ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
The Design Education: Tradition and Modernity (DETM 2005) conference at NID marked a decisive moment in the evolution of design education in India and the region. Bringing together over 400 participants from 27 countries and more than 50 institutions, it established a global dialogue on the future of design pedagogy and practice. The Ahmedabad Declaration asserted that design is not merely a tool for economic competitiveness, but a cultural, social, and systemic force—deeply connected to sustainability, collaboration, and contextual relevance.
More than two decades later, the conditions shaping design have transformed significantly. Design has moved from the periphery to the centre—shaping not only objects and interfaces, but also systems, services, and policies. However, this expansion has also exposed a critical gap—between what we teach, what we research, and what we are able to do in practice.
This moment calls not for incremental adjustments, but for a grounded rethinking of design education itself. The question is no longer about inclusion alone, but about the reconstitution of its scope, intent, and impact—with a renewed emphasis on practice as the core of learning. Design is not only to be understood; it must be performed, tested, and experienced. Yet, in many instances, education risks drifting toward abstraction; where articulation, documentation, and qualification can overshadow the act of doing. As a practice-based discipline, design generates knowledge through engagement, iteration, and making, as much as through reflection.
What would it mean to re-centre design education around practice-based knowledge? What would it mean to build frameworks that emerge not only from global discourse, but from the lived realities, materials, systems, and socio-cultural contexts?
This requires moving beyond inherited pedagogies toward deeply situated modes of learning, teaching, and practice—approaches that respond to present urgencies while remaining grounded in context. This is not a gesture toward regional identity, but a deliberate shift toward contextually rooted and future-facing design thinking. The strength of design in India lies not only in its scale or diversity, but in its capacity to articulate alternative ways of seeing, making, and knowing. Its histories, crafts, and contemporary conditions offer not just references, but a foundation for generating new directions in design education and practice.
This conference builds on the legacy of DETM with renewed urgency. It recognises that the conditions of practice, production, and learning have fundamentally shifted; and with them, the role of the educator. Educators today are not only disseminators of knowledge, but active producers of knowledge, grounded in practice and informed by doing. At its core, Design Education Futures 2027 is an invitation to rethink how design is taught, learned, and practised—so that it remains relevant, responsive, and anchored in the realities it seeks to transform.
Vision of the Conference
- To bring India to the forefront of design practice and education within Asia and beyond
- To develop a sharper and more consequential integration of theory and practice
- To align design education and curricula with emerging global shifts, while asserting contextually grounded, future-facing perspectives
Themes
From Theory to Practice
- Recalibrating design methodologies
- Bridging conceptual frameworks with situated practice
- Practice-based research and knowledge production
- Experimental, interdisciplinary, and process-led approaches
- Innovation through iterative, hands-on engagement
- Entrepreneurship as a form of design practice
- AI and technological transformations
Reframing Design Education & Policy
- Learning futures in design
- National Education Policy and systemic shifts
- Moving beyond standardisation toward adaptive and context-sensitive pedagogies
- Competency-based and interdisciplinary learning models
- Integrating indigenous knowledge systems, vernacular practices, and regional diversity into curricula
- Digital, hybrid, and distributed learning environments
- Emerging tools and technologies in pedagogy
- Shifting global systems and orders
Call for Proposals
Abstract submissions: Research papers, practice-led studies, pedagogical experiments
Deadline: 31st July 2026
Conference: 23 - 25 February 2027
IMPORTANT DATES
- Abstract submission: 30th June - 31st July
- The Selection Committee informs us: 15th September
- Selection Announcement: 30th September
- Paper submission: 15th November
- Peer Review: 15th December, 2026
- Final submission: 1st February, 2027
- Conference Dates: 23 - 25 February 2027
Click to Submit Abstract
designeducationfutures[at]nid.edu