Chris Rose
We know as much as our means of expression, engagement, our ‘art’ allows us to know, since we can know only what we have attempted to share, explain, present or negotiate. (From ‘Five Essays on Design’, 2006).
Chris Rose is a designer, author, academic and all-round visionary. He is known both for his work in arts-science-design collaborations and for his leadership of one of the UK’s best known multidisciplinary design programs, Three-Dimensional Design and Materials Practice, at the University of Brighton, England from 1993–2009. He brings his vision for 'seeing' things in different ways into many disciplines and for many purposes, all related to developing how we live and work for the better of all. Formerly a furniture and interior designer Chris was a member of the UK Crafts Council Index of Selected Makers and a recipient of the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers Guild award. He and UK furniture artist Fred Baier shared studio design consultancy Baier-Rose Design, and Rose subsequently worked with Pearl Dot Furniture in London. He was invited to manage part of the independent Parnham Studio Furniture program established by John Makepeace, and later the multidisciplinary arts and design program at the University of Brighton, where he continued to broaden the connections and working links with materials science, art-science collaboration and European cross-border projects. Chris saw links between engineering and art+design practices long before it become fashionable. His work with collaborator Caroline Baillie on programs of 'Travelling Facts' and knowledge development through the Institute of Advanced studies in Berlin, first connected ideas on interdisciplinary design to the complexities of social justice and ethics. His work on 'Composites on Tour' for the European Society for Composite Materials supported the development of design thinking of many engineering students throughout Europe. In 2012 Chris consulted at Aalto University Helsinki with architect collaborator Saija Hollmen on proposals for new joint masters programs for engineering and architecture, applying concepts from the cognitive sciences for visual thinkers and designers. Currently Chris shares his time between three countries: Australia, the UK and the US where he works at Rhode Island School of Design as researcher, teacher, advisor and formerly as Dean of Graduate studies. His work in Australia frames the connections between sustainable design, Aboriginal ways of knowing and biomimimetics - learning from nature.
Chris is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London.
