Disegno Podcasts

Rapid refits and refurbishments are a familiar phenomenon within interior architecture – beautiful, functioning interiors are torn out by brands and institutions after only a few years to clear room for new interpretations of the space that can attract fresh engagement and interest. With the ecological costs of this approach clear, however, what could be done to mitigate this environmental impact?Newness Reconfigured, a panel discussion hosted by String Furniture in partnership with Disegno, set out to answer these questions. Bringing together a panel of interior architects, the talk was hosted as a live event on 20 May as part of the 2026 Clerkenwell Design Week, and is now available to all as a Disegno Podcast.The panel discussion was created to explore the potential for modularity and adaptable systems that can change and adapt with a space, allowing for renewal without the need for wholesale replacement. Curated by Disegno, the event was developed to resonate with String’s history of developing modular storage systems – from Nisse and Kajsa Strinning’s original 1949 String System, to 2024’s Center Center system, designed by Form Us With Love.The panel was hosted at the String installation in Clerkenwell’s Old Sessions House and moderated by Johanna Agerman Ross, Disegno’s founder and the Conran Foundation Chief Curator at the Design Museum in London. The panel itself comprised interior architects Tola Ojuolape, Ab Rogers, and Lisl du Toit of Universal Design Studio, as well as String Furniture's Bo Hellberg. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A live recording of Design Stories Brussels, a panel discussion hosted at Design Museum Brussels on 23 January 2025, which explored the challenges and opportunities of curating around women in design.The panel was part of Looking Through Objects: Women in Contemporary Polish Design, a research platform exploring women’s contribution to social change through design and creative practices launched by London’s Royal College of Art and Warsaw’s SWPS University.The conversation was hosted by Disegno's editor-in-chief Oli Stratford, and featured Agnieszka Jacobson-Cielecka and Gian Luca Amadei, the curators of Looking Through Objects, as well as Nina Serulus and Marjan Sterckx, co-curators of Design Museum Brussels' exhibition Untold Stories – Women Designers in Belgium, 1880-1980.Design Stories Brussels served as a springboard for the upcoming Looking Through Objects exhibition showing at Design Museum Brussels between 9 May to 28 September 2025. The talk was a collaboration between Design Museum Brussels, Polish Institute Brussels, SWPS University and the Royal College of Art. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A live recording of How women might move design forward and engender social change through creative practice, a panel discussion recorded at the Royal College of Art in London on 19 September 2024.The panel was part of Design Stories London, a collaboration between London’s Royal College of Art and Warsaw’s SWPS University, supported by the British Council and Polish Cultural Institute London. It was hosted by Disegno's editor-in-chief Oli Stratford, and featured Alicja Bielawska, a visual artist and assistant professor at SWPS; Ewa Klekot, a professor of anthropologist with SWPS; Joyce Yee, a Professor of Design and Social Innovation at Northumbria School of Design; and Teal Triggs, a professor, historian and writer around graphic design at the Royal College of Art.This event served as a springboard for the upcoming edition of Design Stories Warsaw, scheduled for November 2025 as part of the UK/Poland Cultural Season 2025. The Warsaw edition will be part of the British Council's cultural exchange program between the UK and Poland. Design Stories is also a part of the wider Looking Through Objects project, including a touring exhibition, lecture series, talks and interviews organised in different locations across Poland, UK, Belgium and the Baltic states. This project is a collaboration between the Royal College of Art and SWPS University. It is supported by the British Council. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sound design is well established across music, film and media, although the field’s importance to product design and architecture has historically been overlooked. Yet given the central role that electrical devices play in our lives, how can the sounds they emit be tailored to make our everyday experiences more intuitive, friendly and integrated in our environment? In this episode of Where Next? Conversations with Map Project Office, host Oli Stratford is joined by Chloe Glews, Freddie Webb, Emily Candela and Joseph Zeal Henry to discuss how our understanding of creativity is shifting to become more collaborative. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How can design connect to nature? At January's 2024 edition of Maison&Objet, Disegno created a pair of podcasts, recorded live from the heart of the fair, to interrogate this question. The first episode sees the journal's editor-in-chief, Oli Stratford, speak with Mathieu Lehanneur about Outonomy, an installation Lehanneur created as the fair's Designer of the Year. Lehanneur reflects on how his vivid yellow pavilion brings into question the binary ways we approach technology and nature, and instead encourages us to blur the lines between these two spheres. