George Kafka
georgekafka0@gmail.com
@gkafka
Exhibitions
I curate exhibitions and displays on different fields of design for broad and diverse audiences.
Tomorrow’s Wardrobe
the Design Museum
September 2024–August 2025
Photos by Aaron Parsons
Free display looking at the environmental impact of the UK’s fashion industry. The show takes visitors from fields and farms to design studios and back to our own wardrobes, looking closely at the methods, makers and materials which hint at a more promising future for the clothes that we wear.
Featuring Stella McCartney, Ponda, Ahluwalia, Salomon, Ranra, Phoebe English and Vivobarefoot.
Assistant Curator: Lila Boschet
Producer: Rebecca Gremmo
2D Design: Spin
3D Design: Edit Collective
More
Design Researchers in Residence: Solar
the Design Museum
June–September 2024
Solar brought together the work of the four 2023/24 Design Researchers in Residence. The projects featured in the display explored our changing relationships with the heat and light of the sun through multidisciplinary and collaborative work.
Their projects touch on the heat of the internet, the changing scents of plants, the architecture of the conservatory and the contested restoration of Scotland’s peatland bogs.
The 2023/24 Design Researchers in Residence were April Barrett, Eliza Collin, Jamie Gatty and Freya Spencer-Wood.
Assistant Curator: Lila Boschet
Producer: Rebecca Gremmo
2D Design: Amandine Forest
3D Design: YAA Projects
More
Future Observatory
the Design Museum
November 2023–September 2024
The first display in a new dedicated space for research at the Design Museum, the Future Observatory display showcased six researchers from across the UK confronting environmental concerns and working towards liveable futures.
Visitors to the display encountered live research projects from a wide range of design disciplines including fashion, food and construction. The display features new commissions from the six researchers, with new films, large-scale illustrations and a bespoke biohybrid arch among them.
The exhibitors were Faber Futures, CLIMAVORE, Julia King, Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment, Dunne & Raby and Dark Matter Labs.
Assistant Curator: Lila Boschet
Producer: Rebecca Gremmo
2D Design: Spin
3D Design: Open Structures
More
How to Build a Low-Carbon Home
the Design Museum
July 2023–March 2024
Photos by Felix Speller
With almost 30% of global carbon emissions caused by the construction and running of buildings, there is a need radically rethink the materials we use to build our towns and cities. Rather than experimental new inventions, this display explored three ancient materials that are vital for a low-carbon future: wood, stone and straw.
Through the work of architects Material Cultures, Waugh Thistleton and Groupwork, as well as engineers Webb Yates, the display followed the journey of these materials from fields, forests and quarries to cutting-edge buildings. Discover how robotics is revolutionising the fabrication of new timber building parts, how your next home might have a thatched roof and learn what role diamond wire plays in a stonemason’s yard.
Co-curator: Esme Hawes
Project Manager: Susanna Pousette Okudzeto
Exhibition Design: Dele Awoyemi
More
Design Researchers in Residence: Islands
the Design Museum
June–October 2023
Islands brought together the work of the 2022/23 Design Researchers in Residence.
The display considered islands both geographically and metaphorically and featured projects exploring a shift from an ‘island mentality’ towards ‘archipelagic thinking’, which emphasises networks of interdependence.
Their research took us from the alien depths of the Pacific Ocean to the inside of a damp London flat, and from the hills of Skye to the homes of pigeons. They argued for public luxury, multispecies flourishing, invigorated ecological knowledge and the inseparability of design from planetary resources.
The 2022/23 Design Researchers in Residence were Rhiarna Dhaliwal, Marianna Janowicz, Isabel Lea and James Peplow Powell.
Assistant curator: Lila Boschet
Producer: Rebecca Gremmo
2D Design: Plan B
3D Design: Msoma Architects
More
Design Researchers in Residence: Restore
the Design Museum
June–October 2022
Photo by Felix Speller
Restore brought together the work of the 2021/22 Design Researchers in Residence – four thinkers based at the Design Museum working on research projects in response to the climate crisis. Their projects took us to Kensington hairdressers and into the shadow of Grenfell Tower, through the UK’s polluted lakes and on to an imagined, less comfortable future.
They showed us the ecological value of seaweed, the adaptability of waste materials, the creative potential of recycled human hair and the importance of listening to the silences in our city, tracing design-led routes towards more restorative relationships: between places and communities, between ourselves and our planet.
The 2022/23 Design Researchers in Residence were Thomas Aquilina, Delfina Fantini van Ditmar, Samuel Iliffe and Sanne Visser.
Assistant curator: Lila Boschet
Producer: Rebecca Gremmo
2D Design: Rose Nordin
3D Design: Sahra Hersi
More
Enough. The Architecture of Degrowth
Oslo Architecture Triennale
September–November 2019
As a response to the on-going climate crisis and a global society with growing social inequality, “Enough: The Architecture of Degrowth” explored the notion of degrowth and its possible consequences and opportunities for our cities.
Through a large programme the festival looked for urban and architectural solutions for a future where human and ecological wellbeing are prioritized over economic growth. How do we shape and build our cities in such a world? And not least, how do we get there?
As assistant curator of the triennale I worked closely with the chief curators and contributors to the triennale’s main exhibition, The Library, curating work from architects, designers and others including Public Works, (ab)Normal Story, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and Long Live Southbank, EDIT Collective, Civil Architecture and many more.
More