Interrupting Design: Conversations design was, is and should be having.
Panelists will share their perspectives about what design is and where it is headed and then reflect, discuss and provocate each other and the audience on how design practice, research and education can and should evolve in the times of flux.


The event is free, but requires registration.
Today, the study and practice of design are in great flux. Shifts, such as socio-economic transformation, pressure to transition economies and processes to fit the planetary limits and democratization of design so that ‘everyone designs,’ challenge norms, practices and communities in design. Design seems to be ever-expanding, ever-challenged, ever-evolving.
Deviating from the typical Design Interrupted format, this panel discussion brings together professors from the Department of Design, Aalto University, to discuss, share ideas, ask hard-hitting questions and provoke each other and the audience.
Agenda:
17:00 Opening words
17:10 Presentations & panel discussions
18:50 Closing words
19:00 Event ends
Panelists & Hosts:
Guy Julier, Professor in Design Leadership
Julia Lohmann, Associate Professor in Contemporary Design
Kirsi Niinimäki, Professor in Design, especially fashion Research
Simo Puintila, Lecturer in Design
Tuuli Mattelmäki, Associate Professor in Design
Pirjo Kääriäinen, Associate Professor of Design and Materialities
Panelists & Hosts
Dr. Kirsi Niinimäki, Professor in Design, especially fashion Research
Kirsi Niinimäki is a leading scholar in the field of sustainable fashion. She is a Professor at Aalto University, where she leads a research group, Fashion/Textile FUTURES. The research done in this group integrates closed loop, bio-economy, and circular economy approaches in fashion and textile systems and extends the understanding of strategic sustainable design. In the year 2022, Niinimäki was awarded the State’s Design Award for her international and impactful research work.
Dr. Guy Julier, Professor of Design Leadership
Guy Julier is a Professor of Design Leadership at Aalto University, Finland. He is the author of several books, including The Culture of Design (3rd rev ed 2014) and Economies of Design (2017) and co-editor of Design and Creativity: Policy, Management and Practice (2009) and Design Culture: Objects and Approaches (2019). His past research has focused on design and political transitions in Spain and Hungary, after which he turned his attention to developing design culture studies as a disciplinary specialism. Concurrently, he has been involved in design for social change and design activism as a curator and practitioner. Before moving to Finland, he was London’s Victoria and Albert Museum Professor of Design Culture, where he ran a public programme engaging academia, the museum, and the creative industries around contemporary design issues. Previously he was Professor of Design at Leeds Metropolitan University, where he founded DesignLeeds a research and consultancy unit concerned with sustainability and design-led regeneration.
Dr. Julia Lohmann, Associate Professor in Contemporary Design
German-born designer and researcher Julia Lohmann investigates and critiques the ethical and material value systems underpinning our relationship with flora and fauna. She is Associate Professor of Contemporary Design at Aalto University. Julia studied at the Royal College of Art, where she has also taught and completed an AHRC-funded collaborative PhD scholarship between the RCA and the Victoria & Albert Museum. As designer in residence at the V&A in 2013, she founded the Department of Seaweed, an interdisciplinary community of practice exploring the sustainable development of seaweed as a design material. Julia Lohmann’s work is part of major public and private collections worldwide and has received awards, bursaries and support from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, the British Council, Jerwood Contemporary Makers, D&AD, Stanley Picker Gallery, Arts Foundation, Wellcome Trust and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum.
Simo Puintila, Lecturer in Design
Simo Puintila is an industrial designer and lecturer specializing in industrial design, with a strong focus on product design, aesthetics, and materiality. He is deeply interested in the relationship between products, spaces, and architecture, exploring how design can create meaningful and visually cohesive environments. Beyond form and function, Simo is passionate about addressing broader global issues such as ecology, the balance between nature and urban development, and the future of transportation. His work and teaching emphasize the role of design in shaping sustainable, thoughtful, and human-centered solutions. Drawing from both academic and practical experience, he encourages students to approach design holistically, considering its impact on both individuals and the planet. Constantly exploring new materials and innovative approaches, He seeks to push the boundaries of design, ensuring it remains relevant in an ever-changing world.
Dr. Tuuli Mattelmäki, Professor of Design
Tuuli Mattelmäki is an expert in co-design and service design. She is a tenured associate professor at Aalto University and is the former head of the Department of Design. The starting point for her research has been in empathic and explorative approaches to human-centered design. She is interested in the public sector and service design-related questions and, more recently, in creative practices and transformational futures.
Pirjo Kääriäinen, Associate Professor of Design and Materialities
Pirjo Kääriäinen is an Associate Professor of Design and Materialities at The School of Arts, Design and Architecture (ARTS). I joined the University in 2008, and since 2011 she has been facilitating interdisciplinary CHEMARTS collaboration between ARTS and the School of Chemical Engineering (CHEM), together with a cross-disciplinary team. CHEMARTS is aiming to inspire students and researchers to explore biomaterials together, and to create new concepts for the sustainable use of plant-based materials. Before her career in academia, Pirjo worked for eighteen years for the Scandinavian textile industry, and gained experience also as an entrepreneur and consultant for creative industries.
About the talk series:
Design Interrupted
Conversations for a 21st Century World
Today, the study and practice of design are in great flux. We are amidst the biggest socio-economic transformation since the 1750s, experiencing the fifth Industrial Revolution. There is a growing pressure to transition economies driven by extractive, wasteful and polluting logics towards systems designed to fit the planetary limits. Such transformation requires the design of new types of products and services, as well as new systems and approaches to large-scale changes.
At the same time, design as a practice area is also changing. It is shifting away from a more rigidly defined practice of professionally trained designers creating graphics, objects and spaces towards a practice that is loosely defined, fuzzy and seemingly omnipresent. Many have been calling for democratizing design and recognizing the efforts of non-professional designers. Design thinking, methods and practices have entered many contexts, including governance, jurisprudence, sciences and activism. The design community has been grappling with the ever-expanding definitions of what design is and who a designer is.
This talk series invites design professionals, students, academics and anyone interested in these challenges to a series of conversations. Each event features a scene-setting lecture by a leading practitioner and thinker followed by open discussion. Three themes give focus to the series: digital, societal and material transformations. What is design’s role in these transformations? How do we generate new know-how to support the needed transitions, and what examples already exist that we can learn from? What stands in the way of progress towards equitable, diverse, and sustainable lives, and what is the role of design in removing such blockages? What are design and designers in this new context?
Department of Design at Aalto University invites you to join our conversations to explore what design is, can and should be in the 21st Century.