Discover Learning Through Design

This Shoreditch Design Week, Old Spitalfields Market plays host to  pop-ups including Learning Through Design, a week-long programme of free talks, workshops, exhibit, and conversation.

We spoke to curator lottie Mac to find out what visitors to this free drop-in event can expect.

 

What was the inspiration behind Learning Through Design?

Learning Through Design came from thinking about how we can create more accessible and alternative forms of education within the design world. A lot of creative education can feel quite institutional or inaccessible, so I wanted to create a programme that feels open, informal and genuinely accessible to people at different stages of their creative practice. It’s about learning through doing, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities to meet, make and ask questions outside of traditional educational structures.

What can people expect from the programme?

A mix of exhibitions, talks, workshops and open conversations, bringing together designers, makers, researchers and creative practitioners. There’s a real focus on material experimentation, making, creative careers and different ways of learning. The exhibition brings together a group of practitioners whose work spans different materials, approaches and disciplines, so there’s lots to discover.

Do you have a personal highlight you are looking forward to?

I’m really looking forward to seeing everything come together in the space. It’s been a very collaborative process, so seeing all of the different practices sitting alongside one another  across the week will be really exciting. I’m also looking forward to the conversations that happen organically throughout the week, which is really at the heart of the programme for me.

What else are you excited about seeing this London Design Week?

There’s so much happening this year, but I’m particularly looking forward to Sláncha’s show, Hanging Baskets at Awaykin, Design Everything, dE x Aram’s With Limitations, and All Ears at VILLAGE MEETING! There’s such a broad range of approaches to design across the week, so I’m really excited to get out and see what other people are making and thinking about.

Why is Old Spitalfields Market the right spot for this pop-up?

I love that it’s a space with such a strong history of exchange, making and gathering, but also somewhere that has so many different people passing through every day. It feels very fitting for a programme centred around accessibility and bringing design education outside of traditional institutions. The pop-up format also allows us to create something temporary and open that people can just walk into, explore and engage with.

It also feels like a real full-circle moment for me personally. During my foundation year, around 7 years ago, when I was studying 3D and Spatial Design, Spitalfields Market was the first architectural model I ever made. I spent a lot of time researching the history of the market and its relationship to making, trade and the local community, so to now be bringing my own design education programme into the space feels quite surreal and really special.

Learning Through Design is at 107B Commercial Street from 15th – 20th September.

Discover the full programme here.

@learningthroughdesign | learningthroughdesign.cargo.site
@lottiemac98 | lottiemac.com