About New

Design Craft

Reimagining Making for Just and Sustainable Futures.

New Design Craft was born from a fundamental question: How can we redefine making in a way that is socially just, ecologically responsible, and deeply connected to material culture?

This approach results from my PhD research on sustainable and humanity-centred design, exploring how craft, emerging technologies, and design justice principles can intersect to create new post-industrial paradigms. In an era where mass production has distanced us from the origins, ethics, and impact of what we create, New Design Craft seeks to rebuild that connection—not by returning to nostalgia, but by developing systems that are relational, adaptive, and culturally embedded as an alternative to extractive industrial models.

What is New Design Craft?

New Design Craft is a hybrid approach to making that:

Bridges Craft & Emerging Technologies – We merge traditional craftsmanship with computational design, open-source tools, and digital fabrication methods.

Centres on Material Culture – Instead of imposing form onto matter, we listen to materials, allowing their properties and histories to guide the making process.

Supports Cultural Resilience – We collaborate with artisans, communities, and researchers to protect and evolve traditional knowledge systems rather than appropriating or diluting them.

Challenges Industrial Hegemony – We critique extractive economies and propose alternative ways of making that prioritise repair, longevity, and shared ownership.

A Vision for Socio-Environmental Justice

New Design Craft is more than an aesthetic or a technique—it is a philosophy of making at the intersection of Design and Crafts deeply tied to community empowerment.

This framework emerges from a PhD research in sustainable, humanity-centred design, which critically examines how industrial production has long been driven by the exploitation of labour, resources, and cultural knowledge. The global supply chain thrives on wasteful processes and systemic inequality.

New Design Craft rejects this model in favour of one that is:

  • Decentralised – Shifting power from corporations to local makers and communities.

  • Inclusive – Ensuring that traditional knowledge and marginalised voices shape the future of making.

  • Regenerative – Working with ecosystems rather than depleting them.

In positioning craft as a site of resistance, design as a critical tool, and technology as an enabler rather than a disruptor, New Design Craft proposes a new design ethic—one that reconciles innovation with tradition, digital with analogue, and growth with care.

New design craft manifesto

  • New Design Craft aspires to do better rather than more and it seeks Futures where:

    • Artisanal Making is not a prerogative of the luxury industry.

    • Crafts is valued as an evolving system, rather than nostalgia.

    • Technology complements rather than competes with creativity.

    • Objects are not just things but part of regenerative strategies.

    • Design develops relationships, knowledge, and futures.

    New Design Craft is neither an aesthetic movement, a hyper-tech approach, nor a nostalgic trip back to the past. It is a way of designing in response to the world as it is, while actively shaping how it could be.

  • 1. Material intelligence

    Materials are not neutral. They are archives of environment, commerce, and culture. New Design Craft practitioners listen, respond, and work with substance rather than imposing form onto it. Whether natural, synthetic, or digital, we embrace the intelligence of materials and let their possibilities and restrictions define the process.

    2. DESIGN RELATIONSHIP, NOT OBJECT

    A product is a web of interactions between people, locations, and activities—never only a thing. New Design Craft questions the object-centric approach of industrial design and emphasises instead developing links between producers and consumers, past and future, tradition and creation.

    3. THE RIGHT TOOL in THE RIGHT CONTEXT

    Low-tech and high-tech, chisels and CNC routers have no hierarchy. The only question that counts is: what does this project in this location with these resources call for? Mastering a flexible, adaptive approach to tools, New Design Craft practitioners use digital manufacturing where needed, handcrafted techniques where important, and hybrid ways where strong.

    4. SUSTAINABILITY AS SYSTEM.

    Sustainability is about systems, cycles, and economies, not only about choices of materials. New Design Craft advocates profound, regenerative thinking over greenwashing and temporary environmental fixes. It probes: what does it mean for a design to really fit its ecosystem? In what ways does it honour the work of those engaged in its production, promote local businesses, and renew resources?

    5. Craft as a site of future making.

    Craft is about the present—not about the past. Revised Design using historical knowledge as a continuous activity of creativity rather than as a static record, the craft is profoundly future-oriented. It sees craft itself as a weapon for resilience in an uncertain age, artisan networks as templates for decentralised economies, and craft practices as blueprints for sustainable making.

    6. OPENNESS AS A RESPONSIBILITY

    We do not create just by ourselves. Every design choice has effects; every technique is inherited from someone. Not as trends, but rather as ethical requirements, New Design Craft pledges openness, shared information, and open-source ideas. Design is participation in a greater system, and with that comes the duty to leave it better than we discovered.

  • 1. LISTENING BEFORE MAKING.

    Every project begins with a listening act towards materials, communities, historical and environmental background of a place. We co-learning with people who possess knowledge outside of formal design disciplines, not about knowledge extraction.

    2. START WITH QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERS.

    Solutions are not imposed by New Design Craft. They start by wondering what is needed. What already exists? What can be learned from other fields? Design is a conversation, not a prescription.

    3. WORK IN CYCLES, NOT LINEAR PROCESSES.

    We welcome iteration, feedback loops, and the unpredictability of experimenting rather than adhering strictly to processes.

    4. REDEFINE THE VALUE OF OBJECTS.

    Objects should not be mass-produced beyond need, trend-driven, or throwaway, unless absolutely necessary. Rather, they should be meaningful, change with the times, and have an afterlife that does not end in a landfill.

    5. TECHNOLOGY SHOULD EXPAND, NOT REPLACE, HUMAN AGENCY.

    Digital fabrication, artificial intelligence, and computational design are extensions of craftsmanship not replacements for it. New Design Craft uses technology to improve work rather than to automate meaning away.

    6. RECOGNISE DESIGN AS A POLITICAL ACT.

    Every design choice has ethical ramifications regarding who benefits from a design, and who gets to make it or access it. New Design Craft understands its influence in shaping ecological futures, labour conditions, and economies.

    7. HONOUR THE WORK BEHIND OBJECTS.

    Every object—made by hand, by machine, or in partnership with artificial intelligence—carries human effort. We support fair pay, respect for creators, and ethical supply chains.

    8. MAKE KNOWLEDGE ACCESSIBLE.

    Skills should be distributed rather than hoarded. New Design Craft is dedicated to open-source education, multidisciplinary cooperation, and the total accessibility of knowledge.

    9. DESIGN FOR REPAIR.

    Objects should be made to be fixed, modified, or reinterpreted. A broken thing should present a chance for repair rather than for disposal.

  • 1. MATERIAL-DRIVEN

    Explore and create materials as their primary starting point, allowing tactile properties and transformations to shape their creative process.

    2. CONCEPTUAL-DRIVEN

    Focus on deep theoretical inquiry, historical context, and cultural analysis to inform design concepts and storytelling.

    3. ETHICS-DRIVEN

    Integrate circular design principles, ethical material choices, and responsible production methods to create socioenvironmental consciousness.

    4. EXPERIMENT-DRIVEN

    Prioritise iterative making, trial-and-error and adaptive workflows, refining ideas through hands-on exploration and feedback loops.