Tomorrow the Design Museum opens Artificial, a thought-provoking new display showcasing innovative responses to the climate crisis. Presented by Future Observatory in partnership with the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the free display explores the perceived boundary between what is ‘natural’ and what is made by humans, finding that the two are in fact intricately intertwined.
On show from 17 June to 21 September 2025, the featured works emerge from the Design Museum’s Design Researchers in Residence programme – a long-standing annual residency that supports emerging designers who respond to a chosen theme.
The 2024/25 residents – Christie Swallow, Hani Salih, Laura Lebeau and Neba Sere – have spent the past eight months exploring the theme of Artificial and questioning the limits of human-centred design in a more-than-human climate crisis. Their work interrogates the artificial relationships woven into everyday life – from urban ecosystems and manufactured materials to institutional knowledge and political infrastructures – and explores the ways in which design can help us imagine a future rooted in care, collaboration and coexistence.
Christie Swallow invites us to convene with the parakeets in St James’s Park – a thriving but controversial community of non-native birds roosting in the manicured, man-made green spaces of London. Meanwhile Hani Salih draws us into the layered bureaucratic complexities behind the seemingly straightforward task of installing a heat pump in a British building. Laura Lebeau dismantles ideas about what “things” are made of, tracing the environmental impact of mass-produced domestic appliances. And finally, Neba Sere opens a space to decolonise our understanding of plants by sitting with the emotional and sensorial legacies of displacement, commodification and extraction.
Designed by Kaye Song, with elements fabricated by Flimsy Works, the display focuses on circularity and the use of sustainable materials. It is accompanied by a dedicated limited-edition publication, designed by Émilie Loiseleur and edited by Abbie Adams and Leilah Hirson-Comley, which expands on the residents’ research. Free copies will be available at the museum and a digital version can be downloaded from Future Observatory’s online library.
Justin McGuirk, Future Observatory director says: “As ever, the Design Researchers in Residence make us view the world with fresh eyes. This year they reveal the complexity behind such everyday things as hoovers, heat pumps, parakeets and the food we eat. Each is shown to be a fault line challenging our perceptions of what is natural and what is artificial.”
Abbie Adams, Future Observatory curator says: “This year’s residents unravel the systems and values that shape how and what we design. Through stitching, mapping, repair and co-creation, they guide us from a factory floor in Somerset to a church in London’s White City estate; inviting you to listen to the voices of plants and convene with parakeets. In doing so, they examine the artificial relationships at the root of ecological collapse.”
Tim Marlow, Director of the Design Museum, says: “Design can play a pivotal role in how we approach the ongoing climate crisis, and our next generation of emerging designers and creatives have the power to transform our relationship with the Earth, designing in collaboration with and alongside the natural world, not against it. I hope the work of our Design Researchers in Residence leaves people feeling inspired but more importantly asking questions and considering the ways in which we interact with the natural world in our everyday lives.”
There will be a free tour of the display with curator Abbie Adams on Thursday 19 June 2025,1 – 2pm, as well as a panel discussion with the four Design Researchers in Residence in the museum’s auditorium on 20 September 2025.