Designing with care requires more empathy in the design process to sense the emotional needs and conditions of others. Designing with empathy requires awareness and sensitivity. Empathy builds trust; it engages stakeholders, and it leads to better outcomes. The design sector demonstrates that it cares by contributing to emergency responses to bushfires and COVID-19 from adapting supply chains and production lines to creating designs geared towards the public good. The events of 2020 have highlighted the need for greater care, from the design of the healthcare system to the broader world of products and services that could shape a more empathetic future.

A design community is one that creates together: sharing resources, collaborating across disciplines, disseminating knowledge and embracing new cultures across geographies and generations. As much as the community is bound by the objects, materials and techniques it uses, designers also form communities through social, cultural and economic values. From gaming to craft, from communications to landscape architecture, design brings us all together. What are connections we need to be making and conversations we need to be having right now?

Mediating the effects of climate change is the design challenge of this generation. An increase in the intensity of natural weather events, including floods, storms, bushfires and drought, may lead to further conflict and socio-economic inequality. How can designers best intervene in this space, to collaborate across businesses and disciplines with wild creativity? This focus continues Melbourne Design Week’s previous exploration of waste, supply chains, manufacturing, materials and speculative design proposals. The problems of climate change are not going away; but, accepting human activity has reshaped the environment, we are hopeful that we have the shared vision to adapt as positively as we can.

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