Research Through Design Group

Researching through making: Research Through Design Group

We are designers doing research. We use design process within research process. We ask research questions, and answer them using design.We use design to respond to societal issues and challenges. We are designers going into new territories, such as sustainability, healthcare and placemaking. We address new audiences for design, such as healthcare and the third sector.

The Research Through Design Group has six broad thematic areas, across which our researchers move freely:

Living Well: Designing for the body to support care, rehabilitation and positive life experience.
Sustainability Design: Designing to enable productive response to the climate emergency.
Designing Learning: Design as a driver of pedagogic innovation.
Fashioning Identity: Designing to explore identity, and the material expression and transformation of meaning.
Curating Places: Designing as site-specific practice relating directly to its audiences.
Inclusive Communities: Designing to promote inclusivity and social sustainability, and providing for those with specific needs.

Professor Daniel Charny worked closely with the Design Museum over a number of years to create the themes and overall narrative structure of Designer Maker User.

Charny was appointed content and interpretation consultant and developed the curatorial concept and the thematic strategy for the permanent Collection Display. The exhibition was curated by Alex Newson, senior curator at The Design Museum and the exhibition design is by Myerscough Studios.