I will be giving a keynote at the RSA Design debate: Twenty-first Century Manufacture.

Debate curated by Emily Campbell, Director of Design

8 John Adam Street, London wc2, 6pm Thursday 24 March 2011

To book a free sit: http://www.thersa.org/events/our-events/less-stuff,-more-performance,-better-fit

The RSA – combines thought leadership with social innovation to further human progress. Building on our 250 year history as a beacon for enlightenment values, we undertake influential and varied research projects and host the UK’s most ambitious free lecture series.

The debate:

The new technologies of designing and manufacturing promise to reinvigorate local production and to put a rapid prototype, a custom object and a perfect-fit within the reach of millions who never called themselves a designer or craftsman. But do enough of us know enough design to transform this promise into a manufacturing renaissance? While these new ways of making advance the interests of commercial manufacturers and craft hobbyists, do they also answer a universal human need to fabricate?

Assa Asshuach presents a digital tool under development which allows anyone to specify 3-d objects within set design parameters. Designer Sebastian Conran, open innovation consultant Roland Harwood and additive manufacturing expert Neil Hopkinson join the panel discussion chaired by Hugh Aldersey-Williams, author of a new RSA Design pamphlet The New Tin Ear: Materials, Manufacturing and the Rise of the User-Maker. The event is free but you need to

reserve a place at www.theRSA.org/events.