The seminar ‘Critical Spatial Design. Rethinking Design in the Planetary’ aims to reconsider what design means for spatial design disciplines after the design turn(s) across the sciences since at least 2009 (Scheffer 2022). To do this, the weekly seminar structured around reading and in-depth group discussions asks basic questions, such as: what is design and what is its relation to criticality, research and social theory, especially the critical social theory associated with the category of the planetary (e.g. Chakrabarty 2021)? This relational thinking extends further to consider how other disciplines and fields not typically associated with design have begun to theorise what design means in relation to their bodies of, and ways of making knowledge.

If, through these questions, we hope to retrieve a notion of spatial design grounded in a critical framework and fit for the planetary challenges we face today, we are likely to encounter stubborn problems along the way. For example, how may we hold a critical-diagnostic posture hand-inhand with a desire to act and change the worlds we are looking at; and, how far then are we willing to extend such a critical gaze over the world-views and theoretical frameworks that resonate with our own assumptions. To help us address these knotty problems, you will be invited to use self-reflexive methods to consider your own situated knowledges and positionalites.