Dr Mike Kann

Biography

Michael Kann is a designer, researcher and educator whose work sits at the intersection of participatory design, material practices and complex social challenges. He is interested in design's unique disciplinary approach to wicked problems, negotiating complexity through the values participatory processes can uncover, and the consequences of systems, physical and digital products, and emerging technologies on everyday practices.

He is currently Senior Lecturer and Year 2 Lead on BA Product and Furniture Design at Chelsea College of Arts, UAL; prior to this Michael was Senior Lecturer and Industrial Design BA Course Leader at Brunel University London. He is Director of Studies on a UAL-funded PhD in partnership with BLOQs, investigating how AI-enabled digital fabrication and community co-creation can support independent makers and local economies, and is Co-Investigator on Design Over Time, a funded research project exploring systems-change approaches to furniture design and obsolescence in collaboration with industry practitioners. He holds Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and Certified Carbon Literacy and serves on CCW's College Quality Assurance Committee and UAL's Educational Ethics Subcommittee.

His commercial background spans a decade of freelance practice for studios including Conrad Shawcross, Troika, rAndom International and Moritz Waldemeyer, delivering edition furniture, large-scale installations, lighting, fashion and technology for clients including Estee Lauder, Audi, Samsung and Foster and Partners. He is also the founder of Mike Kann Design, a furniture studio focused on bespoke commissions and practice-led research and is a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers.