Transition Design as an emerging framework proposes collaborative design-led practices as a vehicle to create new narratives and approaches needed to address complex (‘wicked’) problems and transitions towards more sustainable futures.It has been developed and used with Traditional Ecological Knowledge Systems (TEK) found in indigenous and local communities to re-design visions of their own development and systemic change. However, there is little evidence of its application in the context of forced displaced populations.
Our interest was to explore how transition design informs co-creating processes of new, much needed, narratives about urban refugee management, that would support a shift from the focus of “what refugees lack” towards “what refugees bring”.
Project Objectives
To create the Refugee Transition Network (RTN) with relevant academic and non-academic partners, such as researchers, stakeholders, practitioners, observers, and refugee-led organisations. Through the network, we intend to further reinforce relations, create memorandum of understanding, and assemble a steering group with relevant partners for future research projects.
To gather cases of good practice and successful methods in the use of Transition Design and the ‘City as Commons’ in the context of urban refugee management to create a bilingual (English and Bahasa) teaching resource.
To gather initial insights from creative workshops applying the Transition Design framework with practitioners and communities of refugees, in the UK and Indonesia.
Project Activites
Our work was presented at the The 20th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Conference (IASFM20) at Yogyakarta,2025 where we chaired a the track “Creative and Designerly Methods”.
Upcoming: Refugee Transition Network is releasing a pedagogical methods book entitled Pluriversal Ways of Knowing: A Methods Book: Creatives ways to make communities for transition, to be published in 2025.
Lead by: Malé Luján Escalante, in collaboration with Supra Systems Studio and UAL:LCC Design School
The Future of Money Award has run for over a decade, exploring different facets of design, money, and speculative thinking. In 2022, it was hosted by Supra Systems Studio, in collaboration with the Design School at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London.
Every week seems to bring a new plan to reinvent money. These plans are hyped as revolutionary: they promise to liberate us from inequality, disrupt global finance, and bring down outdated institutions. These new monetary systems are designed from the ground up with fresh inbuilt logics to support their imagined use. Seductively shiny, they ask us not to look too closely at what their long-term implications are.
But the existing world of money isn’t going anywhere. State currency is still real. Bitcoin is still valued in US dollars, and folding paper cash still exists. Money is a public infrastructure and common language – it only has value because we have a shared sense of its meaning. If we want to change the world, we must start with what’s here right now, and think about how the system really works.
Instead of solving it by stacking new breakage on old, can creative practice challenge how existing financial systems work?
The Future of Money design competition invited people to use future-oriented creative methods and create a project which makes a change to an existing financial system, considering how this system operates, and why, and designing a modification to the system, its’ communication, or how it is distributed.
The Futre of Money 2022, Award Winners
Memoirs to keep
Yashwanthi Balamurugan Sumithra, Xi Zhang, Syeda Madiha Hussain, & Yini Zheng, MA Service Design, UAL:LCC
Failed Economies
Angela Rodríguez, Andrea Miranda, María Gabriela Sulbarán, Karl Gavidia, Jeiver Gavidia, Graphic Design, Universidad de los Andes, Venezuela.
Financial Transaction Markup Language
Martin Disley, Chris Elsden, Chris Speed, Institute for Design Informatics, University of Edinburgh
Fanoo Child Banking
Carmen Diaz, Zhiyu Lin, David Povilaika, & Julia Yu , BA (Hons)Design Management, UAL:LCC
Pay Delay
Omair Malik BA (Hons) User Experience, UAL:LCC.
Green Uni
Pam Chen, BA (Hons) Design for Art Direction, UAL:LCC
CBDCS for SDGS
Glenn Sæstad, MA Strategic Design, Oslo School of Architecture and Design
___, in Excess
Astrid Chung and Benedetta Scollo, BA (Hons) Design for Art Direction, UAL: LCC and Aldo Heubel, BA (Hons) Crossmedia Design at ArtEZ University of the Arts
Hidden Value in the Information Age
Haipeng Yan, Hanli Zhang, MA Data Visualization, UAL:LCC and MsC Data Science & AI for Creative Industry, UAL:CCI
Public Program
To complement the competition, we have curated a public online program of lectures and creative futures workshops,. Videos for the lectures are available in the links below. Attending the public program is not a requirement for submission, but it will help to situate your work within the design discussions.
If you’ve participated in the program, we’d love to hear your feedback about it here.
‘Financial Instruments’ – DMSTFCTN. In this lecture, DMSTFCTN will explore opaque financial practices and discuss their evolving artistic approaches to money and its systems. Video available here.
‘Selling Stories’ – Oliver Smith (DMSTFCTN) and Marion Lagedamont (UAL) This workshop explores the use of storytelling as a way to reframe our approaches to the future of money, revealing its infrastructures and hidden systems.
