme.

Sunday 25 September, 2pm

Title: Diving into the Future: Santander in 2100
Speakers: Maite Cantón, Cesar Córdoba

Outline: Maite Cantón and Cesar Córdoba discuss 'Diving into the future', the Spanish entry to the Biennale from VRPOLIS. Their project invites visitors to explore an imagined future of their hometown of Santander in the year 2100. They will explain which trends inspire them and the visionary changes regarding materials, urbanism, mobility, connectivity, nature spaces, culture and habits. The focus of this project is to rebuild the medium size cities of the future by applying the most innovation strategies and lots of imagination.

Biography:
César Córdoba (Laredo, 1984) graduated as an architect from ETSAVa [Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Valladolid] after being studying for one year in Artesis Hogeschool of Antwerp. He has worked for several international architectural practices such as What_architecture (London, United Kingdom), Toni Gironès (Barcelona, Spain) or Forgas arquitectes (Barcelona, Spain) as an architect and urban planner. After studying a Master's degree in Restoration and Rehabilitation of Old Buildings in the Architecture School of Barcelona [ETSAB], now he is based in Santander (Spain) developing his own work and collaborating with A1arquitectos.

Maite Cantón, specializes in innovation and sustainability, areas in which she has been working for different organizations and companies since 2005. She is the inventor of the Spud Raincoat, the first bioplastic garment which has been awarded with many prizes. Currently she is working as marketing director in Dimeloami Productions and strategic planner for the International Film and Architecture Festival, the unique in Spain, organized by this company, place where she comes up with the idea for this new project VRPOLIS, Diving into the future (A sustainability and futuristic virtual building concept of the medium size cities around the world)

Monday 26 September, 1pm

Title: Communities, Culture and Cities: Designing Great Places for the Future
Speakers: John Walker, Adrian Penfold, Mark Davy, Asif Khan

Outline: World cities are investing in their cultural identity to compete on the international stage. London is expanding and new districts of the city are taking shape. How are developers, government, architects, designers, and cultural planners supporting new and existing communities? What ideas and approaches are we seeing for the creation of successful new places? Join international cultural planners Futurecity in conversation with Mark Davy (Futurecity), John Walker (Director of Planning, Westminster City Council), Adrian Penfold (British Land), Asif Khan (RCA).

Biography:
Mark Davy founded Futurecity in 2007 as one of the first cultural placemaking consultancies to operate in the urban realm.
As a platform for private and public sector investment in the cultural life of our cities, Futurecity has a global understanding of urban development, with offices in London, Cambridge and Sydney. Under Mark's leadership, Futurecity has written over 200 arts and culture strategies for large brownfield developments, regeneration areas and urban projects across the UK and internationally.

Adrian Penfold joined British Land in 1996, following his time in local government and at the London Docklands Development Corporation. At British Land he has dealt with major mixed use development projects in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland, with a particular focus on central London, including the award winning Regent's Place and Leadenhall Building (the "Cheesegrater"). He was a member of the Barker Review of Land Use Planning's Panel of Experts and led the Government appointed independent Penfold Review of Non-Planning Consents which reported in July 2010. He is a member of the DCLG Planning Sounding Board and the Government appointed Local Plans Expert Group which reported in 2016. He was awarded the OBE in March 2016 for Service to the Property Industry and Public Service to Planning He is also responsible for Public Affairs at British Land and is Non-Executive Chairman of Design South East.

Asif Khan founded his architecture practice in 2007. The studio works internationally on projects ranging from cultural buildings to houses, temporary pavilions, exhibitions and installations. Notable projects include the forthcoming UK Pavilion for Astana Expo 2017, the'MegaFaces' pavilion at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, the Coca-Cola Beatbox at London 2012 Olympics, a finalist entry in the international competition for the new Guggenheim museum Helsinki and most recently the Serpentine Gallery Summer House located in Kensington Gardens, London for summer 2016. Asif is the recipient of numerous awards including a Red Dot award for Design, Cannes Lion Grand Prix for Innovation, a D&AD award, Special citation in 2011 MAXXI MoMA/PS1 Young Architect Programme, Design Miami Designer of the Future 2011, and Design Museum Designer in Residence 2010. Khan lectures globally on his work, sits on the board of Trustees of the Design Museum and teaches MA Architecture at the Royal College of Art.

John Walker is a member of the RTPI, Major Developers Group, Architecture Club and the Planning Officers Society. He has a vast amount of knowledge on the West End having worked in Westminster for over 32 years. John is the Director of Planning at Westminster City Council overseeing the busiest planning authority in the UK. The pressure for development is intense with nearly 13,000 applications handled every year. Planning in Westminster is rarely out of the news with headline development sites such as Chelsea Barracks, the Paddington Pole, Middlesex Hospital, Victoria Nova, Admiralty Arch, Millbank Tower, New Scotland Yard and two new hotels proposed at the War Office Whitehall and US Embassy building on Grosvenor Square.

