Artificial brings together the work of the 2024/25 cohort of Design Researchers in Residence.
The projects featured in the display examine the perceived boundaries separating what is ‘natural’ and what has been created by humans, finding that the two are in fact intricately intertwined.
Showcasing a range of research practices, the display begins to unravel the invisible relationships woven into everyday life – including urban ecosystems, manufactured materials, political infrastructures and institutional knowledge. Visitors are invited to follow the lines of enquiry and ask what is natural and what is artificial? What is a fact and what is a fiction?
The 2024/25 Design Researchers in Residence are Christie Swallow, Hani Salih, Laura Lebeau and Neba Sere.
Christie Swallow
Christie is an artist and designer who crafts new stories from old ideas. Their work engages with how the Anthropocene’s configuration of humans and non-humans produced our present planetary crisis. With a background in architecture, their practice engages with ecology, technoscience and heterodoxy through methods of counter-mapping. Christie has previously undertaken residencies at the European Commission, the University of Birmingham and Hanger CIA. They were the 2020 recipient of the RIBA Boyd Auger Award and previously studied at The University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art.
Hani Salih
Hani is a Researcher, Writer and Curator who works at the edge of a long list of disciplines, practices, and ideas, connecting the dots. Hani’s interests are informed by a foundation in critical spatial thinking and a background in architecture, further refined by studies at the London School of Economics that led to his interest in systems and the infrastructure that shapes our lives. Hani is a curator and moderator at DeDépendance in Rotterdam and was formerly Co-Curator of the International Architecture Biennial in Rotterdam (2024) and Senior Researcher at The Quality of Life Foundation.
Laura Lebeau
Laura is an industrial designer working across objects, tech and speculative design. Her work focuses on imagining radical sustainability strategies to define the future of consumer electronics, as well as experimenting beyond the expected aesthetic codes of technology. Laura has a Master’s degree in Industrial Design from the Strate, School of Design. She spent five years at Map Project Office and is currently a Senior Designer at BLOND where she collaborates with some of the most innovative and well-known companies in the world.
Neba Sere
Neba is a spatial practitioner advocating for diversity and inclusion in the architecture profession. She is an associate professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, where her research focuses on decolonisation and decarbonisation. Neba co-leads decosm Collective with Umi Lovecraft and is the Director of Black Females in Architecture. Her previous roles include Senior Project Officer with the Greater London Authority's Regeneration Team and leading youth projects at Build Up Foundation, where she is now a Trustee.
Design Researchers in Residence is Future Observatory’s programme for design researchers, hosted at the Design Museum. The residency supports thinkers at the start of their careers to spend a year developing a new research project in response to a theme. Design Researchers in Residence builds upon the Design Museum’s distinguished Designers in Residence programme that ran from 2007 to 2020.