‘Counting Things That Money Doesn’t Count’ – Diana Finch, Bristol Pound, in conversation with Dr. Nigel Dodd (LSE) and Charlie Waterhouse (Extinction Rebellion) A conversation exploring the history and development of Bristol Pound and the role of communities in shaping the future of money. Video available here.
‘Dancing About Money’ – Alaistair Steele (UAL) and Dr. John Fass (UAL)What are the opportunities and pit-falls, for people and planet, of current and imminent changes in the forms money takes?
‘Participatory Futures’ – Laurie Smith, Head of Foresight Research (NESTA).As the world struggles with increased complexity and uncertainty, this lecture explores how NESTA uses contemporary methods which can allow us to collectively imagine alternative, democratic and inclusive futures. Video available here.
‘Money for Mars’ – Scott Smith (Changeist) & John Willshire (Smithery) Humans are on the edge of living in space full-time, but we have little recent concrete speculation about the new financial instruments and products that may emerge, especially considering how time, connection and needs change radically off-Earth. This workshop explores how to develop speculative financial products for New Space economies.
‘Indigenous Futures’ – Felipe ViverosThis lecture will explore some of the key ideas and guiding principles behind global projects exploring new economic paradigms, from UBI to gross national happiness in Bhutan, presenting a general overview of how these new policies are working on the ground. Video available here.
‘Failed Economies’ – University of Andes ULA & IsITEthical? ExchangeThis workshopexplores the realities of being a creative in a country where money has failed.
‘Reimagining the purpose of tax for a climate and biological emergency’ – Becky Miller This lecture introducing a speculative tax system in order to investigate the use of design artefacts in facilitating conversations with financial and climate futures. Video available here.
“When Money Talks Back” – Ruben Pater (Untold Stories)This workshop explores of the power dynamics behind the visual representations of money in many of its forms, and an invitation to use graphic design to open a line of communication allowing these representations of money to “talk back”.
Co-Lead by: Malé Luján Escalante and Ella Britton, UAL:LCC Design School
A UAL collaboration between LCC: MA Service Design and LCC: MA Design for Social Innovation and Sustainable Futures in partnership with Inner Development Goals Network, London Community and Kiranjot, consulting on spiritual and embodiment dimensions. Inspired by Utopia as Method, this brief invites Masters students to form collaborations with more-than-human systems and co-create tangible new design tools that:
1) Challenge design-thinking conventions.
2) Enhance/Mobilise/Activate IDG framework with an emphasis on nature engagement, spiritual connection and pluriversal—rather than universal—approaches.
These are tools that invite the spiritual, political, pleasurable, embodied, and material futures. These will be useful and convivial tools to support the changemaker’s inner work in the context of degrowth and will be tested and exhibited within the IDGN community (and beyond!)
Practice is informed by the following bodies of work:
Utopia as Method
Prefigurative Futures
Pluriversal Approach: thinking-feeling with the bodies
Dr Meirina Triharini (ITB:DeLab), Dr Chris Mortimer (Lancaster University) and Dr Malé Luján Escalante (LCC:UAL)
Dr Meirina Triharini (ITB:DeLab), Dr Chris Mortimer (Lancaster University) and Dr Malé Luján Escalante are co-chairing a track entitled “Approaching Displacement with Creative and Designerly Methods” in which many of the projects from students across the institutions will be presenting their work in the context of the 20th International Association for the Study of Forced Migration Conference (IASFM20) – Forced Displacement in an Urbanizing World Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 21-23 January 2025.
The co-chairs use the opportunity of brought together a cross-disciplinary network of scholars in their own institutions across their countries, to invite them to the conference and catalyse futures collaborations. The proceedings of the track will be published as part of special edition of the same name with Global Discourse (Bristol University Press) in 2026.
I am always passionate about designing for and with vulnerable or marginalized groups. I am grateful for the opportunity with the Transition Living Lab to co-create a training program for the displaced people. It has been an inspiring journey for me to explore how service design approaches complex social needs through the Systemic Design Framework. Designing with care for vulnerable groups with appropriate topic, language and materials has been an invaluable reflection on the role of service design, and its strengths and limitations.
This experience has fueled me to embark on my final major project with the Ealing Council addressing the challenges faced by rough sleepers with No Recourse Public Funds around Havelock Estate in Southall. The project aims to explore upskilling through volunteering opportunities for rough sleepers so that they can work on their personal development and mitigate the challenges they are facing. The service idea is going to be tested with Hope for Southall Street Homeless and the Bixley Community Garden Southall. I anticipate the idea can be transferred to newly accommodated individuals or people with addiction who need support in establishing healthy routine. A handbook on how service designers can approach complex social needs will also be delivered.
Working on Transition Living Lab for me was an exploration in Pluriversal Design. The project we worked on demanded an acceptance of many worlds, realities, ways of being and knowing to be taken into consideration as a core thought upon which the foundation for our workshops were laid.