Monday 26 September, 6pm

Title: Fear of snakes and little animals: Utopia and Entopia in landscapes
Speakers: Thomas Doxiadis

Outline: Could Utopias be the problem? Usually considered a good thing, they embody individual and collective visions of a better tomorrow. But what if the world to treasure is that which already exists? What if utopian thinking is the destroyer of worlds, in the ceaseless human drive to create the other and the elsewhere? Landscape Architect Thomas Doxiadis presents a case for design through respectfully crawling through the ground rather than looking up at the clouds.

Buy tickets here: Norway: Reaching for Utopia - Inclusive Design in Practice

Sunday 11 September, 2pm

Title: Norway: Reaching for Utopia – Inclusive Design in Practice
Speakers: Onny Eikhaug, Rama Gheerawo

Outline: Onny Eikhaug talks to Rama Gheerawo about Norway's entry to the Biennale Reaching for Utopia – Inclusive Design in Practice. The exhibition showcases inclusive design as a strategy for building a better world and creative innovation and highlights headline Norwegian projects in private and public sector that have delivered lasting social and commercial benefits. As Inclusive Design is set to become one of the most important design movements of the 21st century, what does it actually mean?

Biography:
Onny Eikhaug is a Programme Leader, The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture (DOGA), responsible for pioneering and developing activities in the field of people-centric inclusive design. She also spearheads the centre's government-funded Innovation for All programme, promoting inclusive design as an effective strategy for innovation to businesses and the public sector. She has a broad experience in international marketing, business strategy, sales, innovation, product development and design management in the fields of personal products, ergonomic lighting, and contemporary furniture in the private sector. She writes, publishes, and lectures both in Norway and internationally, and works closely with designers, education, research institutions, industry and government. She holds an MBA from the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Onny was recently honoured with an Inclusive Design Champion Award at the Include conference 2015 at the Royal College of Art in London. She is also the curator of the Norwegian exhibition at the LDB; Reaching for Utopia – Inclusive Design in Practice.

Rama Gheerawo is Director of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and the RCA Reader in Inclusive Design. He is a global figure in people-centred and inclusive design. He is in demand as a keynote speaker internationally, curates exhibitions and runs workshops for audiences that range from academics to business executives to civil servants. Knowledge transfer to business is central to his work, building on a track record of over 250 collaborative projects at the Centre involving organisations such as GOV.UK, Samsung and Toyota. Rama has published widely in both academic and trade press, and has appeared on juries and advisory boards representing design.

Buy tickets here: India Design Forum

Tuesday 13 September, 4 - 7pm

Title: India: Utopian Design in the Indian Context
Speakers: Alice Cicolini, Sunil Khilnani, Rajshree Pathy, Priya Paul, James Soane and Ayush Kasliwal.

Outline: The Park Hotel presents India Design Forum Talks. This afternoon of conversation and debate includes; a utopian journey through Indian design history with Sunil Khilnani; an exploration of India's entry to the Biennale 'Chakraview' with Rajshree Pathy and a panel discussion on 'utopian design in industry' with some of India's leading design voices Alice Cicolini,  Priya Paul, Ayush Kasliwal and James Soane.

Buy tickets here: Launch of the Brexit Manifesto

Wednesday 14 September, 2pm

Title: Launch of the Brexit Manifesto
Speakers: Hosted by Dezeen

Outline: As a major contributor to the UK's culture and economy, design and architecture can help the country thrive after Brexit. But first the government needs to help the design sector. Join Dezeen and guest speakers for the unveiling of the Brexit design manifesto – a unified statement setting out what the sector needs in order to continue to prosper when the UK leaves the European Union

Sunday 18 September, 4pm

Title: Kidesign: Inspiring the next generation of designers
Speaker: Dejan Mitrovic

Outline: Dejan Mitrovic is the founder of Kidesign, a creative startup that specialises in games and toys that teach children about design, technology and innovation. Since 2010, Kidesign has been pioneering projects and workshops for children, with the use of new technology such as 3D printing. Dejan will talk about the importance of design and creativity for young children, how this has been changing in the recent years and where the market is heading and also present Kidesign's approach to educational toys and games. At the talk, Dejan will also reveal a brand new toy product by Kidesign, that will be launched in October 2016!

Thursday 15 September, 7.30pm

Title: Design to the Rescue?
Speaker: Alice Rawsthorn

Outline: At a perilous and turbulent time, when we need design more than ever to help us to understand what is happening and to find a constructive way forward, Alice Rawsthorn discusses the challenges and opportunities facing designers as they strive to fulfil their traditional objective of helping to build a better world.

Biography:
Alice Rawsthorn writes about design in the International New York Times and frieze. Her latest book Hello World: Where Design Meets Life explores design's impact on our lives: past, present and future. She speaks on design at global events including TED and the World Economic Forum's annual meetings at Davos, Switzerland. Based in London, Alice is chair of trustees of the Chisenhale Gallery and the contemporary dance group Michael Clark Company, and a trustee of the Whitechapel Gallery. She was awarded an Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to design and the arts.