Public design — from policy labs and innovation teams to civic co-design and transformation programmes — depends on learning. Learning how to collaborate across differences. Learning to navigate systems, power, and ethics. Learning new roles, methods, and mindsets.

We believe that centring learning helps us strengthen the practice of Public Design. This includes attending to:

• How people become public designers — formally or informally.
  
• How institutions build design capabilities at scale.
  
• How knowledge is shared, translated, and valued.
  
• How educational offerings align with practice needs.
  
• How public designers engage diverse publics as co-learners.
  

Our aims

As a network, we aim to:

• Build infrastructure for sharing knowledge, practices, and capacity across geographies and sectors.

• Advance research on how learning happens in and around Public Design.
  

• Support educators and practitioners developing and delivering learning experiences for public design.
  

• Foster critical reflection on the values, power dynamics, and pedagogical assumptions embedded in design for the public realm.

Our activities

• Convenings, exploring how learning practices can enhance innovation in government, policy, and public services.
  
• A research agenda focused on capacity building in public design.
  
• A regular conversation series, highlighting work from different regions and disciplines on how people learn to design, lead, and sustain change in the public realm.
  
• Curated resources and tools to support educators, trainers, and learning designers working in or with public institutions.
  

Get involved

We are in the early stages of developing the network and welcome collaborators. If you are:

• Designing or delivering learning programmes for public sector innovation,
  
• Conducting research on public design education or capacity building,
  
• Working with public institutions to embed design practices,
  
• Or simply curious about how learning and public design intersect,
  

…we’d love to hear from you.

You can join our mailing list, follow our events, or reach out to discuss potential partnerships or contributions.

Contact us:
Dr Lara Salinas
l.salinas@lcc.arts.ac.uk