Innovation & Technology Product Design
Luke Aitken
Good design to me is design that tells a good story. I am an interdisciplinary designer exploring social, political, and environmental futures that we may be heading toward. Through storytelling, curatorial practices, and participatory design, I intend to provoke with the intention of gathering public opinion to help shape decision making for the future.
Projects
Ethical Consumption Garden
Imagine a future where the UK government legalises and regulates all drugs to protect the environment.
This speculative design project invites you into the ECG, a government-run facility in 2050 that offers harm reduction services, substance education, and Glasgow’s first community Opium Garden.
The space, made from wood, fabric, and handmade materials rejects clinical, sterile environments in favour of something softer, natural, and more human. In this vision of the future, consumption is viewed as a natural behaviour, which could open the door to better education, safer practices, and more compassionate care.This project uses speculative design to open up currently uncomfortable, inaccessible conversations: “If all drugs were legal, what could a space like this look like, and how could it benefit society?”
The Ethical Consumption Garden was set up as a part of ‘Miracles!’ , a futures design exhibition organised by Luke Aitken as a part of this self initiated project. It provided a stage for the Garden to act as a provocation and conduct research through design by recording responses from the public as well as experts.
