Space10’s Mexico pop-up invites designers to solve the issues of our time

Over two weeks in Mexico City, SPACE10 will create a platform to gather diverse perspectives with talks, interactive experiences, and events surrounding the theme ‘Beyond Human-Centered Design’.

On March 26, 2022, SPACE10, IKEA’s research and design lab, will travel to Mexico City for a two-week open pop-up in Roma Norte at the exhibition space, LOOT. Inspired by Mexico City’s action, energy, and diversity, SPACE10 will create a platform to gather diverse perspectives through talks, exhibitions, and events surrounding the theme ‘Beyond Human-Centered Design’.

“The biggest and most urgent creative challenge of our time is how we meet the needs and dreams of the many people while remaining within the boundaries of the planet,” says Simon Caspersen, co-founder of SPACE10. “We have undeliberately designed ourselves into the mess we find ourselves in today. As such, the purpose of setting up SPACE10 in Mexico City is to create a platform where we can come together as a design community and discuss how we design our way out of it. It’s pretty clear it’s time we redefine what constitutes good design.”

The two-week pop-up in Mexico City invites people to engage in talks, interactive experiences, hackathons, and art installations in order to rethink and reimagine how design and technology can build better conditions for a more desirable future. SPACE10 will bring together a diverse line-up of artists, designers, technologists, architects, academics, entrepreneurs and activists under one roof to unfold a dynamic digital and physical program, complimentary to all.

“Our aim is for the pop-up to be a laboratory of ideas for a new type of design thinking,” says Jana Perkovic, Editor & Program Curator at SPACE10. “We are excited to bring both local and international thought leaders on stage and learn from the design community of Mexico City. Our hope is that the program in Mexico will provoke our collective imagination and help us qualify new opportunities, build new partnerships, and design new solutions, all while emboldening people from around the world to take action together for positive change.”

Beyond the two-week pop-up in Mexico City, SPACE10 is currently conducting on-ground research in Latin America surrounding the essentials for a better everyday life as well as working with new partners and collaborators. SPACE10 will also host a six-week residency for five designers based in Mexico.

Together with SPACE10 and material translator Seetal Solanki from Ma-tt-er, the residents will explore and investigate local biomaterials in Mexico. Taking place both online and in Mexico City, the residency is planned from 28 February to 9 April 2022. The deadline for applications is 3 February 2022. 

“We are excited for SPACE10 to reside in LOOT, as it is a venue that allows us to open the doors to the community, as well as house our team from Copenhagen to work and engage with new collaborators and partners,” says Kevin Curran, Spatial Design Lead at SPACE10. “We feel Mexico City’s progressive and dynamic design scene is the perfect playground for us to connect research experts and creatives from around the world to explore and rethink the role of design.”

Over the years, SPACE10 has popped up in cities including New York, London, Shanghai, Nairobi, and most recently Delhi. The Mexico City Pop-up will serve as a platform to bring people together, as well as a place to challenge ideas, learn, and through conversations, together unfold new design approaches that can help solve real problems with real people. 
The pop-up will be open from March 26, 2022 until April 9, 2022, with daily programming at LOOT, located at Guanajuato 227, Roma Nte.