Dr Paul Micklethwaite is course director of MA Sustainable Design at Kingston University. His primary interests are in the impact of the sustainability (social and ecological) agenda on the theory and practice of design, and emerging modes of design practice such as social innovation and open design.
Paul is a specialist in Design for Sustainability – its theory, research and practice. As an educator, researcher and practitioner he is interested primarily in how the contemporary sustainability agenda challenges all facets of our visual and material culture.
Paul’s PhD (2002) asked the research question ‘What is design?’ – which he continues to explore in his current roles leading undergraduate, postgraduate taught, and postgraduate research programmes.
Paul has supervised or examined PhDs in the following subjects: design and secondary material cycles; designing for longer product lifespans; creative reuse of rejectamenta; sustainability and traditional architecture; sustainable buildings and sustainable behaviour; sustainable material selection in industrial design.
He is currently supervising PhD projects in the following subjects: design probes for engagement with fashion; design-led interventions to address alcohol misuse in the public realm; the social design of public space; design methods for digital service innovation.