Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design – New Name for RCA's Largest Research Centre

The centre will be renamed the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and its work will be based around three research labs: Age & Ability, Health & Patient Safety, and Work & City.

Royal College of Art Rector Dr Paul Thompson explains: ‘The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, as it will now be called, is one of the jewels in our crown. It is our largest discrete research centre with a distinctive profile, a dedicated team of 23 staff, an international reputation and a record of social activism in inclusive design. These changes will help to cement its reputation and explain its mission better.’

The new name and operating structure mark the 20th anniversary of support for design research at the RCA by the Helen Hamlyn Trust, which began funding the DesignAge action research programme in 1991. Helen Hamlyn is a textiles alumna, social philanthropist and Senior Fellow of the College.

DesignAge, with its focus on the design implications of ageing populations, became a fully-fledged research centre co-founded by Roger Coleman and Jeremy Myerson in 1999.

‘Organising our work into three research labs is significant,’ says centre director Jeremy Myerson, who also holds the Helen Hamlyn Chair of Design. ‘It will focus our expertise in design research into clear streams and make us more proactive in partnerships with business, government, research councils and the non-profit sector.’

Myerson will lead the Work & City research lab; deputy director Rama Gheerawo will lead Age & Ability; and senior research fellow Ed Matthews will direct Health & Patient Safety. Resident design anthropologist Jo-Anne Bichard will work across all three labs.

The centre’s well-established research associates programme will continue in its current format, but each research associate will be attached to a specific research lab.

The first public showing of the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design in its new guise will be this spring when it hosts the sixth international Include Conference on Inclusive Design at the Royal College of Art from 18–20 April 2011.