Innovation, Inclusion and Radical Collaboration took Centre Stage in New Delhi

For the first time ever, the 19th edition of What Design Can Do (WDCD) Live Delhi 2025 took place at the iconic India Habitat Centre on 8 March 2025 and featured an immersive programme of talks, workshops and exhibitions on design and climate justice. A sold-out crowd of 450 designers, innovators, and changemakers gathered to explore how design can help reshape lives in the face of a planetary crisis. In partnership with Unbox Cultural Futures, Quicksand, and The Design Village, WDCD Live Delhi 2025 explored innovative and regenerative solutions for a fairer and more resilient future. The festival was supported by Global Methane Hub, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Netherlands Embassy, and Pro Helvetia – Swiss Arts Council.

Leading the conversation with a potent mix of urgency and optimism were over 30 of the world’s finest changemakers from The Netherlands, the UK, USA, Mexico and India. Richard van der Laken, Co-Founder and Creative Director of What Design Can Do (WDCD) captured it insightfully: “Though perspectives were diverse, one message rang clear: in turbulent times, creativity can offer a hopeful way forward. Design can be a powerful tool for disruption, as we learned from the innovators at WDCD Live Delhi 2025 — all of whom are paving the path ahead.”

As Ayush Chauhan, Co-Founder of Unbox Cultural Futures and Quicksand put it, “WDCD Live Delhi 2025 made it amply evident that change will come only when we challenge the dominant ways of working and thinking. Alongside designers and creative changemakers, who demonstrated how they are subverting unsustainable economic models, there were those from fields of policy, philanthropy and technology, that threw down the gauntlet for how the design community needs to respond to the unique challenges of our population and region. There was a restless creative energy in the room that comes when a new vision is discovered and new alliances are formed and WDCD Live Delhi gave us both.”

Sourabh Gupta, Co-Founder of The Design Village said, “At The Design Village, we believe that community is everything, and at WDCD Live Delhi 2025, we truly saw that in action. It was an inspiring and motivating day filled with incredible sessions, speakers, and an incredible turnout.”

DESIGN THAT SPARKS CHANGE
The festival kicked off with the Subko Specialty Coffee Roasters’ Coffee Brewing Workshop, designed to elevate coffee knowledge and expertise for enthusiasts, budding baristas, and anyone with a love for a freshly brewed cup. The audience was warmly greeted by moderators Richard Van Der Laken (Co-Founder, What Design Can Do) and Sheena Khalid (Theatre Director, Actor & Writer). Sandeep Virmani (Hunnarshala Foundation) was the first to take the yellow stage, showcasing how nature is the ultimate designer and demonstrating how low-carbon materials and technology can be harnessed to build sustainable homes across South Asia.

Crowd-favourite María Conejo (Pussypedia.net) spoke about the importance of accessible information regarding the female body on the internet and why knowledge is power. Her talk was especially timely, as it took place on International Women’s Day 2025. Adding a different point of view to the mix, Thomas Rau (Architect) took the stage to discuss the need to transform the existing system and embrace circularity, emphasizing that we are all guests on planet Earth.

POWER OF PEOPLE AND COMMUNITY
Deepali Khanna (Head of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Asia Regional Office) shed light on the importance of community, highlighting how communities are the custodians of indigenous knowledge and wisdom. She emphasized the need to incorporate this wisdom into the critical decisions we make regarding climate action. Additionally, she explored what lessons the rest of the world, particularly South Asia, can learn when it comes to tackling climate change.

The morning also featured talks by WDCD Past Challenge winners: Monish Siripurapu (Ant Studio—Beehive) on art, nature, and technology; Depanshu Gola (BreathEasy) on integrating traditional knowledge with technology in India; and Namita Bhatnagar (BioSoothe) on how photosynthesis can benefit human health and well-being. They were joined by experts who provided valuable feedback on their projects: Mrinalini Ghadiok reviewed Beehive, Bulbul Chaudhary gave input on BreathEasy, and Emma van der Leest offered insights on BioSoothe. Each expert shared advice on scaling, funding, and collaborations.

