Designing in the Age of No Easy Answers

At Design Futures Forum, visionary creatives, scientists, and strategists explore how design can lead us through uncertainty—by embracing complexity, not avoiding it.

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WHAT DOES DESIGN look like in a world where problems are becoming too complex to solve? At this year's Design Futures Forum, one of the headline events of Singapore Design Week 2025, this question is foundational rather than rhetorical.

Titled Braving Complexities, the one-day event explores design as a process that is shaped by contradiction, collaboration, and critical reflection.

Curated by Ong Ker-Shing, co-founder of Lekker Architects, and Aric Chen, director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, this year's forum spotlights three intertwined themes: Emerging Technology, Sustainability, and Care. Joining Ong and Chen is a compelling lineup of global and local voices that includes speculative designer Thomas Thwaites, filmmaker Liam Young, and mycelium researcher Feifei Zhou, who share compelling insights that inspire deep discussions.

"We wanted to challenge the conventional notion of design as a problem-solving exercise," says Chen. "There's no straightforward path from problem to solution anymore. What we face is a spaghetti bowl of intertwined and often contradictory needs."