For Love & Design with Ross Lovegrove | Sustainable Future | Industrial Designer Ross Lovegrove & Ila Colombo

It’s becoming difficult to avoid the metaverse. It’s become an inevitability in both the workplace and our social lives, but how can we approach it responsibly? Mariana Cabugueira is an architect in the three dimensional virtual universe. But what does this entail? And what are the ramifications of moving our social and professional lives into a digital world? In the episode of For Love & Design, Mariana breaks down the intricacies of Web 3, the Metaverse and our digital future. 
Mariana, founder of real world and digital architecture studio, MC Studios - speaks to Ross and Ila to discuss the environmental impact of Web 3, its potential to end global loneliness and the desperate need for regulation in order to avoid a similar ‘profit over safety’ situation that we’ve seen with social media. 
Mentioned in this Episode 
Meta 
Midjourney 
Simon Barazin 
Jodie Spencer 
Lee Cronin on Lex Fridman 

Show Notes:
Education simply cannot keep up with the future of design and architecture. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing and machine learning are moving at such a rapid pace that colleges and universities are struggling to keep up. How can we look at the past to prevent a future devoid of creativity and originality?
In this episode, Ross and Ila speak to Author and Artificial Intelligence expert Neil Leach to decipher the future of design, discuss creative education and look at what we can learn from Greek and Roman history in modern times.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lev Manovich, new mediaWolf dPrix - In Two Days Time, Tomorrow Will Be YesterdayYuval Noah Harari - 21 lessons for the 21st centuryOperating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R Buckminster FullerAnil Seth: Reality is a controlled hallucinationThe Second Copurnicus Revolution

Every era has had a signature material - stone, iron and wood spring to mind. Today, it’s plastic. And our oceans are full of it. The result of this new environment is a demand for design innovation like we’ve never seen before. But as we look forward to this future, it is equally important for designers to look back — reflecting on where we’ve come from, and what we can learn from our mistakes.
Ross and Ila are joined by leading design historian Peter Fiell to discuss the broader history of design, and how its future must leave a positive impact on our planet. From the efficient use of materials, to harnessing the power of AI, they explore the different ways in which designers need to adapt to our rapidly changing social, political, and climatic environments. 
Mentioned in this episode
Philippe Starck - Influential furniture designerMax Tegmark - ‘The 'Don't Look Up' Thinking That Could Doom Us With AI’Nick Knight - ‘Roses from my Garden’Buckminster Fuller - 20th century inventorSusan Kare - American graphic designer
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Ila Colombo
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Design is not just a vehicle for commercial gain. Today, it is increasingly viewed as a transformational tool for social change. But what is ‘design thinking’? Charlotte Fiell’s book ‘The Story of Design’ chronicles the history of this approach. In this episode, Charlotte discusses what this means in the era of artificial intelligence and environmental destruction.
Charlotte Fiell - one of the world’s leading design authorities - joins Ross and Ila to discuss design thinking’s origins and change over the last 60 years. Together, they decipher the true meaning of ‘design’ and whether it can be attributed to all types of creative work, from cushions to stocking fillers, or only the most large-scale groundbreaking creative projects. Charlotte shares her criticism of gifting culture, and asks whether creativity should maintain the freedom and luxury of expression, regardless of the cost to our planet.
Mentioned in this Episode
John E Arnold and The Story of Design Thinking
Ross Lovegrove Tynant bottle
Ross Lovegrove ‘Go’ Chair
Walter Dorwin Teague
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Ila Colombo
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Ep. 5. AI has the ability to reference the past, present and future of design in an instant. It’s forced designers to re-think not just what they create, but why they do it. No more art for art’s sake. Far beyond making work that just looks nice, creatives must consider the cognitive meaning behind their work, so AI doesn’t get the upper hand. This poses a challenge: how to balance authentic creative design with work that has deeper intellectual purpose.
In this conversation, Ross and Ila debate whether visual and cognitive are separate creative modus operandi - where visual design simply looks nice, but cognitive design attempts to convey richer intellectual meaning. Or are these considerations inextricably linked? This episode discusses the lasting imprint of Ross’s iconic monolith chair, explores the cerebral quality of seemingly mindless work by Jackson Pollock and touches on the cognitive fuel of the post-war Dadaist movement. Ross and Ila will explore how creatives can perform the visual vs cognitive balancing act within the confines of the current socio-political order.
Mentioned in this episode
Antony GormleyDadaismDuchamp's FountainRichard SerraMonolith ChairIsamu NoguchiDegas - BallerinaNaum Gabo
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Ross Lovegrove
Ila Colombo
For Love & Design podcast
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Ep.4 Historically, artists took influence from their nation’s socio-political history. A patchwork of triumphs, defeats and political turmoil guided aesthetic decisions. Today, a new tapestry of influence has emerged through algorithms and artificial intelligence. Designers must navigate this, ensuring individual creativity and cultural identity is not lost entirely. 
As a native Welshman who spent thirty years working in London in the analogue realm, Ross remarks on being a de facto outsider, questioning what it means to be ‘cultureless’. From the allure of ‘Britishness’ among fashion designers to architects who seem culturally misplaced, Ross and Ila discuss where today’s creatives should take inspiration, and whether it's possible to be a blank slate.
Mentioned in this episode:
Alexander McQueen 
David Chipperfield
Louis Kahn
Tadao Ando
Kengo Kuma
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Follow us on Instagram:
Ross Lovegrove
Ila Colombo
For Love & Design podcast
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