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The built environment is rarely designed with physical, cognitive or intellectual disabilities in mind, leaving our cities difficult to navigate, unwelcoming, and potentially dangerous for large parts of the population. So what can be done to make moving around more inclusive for everyone? In the final episode of season one of Re-routing the City, host India Block invites guests Dom Hymas and Ruth Ross-Macdonald to discuss how new navigation technologies can create opportunities to improve and prioritise safe and comfortable mobility for all. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In the second episode of Re-routing the City host India Block is joined by Tim Fendley and Julia Thrift to discuss the ways in which different road users occupy public space. The conversation ranges from the positive impacts that well-designed roads can have on health, to the need for governments to take more holistic, long-term approaches to creating safe and comfortable cities for all. Can pedestrians, cyclists, cars, scooters and others co-exist in urban spaces harmoniously? How do modern wayfinding systems such as Legible London deter vandalism? And do we need a new code of conduct to ensure everybody can enjoy and use these spaces safely? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Disegno podcast, Fien Muller and Hannes Van Severen of Belgian design studio Muller van Severen are interviewed about their Oasis installation for the upcoming Maison&Objet trade fair – a cocoon-like pavilion designed to offer visitors to the fair a moment of peace and respite. Oasis is conceived of as a total composition, not an exhibition, and will be filled with Muller Van Severen’s past projects as well as new objects and works – presenting them all together as a family. Oasis is a celebration of over a decade of the studio’s work, which frequently challenges object typologies and functions.This podcast was made for Maison&Objet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this fifth instalment of Where Next? Conversations with Map Project Office, host Oli Stratford is joined by Laura Lebeau, Soomi Park, Zoe Schladow, and Bas van de Poel to ask how technology can be more sensitively embedded into people’s homes and whether it should be. While many examples of ambient technology are austere and built around black screens, the introduction of more playful physical forms, figurative details, and emotional software suggests routes that might help establish these devices in our everyday lives. Can making friends with tech products give them more longevity, and what are the ethical complexities around privacy and trust that designers of less obtrusive tech might have to consider? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this third instalment of Where Next? Conversations with Map Project Office, host Oli Stratford is joined by Natsai Audrey Chieza, Afaina de Jong, Nick Rolls and George Garner to discuss the shifting roles of designers, and to ask whether the discipline is done with stuff. With a rise in digital products and services, new social and commercial models, and dynamic shifts in how we live and work, how is design responding? Studios are now being called upon to design everything from a company’s systems and workflows, through to developing strategies for clients that prioritise creativity. In response to these changes, how has the role of “the designer” evolved and remained relevant to businesses? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this Disegno podcast, the journal’s editor-in-chief Oli Stratford speaks with architect Cristina Celestino about the ideas infusing her Palais Exotique installation for the upcoming Maison&Objet. The pavilion has been erected at the heart of the fair and will provide a space dedicated to decoration and colour, traits traditionally prized within fashion design that frequently face a more muted response within architecture. Celestino sets out her case for Palais Exotique as an unashamedly tactile area where traditional craft will be pushed to the forefront.This podcast was made for Maison&Objet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Imagining what the offices of the future may look like has become a ubiquitous topic within design given the disruption of the past two years. Yet when Maison&Objet put this question to the architect Franklin Azzi for its spring 2022 edition, Azzi felt that he wanted to take inspiration from the history of the office in formulating his response.In this Disegno podcast, Disegno's deputy editor India Block speaks to Azzi about "Retro Futur", his new installation for Maison&Objet. Speaking from his Paris-based studio, Azzi discusses building flexibility, crisis design and what a good office should smell like. Over the course of the conversation, Azzi speaks about where offices have been and where they may be going next.This podcast was made for Maison et Objet.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to the forest is the first episode of Words on Wood, a new podcast from AHEC made in collaboration with Disegno. Offering a deep dive into some of the big issues surrounding forests and how these affect design and architecture, you can listen to the whole series by subscribing to Words on Wood, available on all major podcast platforms. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.