For me this way of thought became the rabbit hole that is now shaping my understanding and perception of the world around me; the past present and future of it. Facilitating the Dance for pluriverse workshop where we used dance to express the ethos of a community, was one of the many cascading moments that began re-shaping my way of knowing and knowledge, beyond my frustrations with the colonized worldview I grew up with.
The thought lead me to unravelling the influence colonization (and therefore universalisation) had had on knowledge from the colonized (and other universalized) regions. The theory of pluriversality defined my exploration of decolonial thought within the context of knowledge, more specifically traditional ecological knowledge for my MA Service Design, Final Major project at UAL.
My methodology was based on recognition, realisation and contextualisation as steps towards decolonization. My approach has involved questioning my definition of decolonisation, what is accepted as knowledge, the ways of communicating knowledge across cultures and generations, and lastly the idea of knowledge ownership through the lens of analysing language and terminologies.
To understand and express the effects if colonisation on traditional ecological knowledge, I am focusing on a small community of honey collector from the ecological rich and volatile Bali Island in the Sundarbans (The largest mangrove forest in the world). The cultural practices in harmony with their environment and colonial influence made them the ideal subculture to help navigate the complex structure of their knowledge development, its communication, and interpretation by them as well as the universalized researchers.
Transition Living Lab was my first learning to approaching communities through pluriversal thinking, and it has now made pluriversal living my definition of decolonial action.
Transition Living Lab students at ITB:DeLab, Bandung, organised an exhibition to present, discuss and reflect on the projects.
Design Practice Across Borders was a transdisciplinary event series that aims to explore how design can empower youth communities across borders to become changemakers within their own communities. The series features an Exhibition, a Talkshow, and a Mini Workshop, showcasing the collaborative efforts of refugees and designers. Together, they reimagine both idealistic and practical solutions for future challenges, integrating diverse perspectives.
A key aspect of the event is the application of systemic design, which recognizes the interconnection of design decisions within larger systems. This approach emphasizes understanding how individual choices impact broader contexts, leading to more adaptive and inclusive solutions.
Visitors will have the opportunity to reflect on how cross-border design can address broader societal issues, such as intersectionality and city development. By engaging with these themes, this event highlights innovative ways which refugee youth contribute to redefine global systems and fostering a more inclusive future.
Francesco Mazzarella, UAL:LCF Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Malé Luján Escalante, UAL:LCC Design School
Transition Living Lab organised, supported and was celebrated in the framework of the public Symposium chaired by Dr Francesco Mazzarella, celebrated on the 25th of July 2024, and part of the cultural program of the Shifting Narratives Exhibition at the Barbican Library.
The event count with an excellent panel that reunited academics, artists, practitioners from community organisation, local government representative, national and international NGO’s activists and regufee project participants:
Carole Morrison (UAL:LCF Head of Social Purpose in the Curriculum), Alisa Ruzavina (UAL:LCF), Tabitha Ross (Makini), Dr Malé Luján Escalante (UAL:LCC MA Service Design) , Zeej Alhajji (Project Participant), Ciara Barry (Fashion Revolution), Froi Legaspi (Citizens UK), Dr Azadeh Fatehrad (Stories Intertwined : Artistic Dialogue of Community, Migration & Integration), Ben Monro (I speak football), Katherine Duran (Project Participant), and a spoken word performance by Toyin Gbomedo (PhD Candidate at the UAL:LCF Centre for Sustainable Fashion).
Francesco Mazzarella, Camilla Palestra, UAL:LCF, Centre for Sustainable Fashion
The Transition Living Lab project was presented at the Learning Section of the Shifting Narratives Exhibition (05 -29 July, 2024) at the Barbican Library, London.
The Learning section of the exhibition presents projects of MA students from the four partner institutions, celebrating how their work contribute to shifting prevailing narratives of refugees, discussing how the socio-cultural practices of the youth participants in London, Bandung and Yogyakarta, can play a crucial role in shaping the diverse social fabric of a place, whilst building resilient communities and fostering cultural sustainability.
Two teams from UAL:LCC MA Service Design test their methodologies among researchers and general public in the context of the Shifting Narratives Exhibition at the Barbican Library, on the 6th of July, 2024. In a full day of playful public engagement, students facilitate, networked and received feedback, what was a valuable opportunity for students. The agenda for the day included: ‘Nature Explores’ Workshop, ‘Stories through Food’ Workshop, which practice skills of design exploration, storytelling and relational leadership for changemaking and transition actions.
Chris Mortimer, Management School, Lancaster University
Dr Chris Mortimer, is an experienced academic leader teaching and researching in the Management School of Lancaster University with a history of working in the higher education industry in the UK and in China. Her specialist teaching areas are Organisational Behaviour within the international arena. This workshop will explore the role of transition design in understanding the complex relationships between individual actors, the systems in which they are located as an innovative response to social exclusion as social innovation.
