Vibrant and inclusive

Tyne Design Week invites design thinkers, practitioners, businesses, educators, students and communities, to take part in shaping a vibrant and inclusive design future.

Newcastle University is one of four leading partners in the five day event, along with Edge Innovation, the North East Combined Authority and Northumbria University.

The University is hosting a series of events across campus.

It kicks off with a chance to take real-world frustrations, like fiddly packaging, inaccessible interfaces, or unintuitive design, and reimagine them as inclusive, joyful, and age-friendly solutions. Redesigning Infuriating Objects – Product Design Challenge, will take place at the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA) at The Catalyst, Newcastle Helix, on Monday at 1pm.

On Tuesday, attendees to Building Bridges in the Stephenson Building’s Dr Alan Reece makerspace, will have the chance to recreate Newcastle ‘s iconic bridges using laser cutters and use compression test machines to see how much force they can stand.

Rise and Design: Designing a Just Transition Towards Net Zero takes place at The Core, Newcastle Helix, at 9.30am on Wednesday. Ian Head, Professor of Environmental Microbiology in Newcastle University’s School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, is taking part The workshop will bring together leading researchers and creatives to address the challenges of achieving regional decarbonisation and highlight funding opportunities for future collaborative efforts.

Our talented students take the spotlight at 2pm on Wednesday, with a guided tour of the Architecture, Planning and Landscape Degree Show. Visitors will be able to see design proposals that explore innovative solutions to urgent social and environmental challenges, including buildings grown from bio-materials, landscapes that restore biodiversity, and spaces that bring together communities, cultures and generations.

An exclusive preview of the Farrell Centre’s new exhibtion Ideal City takes place at 10am  on Thursday. Ideal City explores what each of us most values about where we live, what we would like to change and what we should be aspiring to. What, in short, is an ideal city, who gets to decide, and how can we make a city that works for everyone?

Where innovation happens

Estelle Blanks, Director of Business Development and Enterprise, said: “Tyne Design Week is a brilliant opportunity to showcase design at Newcastle University, and the places around our campus where innovation happens.

“Newcastle University uses design and design thinking as a human-centred and highly collaborative approach to problem solving. There’s always an element of design in the things we do here – because we work on new and original research, and train designers and thinkers of the future. This helps us ensure Newcastle University continues to be an engine for inclusive social and economic growth”

Tyne Design Week runs from 23 to 27 June. You can find our more here: https://www.ed-ge.uk/tyne-design-week