Presentation Schedule
Design Unbound: Expanding the Frontiers of Design
Saturday, 9 May 2026 10:40
Session: Conference Plenary Session
Room: Hall B5
Presentation Type: Keynote Presentation
What is design today? Once primarily concerned with shaping products, design has steadily expanded its scope from objects to services, from services to systems, and increasingly into the realms of policy, society, and complex global challenges. As the world itself has become more interconnected and uncertain, design has evolved from a form-giving discipline into a way of thinking and acting: a means of navigating complexity, creating value, and turning intent into impact.
This keynote begins by exploring this evolution of design by tracing how its scope and role have expanded over time, using this as a foundation to reflect on a personal journey in design education and practice. From early experiences in industrial and product design, through interdisciplinary programmes such as Innovation Design Engineering, to leading initiatives that bring design into dialogue with science, technology, and society, a recurring question emerges: if design itself has moved beyond traditional boundaries, what should design education become?
The talk then introduces the development of the new UTokyo College of Design, initiated by President Fujii’s recognition that universities must rethink their role in a rapidly changing world. Rather than positioning design as a discipline among others, the College is conceived as a bridge between fields, between ideas and action, and between the university and society, enabling students to engage meaningfully with complex, real-world challenges.
Within this context, the concept of paradisciplinarity is briefly introduced as a way of understanding how disciplines can be both respected and transcended not as fixed structures, but as resources to be drawn upon in addressing complex problems. Rather than presenting a fixed model, this keynote reflects on an ongoing process: expanding the boundaries of design, and exploring how education itself might be redesigned to support new forms of thinking, learning, and societal transformation.
Speaker Biography
Miles Pennington
Miles Pennington is Professor of Design-Led Innovation at the University of Tokyo, Japan. He is the prospective Dean of the UTokyo College of Design, a new interdisciplinary programme focused on addressing complex societal challenges through design due to open in September 2027. He is also Director of the DLX Design Lab, an international and multidisciplinary lab that collaborates with researchers across the university to create value through design. Professor Pennington’s projects have included work on low-cost ocean monitoring, bio-intelligent systems, innovative healthcare devices, and explorations into metamaterials and coral conservation. Prior to joining The University of Tokyo in 2017, he led the Innovation Design Engineering (IDE) programme at the Royal College of Art, United Kingdom, a joint Master’s programme with Imperial College London, United Kingdom. He is an alumnus of IDE, graduating in 1992, and was also the founder and Head of the university’s Global Innovation Design (GID) programme. In addition to his core roles, he was a Director of Takram, London, an innovation consultancy with its headquarters in Tokyo, until 2017. He is currently Co-Director of the DLX Design Academy and has served as Specially Appointed Advisor to the President on Design Vision since April 2023.
About the Presenter(s)
Miles Pennington is Professor of Design-Led Innovation at the University of Tokyo, Japan.
See this presentation on the full schedule – Saturday Schedule
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