Design for Adaptation Track Chairs

Antti Ahlava


Antti Ahlava, M.Arch SAFA, Full Professor of Emergent Design Methodologies at Aalto University (AU), Helsinki, works on cross-disciplinary art and metaxography in architecture. He is also a partner at prizewinning architectural bureau Helsinki Zürich Office (helsinkizurich.com), operating from Helsinki (FI) and Zürich (CH). His design work includes adaptive reuse and urban renewal projects: campus design, industrial heritage, reuse, museum and housing projects. He is also responsible for the campus development of AU.  His earlier design commissions include the renovation of Helsinki Art Museum HAM, infill projects in Helsinki region and the urban design of Helsinki City Hall quartiers. He received a Human City Design Award in 2019.

Miaosen Gong

Dr. Gong Miaosen is an associate professor of School of Design at Jiangnan University, and the director of DESIS lab. His research interests are focused on Strategic Design for Sustainability, Service Design for Social Innovation, and Cultural Tracing and Creation. In recent years, he has great interest in discovering sustainable values and wisdom of orthodoxy traditional culture in Pre-Qin Classics of China. Now he is Cumulus Executive Board member, DESIS International Coordination Committee member and the co-coordinator of DESIS-China. He is also a guest researcher of The Hong Kong Chinese University Shenzhen. Dr. Gong is a member of the Cumulus Executive Board 2022/25.

Anna Meroni

Architect and PhD in Design, Anna is Full Professor of Design in the Department of Design at the Politecnico di Milano. From 2022 she is Deputy Dean of the School of Design of Politecnico di Milano. Her research focus is service and strategic design for sustainability to foster social innovation, participation and local development. A specific expertise has been developed in co-design methods and tools. She originated the concept of community-centered design and works transversally on new entrepreneurship, place making, public services and responsible research and innovation – RRI. From 2013 to 2019 she has been the coordinator of the POLIMI-DESIS Lab, the Milan based research laboratory of the DESIS-Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability Network, which she previously served as international coordinator.

Nicola Morelli, Ph.D.

Nicola Morelli (BArch, Ph.D.) is a Professor at the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology (AD: MT) at Aalborg University. He has been among the founders of the Master in Service Systems Design at Aalborg University and the promoter of service design at the university and other academic Institutions. As the director of the Service Design Lab at AAU, Nicola participated in several EU-Funded projects as a local coordinator and Work Package Leader for several other international projects.
Nicola Morelli has been working on the design for the service sector, focusing on user involvement, social innovation, co-design, strategic and methodological aspects, and the new communication and representation techniques for service design. Nicola is a member of the Cumulus Executive Board 2022/25.

Yekta Bakırlıoğlu

Yekta Bakırlıoğlu is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Industrial Design, Middle East Technical University, Turkey, and a TUBITAK CoCirculation2 (MSCA-CoFund) Fellow with his project titled Distributed Fabrication through Mass-produced Open Designs (DF-MOD). He is also a researcher at the Department of Media and Visual Arts, Koç University, as part of the Pop-Machina H2020 R&I project. He was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Limerick, Ireland, as part of the Circular Design (L4IDS) Erasmus+ KA project. He received his PhD from METU Industrial Design in 2017, and he was a visiting researcher at NODUS Sustainable Design Research Group, Aalto ARTS, Finland, in 2016. His research interests include open design, distributed value creation networks, design and design-led businesses for sustainability.

Gülay Hasdoğan

Gülay Hasdoğan is a Professor and the Head of the Department of Industrial Design, METU. She is a founding member of the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK), and she served as the President between 1996-98. In 2008 and 2010, as an Executive Committee Member of Design Turkey Industrial Design Awards, she coordinated the development of the award scheme and the evaluation process. She received her BSc in Industrial Design (1985) and MSc in Building Science (1988) from METU, and her PhD from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design (1993). She teaches research methods and graduation projects. She has publications about the institutionalization of industrial design, design education and user models in the design process.

Karl Stocker

Karl Stocker, Ph.D., has been active in the fields of culture, design & media as well as in education for over 30 years. He is professor at the Institute of History at University Graz and he was head of the Institute of Design & Communication at the FH JOANNEUM – University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria between 2004 and 2021. From 1999 to 2021 he managed the exhibition design agency BISDATO, which produced concepts, content and spatial design for cultural-historical exhibitions and museums. His professional and academic interests include design & theory, design & society, exhibition design, socio design and sustainable design. He has presented the results of his research at several conferences, symposia and universities around the world. Karl Stocker is the author and publisher of numerous publications; his most recent projects include:

Matthias Ripp / Karl Stocker (eds.), Das Besucherzentrum Welterbe Regensburg.
Vermittlungsstrategien einer UNESCO-Welterbestadt (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2022)
Sigrid Bürstmayr / Karl Stocker (eds.), Designing Sustainable Cities. Manageable
Approaches to Make Urban Spaces Better: Detroit, Graz, Istanbul, Mexico City and Puebla (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2020)
Karl Stocker (ed.), Socio-Design. Relevant Projects–Designed for Society (Basel: Birkhäuser, 2017)

Anna Bernagozzi

Anna Bernagozzi is professor of design theory and history and researcher t the EnsAD – École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, Paris since 2004. Additionally, Anna is design consultant, editor for design magazines, organizer of international conferences, seminars and curator of exhibitions on the social role of design in prestigious venues like the Tripostal of Lille, La Villette, Paris, the French Institute of Milan, Italy, the French Institute of Lomé, Togo, the international Biennale of Design for Social Innovation Reciprocity, Musée de la vie Wallonne, Liège, Belgium, the National Taiwan Science Education Center, Taiwan. She heads the EnsAD DESIS Group and since 1917 she has been directing the EU research project 4Cs (from Conflict to Conviviality through Creativity and Culture) with the aim of researching, experiencing and sharing the lesser known, more sober and generous practices and actions of design for social innovation. With its latest exhibition ExpoAction “Infinite Creativity for a finite World” Anna affirms the need for a “civic design” that allows the spectator “actor” to experience and measure the daily impact of his actions and, above all, to enjoy the benefits of their collective resonance. The design contexts are often situated into socially, politically and economically vulnerable, complex and conflicting situations, where co-design is the ideal tool to direct and enhance the infinite creative impulse of each individual through responsible, concrete and restorative actions that respect the fragility of the human being, the living being and the finiteness of the planet, building and composing a sustainable relationship w

John Marshall

John Marshall (he/him/his) is a designer, curator, and researcher with over 20 years experience working on tangible interactions for objects, products, and responsive environments. As a partner in Detroit-based design studio rootoftwo, he facilitates people to imagine and shape collective actions for more just, resilient, inclusive, and adaptive futures. John is also a tenured associate professor of art & design at University of Michigan. He was the founding director of the Master of Design in Integrative Design program at Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, 2014-2020.