Practicing Design Culture in a Post-Solutionist World - A talk by Guy Julier
Traditionally, design is defined as a problem-solving activity, yet we rarely consider how problem-solving itself has become one of the defining logics of contemporary society. This way of thinking also shapes design education, where theory and cultural inquiry often follow the same solutionist approach. It looks at what happens when we move away from the dominant solution-focused mindset and begin to treat design culture as a practice in its own right. The session opens up questions around non-solutionist design practices and invites discussion on their implications.
Julier is not only the author of several books, such as Culture of Design and Economies of Design, which are now considered classics, but also has more than 30 years of professional experience as a university professor and a professional practitioner. He is credited with establishing the field of design culture research, which also forms the basis of the accredited PhD programme at the MOME Doctoral School, running for over a decade.
He has completed his doctorate at Leeds Metropolitan University, focusing his research on design cultures in Spain and Hungary during the political transitions. He continued to visit Hungary regularly after the transition, meeting key figures in Hungarian design such as Gyula Ernyey, József Scherer, Tibor Szentpéteri and Mihály Pohárnok. These experiences informed his research on the 1990s, the transitional period of Hungarian design. His ties to Hungary and the university were further strengthened when he returned in 2019 to deliver a keynote lecture at MOME’s international conference entitled Design Culture and Somaesthetics and was awarded an honorary doctorate by MOME two years later.
This time, he is coming to MOME to give a public lecture, and chair a doctoral defence at the Doctoral School the following day, Supported by the Global Voices programme.
Date and time: Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 10:00 a.m.
Venue: U-401
More information: https://www.designculture.info/about/guy-julier/
Previous interviews in Hungary: