Amid tensions between globalisation and nationalism, there's an urgent need to foster common solutions to collective problems – so we bring together designers who are exploring new forms of belonging and collaboration through design. Stella Mutegi and Kabage Karanja of Nairobi-based architecture practice Cave Bureau, tell us how they disrupted national boundaries at the exhibition they co-curated for this year’s British pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Jean-Michel Geridan, director of Le Signe, the National Centre for Graphic Design in France, explores the role of visual communication in creating shared meaning and identity. And Amrita Mahindroo, co-founder of London-based Da Costa Mahindroo Architects, which works on projects around the world that are contributing to the construction of national identity, explains how she sees design as an instrument of soft diplomacy. The talk will be chaired by Samta Nadeem, curatorial director of the global media house and curatorial agency STIR, our digital media partner.
Location: The Great Hall, King's College, London
This edition of the Global Design Forum is supported by our Digital Media Partner, STIR.
Should you have any access requirements, please contact us at rsvp@globaldesignforum.com to accommodate your visit.
This talk is talking place at part of the Global Design Forum at London Design Biennale. View the whole programme here.
SPEAKERS
Amrita Mahindroo is co-founder of the architecture practice DROO, which is currently working on a range of international projects including for public and private sector clients, such Republic of Korea’s consular offices in Paris, Diriyah Gate Development Authority and the Royal Commission for Al Ula in Saudi Arabia and Anatolia College in Thessaloniki In Greece. Mahindroo is the recipient of the European 40 under 40 Prize in Architecture. Her research is focused on the implications of the macro environment on tangible questions that shape our cities – architectural tectonics through industry and human experience through space and materiality.
Jean-Michel Géridan has been managing eirector of Le Signe, the National Center for Graphic Design in France, and qrtistic director of the International Graphic Design Biennale in Chaumont, France since 2018. Géridan has also worked at the interactive research atelier at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD) and holds an MPhil in Philosophy and the Esthetics of the Image from the University of Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint-Denis. He has taught at several art schools and served as director of the ESAC in Cambrai (2014–2018).
Kabage Karanja is an architect, curator, and educator. He co-founded Cave_bureau, an architectural and research studio based in Nairobi that he started alongside Stella Mutegi in 2014. He leads the research and aesthetic direction of the bureau, orchestrating expeditions and surveys into caves within the Great Rift Valley, navigating a return to the limitless curiosity of our early ancestors. He is currently a Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale School of Architecture.
Stella Mutegi is an architect, curator, and educator. She co-founded Cave_bureau, an architectural and research studio based in Nairobi that she started alongside Kabage Karanja in 2014. She heads the technical department at Cave, where she orchestrates the seamless coordination of Cave’s ideas into built form. She is currently a Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor of Architectural Design at Yale School of Architecture.
Samta Nadeem is a design curator and writer based in London. An interdisciplinary background equips her keen perspective on creative cultures and how they intertwine with contemporary social, cultural, political and environmental complexities. A lighting designer, curator, critical thinker and creative director, Samta is passionate about engaging with issues of social and environmental justice through design and discourse. She leads curatorial programming and content curation at STIR – an award-winning global media house and curatorial agency operating in the domains of art, architecture, design and creative technologies. Samta holds an MA in Curating Contemporary Design with a research focus on expanding the potential of Public Programming as an independent curatorial practice. She is an entrepreneur, mentor, public speaker and has freelanced with cultural institutions such as the Design Museum London.
