Design Researchers in Residence: Solar Display

Solar brings together the work of the four 2023/24 Design Researchers in Residence. The projects featured in the display explore our changing relationships with the heat and light of the sun through multidisciplinary and collaborative work.

The thought-provoking display looks at ideas surrounding the climate emergency on the theme of ‘solar’, exploring the role of design in our relationship with the heat and light of the sun.

The display brings together the work of four researchers — April Barrett, Eliza Collin, Jamie Gatty Irving and Freya Spencer-Wood — to offer new insights on how the sun shapes our landscapes, our homes and our communication in the context of the climate emergency.

Their research takes us from the dark and wet landscapes of northern Scotland to the hot interior of an Irish data centre; it traces microscopic interactions between flowers and their pollinators, and the movement of the sun across the quiet garden extensions of the Surrey suburbs.

The Design Researchers in Residence programme is the Design Museum’s annual programme that supports a group of design-led thinkers to spend a year at the museum developing responses to the climate emergency. The programme is curated by George Kafka and forms part of the Design Museum’s Future Observatory initiative launched in partnership with AHRC, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The display – which runs from 21 June to 24 September 2024 – sees each of the 2023/24 residents reveal concepts from one year of funded research. Tasked with responding to the theme of 'solar’, each resident has explored ways in which design can influence our rapidly changing relationship with the heat and light of the sun.
 

Solar display © Henry Mills for the Design Museum