In addition to presenting examples of how design can address societal challenges, the speakers also outlined a strategic framework for action, emphasizing the processes that must be adopted to deepen the impact of creative efforts. Shashank Mani (Jagriti Yatra) addressed three key topics: uniting stakeholders, sustainable aspirations and designing for the global middle class. Pedro Reyes (Mexican artist) spoke about using large-scale art projects to address social and political issues, emphasizing creativity, communication, and humor in driving change, while highlighting Mexico’s biodiversity, the importance of preserving ancient knowledge, and the role of creativity and community in fostering optimism and positive transformation in difficult times.

It was an inspiring morning, with speakers sharing how they had responded to the challenges surrounding them by utilizing innovative design to develop effective and elegant solutions—whether addressing air pollution, promoting body awareness, or highlighting the significance of ecological practices.

The second half of the day also featured sold-out workshops, including:

• Systems Design Workshop by Sensing Local // Sobia
• Visualizing Climate Impact: Crafting Data-Driven Narratives for Action by Revisual Labs // Gurman Bhatia
• Waste Textile Lab by Femke van Gemert (NL)
• WDCD CHALLENGE DESIGN JAM by Lara Snatager + Mudita Pasari
• Calling all hackers and makers for Climate by Dr. Kit Braybrooke (Swiss)

Kailash Nadh (Rainmatter Foundation) explained how climate change is the overarching problem, highlighting the delusion that humans have a privileged position in the universe, which has been challenged by our own wastefulness. “We need to adopt sustainability as a mental model”, suggesting that sustainability should not just be an external practice or a set of policies but rather a core way of thinking and living. Som Ray (CLIP) discussed the need to democratize urban mobility, highlighting the limitations of current designs and stressing the importance of creating systems that are both viable and simple.

The festival concluded with a talk by Carla Fernandez (Fashion Designer) who shared her vision of alternative fashion systems, stating, “Another fashion system is possible.” She shared her collaboration with Mexican artists, highlighting versatility in creating original clothing. She emphasized the importance of building a collective movement and stated that the future of fashion is handmade.

Throughout the day, visitors explored the Project Showcase, supported by Godrej Design Lab, featuring innovative solutions tackling climate challenges. The exhibits covered themes like Super Pollutants, The Power of Community, Rethinking Technology, and Circular Planet.

On this note, the curtains closed on an extraordinary 19th edition of WDCD Live in New Delhi. All visitors, volunteers, and crew joined the speakers on stage to raise a glass during the After Hours at the British Council. Highlights included Nine Earths by D-fuse, an immersive multimedia artwork exploring humanity’s demand for the Earth’s resources, and Elsewhere in India by Avinash Kumar & DJ Murthy, an exploration of cultural heritage, digital technology, and speculative futures. There was a sense of camaraderie at the After Hours as the crowd talked over the day’s inspiring takeaways. As one attendee put it, the challenges ahead are undoubtedly tough. “But, she added, “I continue to be inspired by the resilience and resourcefulness of those working to shake up the system and create real change.”

ABOUT WHAT DESIGN CAN DO
What Design Can Do (WDCD) is an international organization that advocates for design as a tool for social change. Since 2011, we have undertaken numerous activities to promote the role of designers in addressing the world’s most pressing societal and environmental issues. WDCD has hosted 15 successful conferences in Amsterdam, São Paulo, and México City. In 2016 WDCD launched an ambitious design challenge programme that engages the creative community with urgent societal issues such as the well-being of refugees and climate change. To see previous Challenge winners, visit www.whatdesigncando.com/projects/
For more information, visit www.whatdesigncando.com

ABOUT UNBOX CULTURAL FUTURES
Unbox Cultural Futures is a cultural platform that builds community at the intersection of disciplines to explore new narratives and reimagine India’s plural futures. It began as a festival bringing together unlikely like-minds in 2011 and has since grown into a large world of labs, public engagement platforms, research projects, installations, and publications, building collaborative art, design, and tech projects to explore new narratives for cultural enquiry and expression.

ABOUT THE DESIGN VILLAGE
The Design Village is an educational ecosystem for discerning learners, built by globally acknowledged academicians and industry experts, offering a comprehensive and future-oriented design education, that prepares leaders who design to transform the world. The village is a metaphor for the design village both in its physicality and philosophy, and the village educates designers the world truly needs, and those the world didn’t realize it needed.