The Common Design Studio (previously Global Design Studio) is an international collaborative design sprint that explores global and wicked problems and challenges. For several years the studio has engaged students and lecturers from RMIT University, London College of Communication and Elisava (Barcelona), along with industry and research experts.

Previous projects engaged with sustainability issues, including microplastics and recycling, and urban challenges, such as playable cities. Last year the studio engaged with a most complex and pressing problem, that of planetary health, and how we can engage in critical and speculative transition design as a way to enact positive global change during this most challenging of times.

In 2022 the studio will consider gardening as a radical and social act within urban spaces, designing for the planet as well as diverse human needs. Proposals will be framed as a cookbook full of recipes that can incite positive collective action and encourage creative resistance.

For Melbourne Design Week 2022 the studio will exhibit the student proposals in a public exhibition showcasing the capacity of design to bring together global communities to collaborate on sustainable design futures. We will also come together in a live global event to launch the exhibition and discuss the student proposals, what they mean for sustainable futures and the future of design education.