Spyros Bofylatos et al

Research through Design explorations of Research through Design
by Rowan Page, Warren Taylor, Spyros Bofylatos, Rosie Hornbuckle, Iohanna Nicenboim, Joseph Lindley, Franziska Pilling, Lisa Bradley, Mindy Ptolomey, Hoa Yang, Natalia Radywyl, Alon Meron, Annarita Bianco, Chetana Pai, Alessandro Mason.

Design research produces elements of knowledge through making, yet academic venues traditionally favour text-based formats, potentially losing contributions based on tacit knowledge that resists verbal articulation. We reflect on a three-day Research through Design (RtD) symposium, exploring how design practice serves as an epistemic mode of inquiry. Honouring the spirit of practice research, the symposium replaced conventional presentations with designerly participation, privileging making and reflection. Participants collaboratively created ‘manifestos’ embodying key themes of design research, speculation,
collaboration, experimentation, and iteration – printed onto fabric-wrapped chairs. Through this process, the symposium explored how knowledge emerges through embodied, situated, and relational acts of production. Reflections contribute to ongoing debates on the rigour of practice, reflexivity, theory–practice oscillation, and the role of design and creative practice in multidisciplinary research contexts. The paper advocates for collective making as a means to disseminate research knowledge and build community through continuous acts of doing and reflecting.