Designing Research
Translations  










This symposium explores the relationship between practice and research in design. We will bring together design academics and practitioners to explore how design practice uniquely contributes to knowledge production. 

Held at
Monash University’s European Campus in Prato, Italy from September 22nd - 24th, 2025
the conversation will be facilitated through relational design practice.





Call for Participation

Munari, Bruno. Supplemento al dizionario italiano. Muggiani, 1963.





What does design research look like?What does it feel like to do practice research, to design?What does it mean to engage in the process of designing as a form of research?How does it feel to navigate the tensions and possibilities of practice-led inquiry? How is design research defined and experienced across disciplines?What are the unique contributions of design practice to knowledge creation, and how are these understood and valued within and beyond academia?What impact does practice-based design research have on industries, communities, and broader societal challenges? How do the methods, tools, and outputs of design research shape and influence interdisciplinary collaborations?What forms of knowledge does design research create, and how are they disseminated?How does design practice challenge or complement traditional academic structures and expectations? What new futures can design research imagine, prototype, and bring to life? What knowledge does design research contribute?



Design researchers often navigate the liminal space between theory and practice, leveraging situated and experiential knowledge that may not be easily generalised. This nuanced approach, while powerful, can raise fundamental questions about design’s legitimacy within traditional academic structures that prioritise formalised, replicable results. Yet, design is also increasingly recognised as a powerful driver of impact, research translation and interdisciplinary collaboration within these structures of research.
Many design practitioners also practice in ways that integrate thoughtful and deep research, further distorting the separation between theory and practice in the field.


The symposium will consider how we recognise, value and communicate design research’s reflexive and context-sensitive contributions to knowledge creation, integration, and dissemination. 


Monash University, Design Health CollabImage taken as part of an ongoing ethnographic exploration of design research and practice in action.
Almost every design researcher seems to design their own relationship to the discipline, innovating new methods and evolving nuanced creative practices. Refining their approach through their creative practice, and in collaboration with others.  

We aim to celebrate the diversity of design research practice through sharing, annotating and contextualising our collective experience through hands-on design practice. We hope to expand our understanding of knowledge creation in design and pave the way for more inclusive, creative practice epistemologies that resist a singular definition of design research. Celebrating the contributions of practice to knowledge creation and dissemination.


Monash University, Leah HeissThe Tactile Tools™ bring together diverse groups of people to solve complex problems, another example of design research and practice in action.
Honouring this idea, the symposium will break with a traditional conversation and presentation format, blending practice with discourse in collaboration with local Italian design studio GISTO and experimental textile laboratory Lottozero. 

Through collaborative discussions, making, practical design experiments, and reflections on dissemination, this symposium will foster a collective creative inquiry into the evolving role of design research. We wish to showcase the strength of design's experimental and speculative nature as a means of inquiry. We will interrogate how design methods embody a fluidity that is both challenging and essential in complex problem spaces. Exploring how this capacity for integration positions design as a uniquely valuable form of research. We aim to embrace the capacity of practice to reimagine research boundaries, engage diverse audiences in transformative ways, and create alternative forms of dissemination and impact. We see design practice research as creating a challenge to conventional divisions between doing, knowing, and sharing. 

"To ask the question of what design theory is made in the context of practice-based design research is to ask for trouble. And trouble is precisely what we want."Redstrom, J. (2017). Making design theory. MIT Press.


Frantoio Sociale, GISTOAn existing project by GISTO, transforming the demolition site into a place of exchange and collaboration, where the different actors can contribute their unique skills and perspectives. 
This symposium occurs in the rich historical and contemporary design context of Italy. We are using Monash’s campus in Europe to connect with design researchers in the northern hemisphere, branching out from our usual local context in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia. Beyond connecting us into Europe, the location of this symposium is somewhat arbitrary. Yet, in many ways, Italy is a perfect context, connecting to a rich history of research-driven and exploratory design practice.

In the spirit of Radical Italian Design and Design Manifestos, we wish to adopt the form of the manifesto as a simultaneous form of practice and conversation, inviting critique and co-creation through ongoing discourse and iterative development. 

Through the symposium, we will discuss the ideas represented in a draft manifesto (emerging here) in relation to the participant's research and practices. We will collectively build, print, and display an updated manifesto, created across the symposium through creative practices. We will engage with the rich textile history of Prato through making with textile in the experimental textile laboratory Lottozero.  

“Full of contradictions, ironies, and clashes, manifestos operate on unsteady ground… Manifestos do the transformative work of hoping and destroying, reflecting and violently ending things”  Fahs, B. (2019). Writing with Blood. The Radical Teacher, (115), 33-38.


The University of Tokyo, DLX Design LabImage taken as part of an ongoing ethnographic exploration of design research and practice in action.
We see this event as a starting point in establishing an ongoing community of practice. We will document the practice occurring at the symposium and the conversations that take place alongside it. Developing a shared resource and collective output that includes the manifestos and artefacts we construct. We will share this through writing and images of practice. Disseminating these online, in printed materials, and through academic publication. Our intention is to include everyone as co-authors with the option to opt in and opt out as you wish. We invite the conversation to become ongoing and intend to capture the conversation that emerges here in future conference workshops and a possible edited volume in the future. 


University of Technology Sydney, Material Ecologies Design LabImage taken as part of an ongoing ethnographic exploration of design research and practice in action
This symposium sits within the context of a larger research project, Designing Research Translations. The Australian Research Council funds this ongoing work through Dr Rowan Page’s Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) Fellowship (DE240100161) from 2024-2027. This project explores the role of design as an impact-oriented research tool that supports translational research and seeks to understand more about the practices, practitioners, and contexts of design practice occurring in research contexts. Glimpses of emerging ethnographic research insights from the begining stages of this work are informing the framing of this symposium, will be shared at the symposium, and will continue to be documented on this website and through academic publications (and practice!) in the coming years. 


Monash University, SensiLabImage taken as part of an ongoing ethnographic exploration of design research and practice in action
If you are unable to attend the symposium we would still love to hear from you with any thoughts related to this topic. We are always looking for participants in this ongoing research.





What does design research look like?What does it feel like to do practice research, to design?What does it mean to engage in the process of designing as a form of research?How does it feel to navigate the tensions and possibilities of practice-led inquiry? How is design research defined and experienced across disciplines?What are the unique contributions of design practice to knowledge creation, and how are these understood and valued within and beyond academia?What impact does practice-based design research have on industries, communities, and broader societal challenges? How do the methods, tools, and outputs of design research shape and influence interdisciplinary collaborations?What forms of knowledge does design research create, and how are they disseminated?How does design practice challenge or complement traditional academic structures and expectations? What new futures can design research imagine, prototype, and bring to life? What knowledge does design research contribute? 


Manifesto of Radical Design Research: 
Toward A Future Unbound by Convention A Draft Manifesto Inviting Conversation & Input
Symposium ScheduleConversation, Design Practice & Good Food. 
About PratoAccommodation, Getting There & Interesting Information.
Contact UsContact Details & Expression of Interest  
CitationsTracing Insights Through Research & Practice


We acknowledge the people of the Kulin Nations, on whose unseeded land the majority of this research takes place. We pay our respects to their Elders, past and present and emerging and acknowledge Aboriginal connection to material and creative practice on these lands for more than 60,000 years.
This research is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council. Dr. Rowan Page is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Award (DECRA) Fellowship (DE240100161).  Additional support is provided by Monash University and the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture.