Pi Studio

All of our activities focus on applying critical design thinking to explore contemporary society and culture in order to generate a wide range of future orientated projects.

Our research has a wide range of interests around Design and Innovation. Many of our projects focus on exploring technologies and their creative applications, as well as the social and cultural opportunities they offer. A central thread of our practice-based research is participation and user involvement. We have projects that explore location-based media; working through our ideas by creating prototypes of interactive objects, services and user experiences. The objects that we design allow people to contribute to the generation of new forms of media. We have a range of projects that explore possible futures of participatory working and living environments, from the office to the forest. In all of our work we use creative approaches to innovate. We call this approach 'prospecting the future' and have developed a range of methods that capture this way of working. Our studio engages and encourages thoughtful participation in shaping these prospective futures through various collaborations and joint projects with external organisations.

Our consultancy activities include working with a wide range of partners including manufacturers, governmental organisations, NGOs, charities and leading research and development labs in the UK and internationally. In collaboration with external organisations we co-create and host 'live projects' often with our postgraduate students as full members of our project teams, bringing their fresh perspectives, and giving them valuable experiences that shape their future careers as designers. We also run workshops for organisations using our design innovation methods to explore specific issues and future prospects while offering those organisations more creative tools to enhance their own innovation culture.

The Pi Studio is an active contributor to the education of creative practitioners at Goldsmiths and has grown out of our interest in establishing a Critical Practice in Design.This relationship is crucial to the development of our continuing activities. The Pi Studio delivers short courses in Design and Innovation through its summer school programme for the creative industries and its international design workshops.