RDI Address 2017: Addicted to Design

 WATCH LIVE using the embedded player, above, or on our YouTube channel

The incoming Master of the RSA’s Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry, Tristram Carfrae RDI, is a world leader in structural engineering design and Deputy Chair of Arup.

Carfrae considers the positive value of design and its impact on all our lives. From creating a process, service or plan that improves efficiency to transforming the world around us through a better built environment. He argues that the importance of creative design and innovation and its inherent human instinct, hunch and emotion will be more valuable in the future as automation and artificial intelligence proliferates. 

Prior to the Address, 3 new Royal Designers for Industry (RDI) will be welcomed to the Faculty.

The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ was introduced by the RSA in 1936 to promote the important contribution of design in manufacturing in industry, to encourage and reward outstanding practitioners, and to raise the profile of the design profession. Now regarded as the highest accolade for designers in the UK, it is awarded annually to designers of all disciplines who have achieved sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value, and significant benefit to society. A maximum of two hundred British designers can hold the title and non-UK designers may receive the honorary title Hon RDI.

This year’s event will include the presentation of the RSA’s Bicentenary Medal, instituted in 1954 to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of the RSA’s founding. The Medal has been awarded annually to a variety of individuals for their outstanding contributions to the advancement of design in industry and society. Since 2013 it has been awarded to a person who has ‘used design to great effect as an instrument of civic innovation.’