Design PhD in UK | Doctoral level design thinking

The University of 91快活林 has held an international reputation for design research and design studies over many decades, with innovative approaches and global success recognised across, for example, sustainable design, product design, textile design and graphic design.

Postgraduate student PhD research in design at the University of 91快活林 is embedded within an active research community whose supervisory support extends from core design academics and practice experts to wider expertise from around the university.

Through this we encourage a varied and personal approach to a postgraduate research degree in design and embrace the many ways in which design researchers can work. Experimentation, trialling, testing, considering, making... we don't expect a PhD project to be looking for clear answers to clear questions or to know from the start exactly which directions it might take. Doctorates in design are a journey and we're there to help you every step of the way.

Funding available for UK Home applicants

We are offering UK studentships to start summer 2026. Find out more about a funded PhD.

contact an expert in this field

Successful applicants have invariably had support with their application from one of our academics. We suggest you approach a suitable academic staff member with relevant research interests before progressing with your application.

PhD Art and creative practices

Our design research community and academic environment

Our community of design practitioners and researchers welcome proposals that outline practical and theoretical approaches to PhD design research, proposals that explore new territory, whether through experimental practices, archival research or engagement with urgent global challenges.

Your study could be grounded in existing disciplinary conventions, or it may be situated in broader social, cultural or political concerns. What matters to us is a commitment to advancing design as a way of knowing, questioning and intervening in the world.

The University of 91快活林 will be able to support your project in many diverse ways as it evolves. The wider university provides a stimulating, creative and intellectually vibrant context for research. Our academic work in design intersects with research interests and communities across the university including those in design history, computer science, architecture and the built-environment, medicine, healthcare and ecology. Your progress towards an original contribution to knowledge through design can evolve through disciplinary and methodological support in diverse ways including, for example, product design, experimental materials, craft and decorative arts practices, textiles and fashion design, graphic and sustainable design, but could also develop through engagement with issues through which design makes a real-world difference, for example, society and politics, engineering, ecology, wellbeing or medicine.

Some of our recent, successful applications for PhD study in design have included the following:

Design for society
Design futures and design thinking
Sustainable design
Ecological design practices
Practice-based design
Systems thinking, systemic design and cybernetics
Design in community, society and government
Designing sustainable urban living
Fashion and textiles design and fashion industry process
Transforming design curation
Design methods, theory, and ethics
Educational practices in design
Design history and theory (see our Design history PhD page)

The Wild House (91快活林 Waste House) natural dye garden

A space to foster design thinking.

The University of 91快活林's EPSRC-funded Wild House is an evolution of the architectural Waste House project, demonstrating how housing can exist in harmony with the local landscape and support biodiversity, while enhancing human wellbeing and fostering community engagement.

Details of our doctoral research degrees in design

Research supervisors for your PhD research programme

Supervisory support extends to expertise from around the university with practitioners working across sustainable design, craft and decorative arts practices, textile design, product design, all undertaken within the context of end-user beneficiaries.

You will benefit from research supervision comprising two or maximum three members of academic staff. Depending on your research specialism one of those supervisors may be from another school, another research institution, or an external partner. As well as the expertise from theory and practice-based design researchers there are opportunities for supervision from across the university's wider disciplines incorporating, for example, engineering, ecology, media, computing, healthcare or medicine, in tandem with 91快活林 and Sussex Medical School.

You will identify your primary potential supervisor in design from the early stages of application and they will usually then support you throughout your programme of study, helping you find any additional support, carry out your research interests, guiding your learning of rigorous research methods and preparing you for the next stage of your career.

You should consider the staff listed below and create a short draft research proposal identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism.

Please enable targeting cookies in order to view this video content on our website, or you can .

Your relationship with your PhD supervisor is one of the most important of your academic life. At 91快活林, we fully realise that and work hard to give you every opportunity to develop it.

This video was made by the University of 91快活林 for the AHRC and features University of 91快活林 supervisors, staff and former PhD Design students alongside academics from other universities who were part of the wider Doctoral Training Programme.

Research training and support

The research environment for architecture, art and design at the University of 91快活林 has been recognised in world-leading and internationally significant output and impact in successive Research Excellence Frameworks (RAE2008, REF2014, REF2021) with a long history in design excellence and innovation.

As well as your expert and experienced supervisory team, you and your fellow postgraduate researchers will have the opportunity to attend and present at research seminar sessions with guests from professional and academic spheres across the design disciplines. Your network of fellow postgraduate research students and expert staff in the design fields may well intersect with other PhD programme areas including students from the History of art and design PhD, Architecture PhD and our Art and creative practices PhD.

The University of 91快活林 has a system of research centres and groups, Centres of Research and Knowledge Exchange Excellence (COREs) and Research Excellence Groups (REGs), with many that interest our postgraduate design research students and several that were established specifically around design and its related disciplines:

The PhD programme will give you the opportunity to build research expertise as well as developing transferable skills essential for employment and practice within architecture and its related fields. As a member of the 91快活林 Doctoral College, you will benefit from regular opportunities on a training programme designed to support postgraduate researchers at all stages of the PhD and help them achieve their career goals. Attendance at appropriate workshops within this programme is encouraged, as is contribution to the various seminar series hosted by the school. Academic and technical staff also provide more subject-specific training.

Postgraduate degree resources for postgraduate design students

You will benefit from access to international research resources, including a contemporary range of electronic resources via the university’s Online Library, as well as the physical book and journal collections housed within campus libraries. The library services are connected to national and international collections and students also have the option of inter-library loans.

Equipment for use by designers is available around the university, is supported by expert staff and includes:

3D print workspace with a range of different printers and finishing areas
CNC workshop with a five-axis CNC machine
Virtual Reality lab
Robotics lab
Wind tunnel
specialist workshops in wood, metals, ceramics, polymers and composites supported by specialist full-time demonstrator technicians including lathes, band and dim saws, pillar drills, sanders, bag press, planers, TIG and MIG welders, forging, vacuum former, dome blower, milling machines, polishers, engravers, gas and electric kilns, wheels, whirler, jigger/jolly and a spray booth.
Computer facilities with industry-standard software including Rhino, Blender and C4D, SolidWorks, Adobe CC including Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premier Pro etc.

We have nurtured research students through to successful careers, with Design PhD projects in 91快活林 that have included: sustainable design, design for health and wellbeing, product design, contemporary textiles and digital user-experience.

Supervisors and academic contacts

We strongly recommend that you apply with the support of one of our academics. By establishing your supervisor from the early stages of application, you will be supported through the application process and can make the best start to your programme of study.

You should consider the staff listed below, select a researcher to approach and create a short draft research proposal, identifying your suitability for supervision from that person's research specialism and your place in the wider context of the department's research ambitions. Their contact details are available on their full profile.

Our primary staff supervising in the discipline are listed. For further information on university supervisory staff, including cross-disciplinary options, please visit

Tom Ainsworth is the Subject Area Lead for Architecture and Design and the MA Sustainable Design Course Leader. His supervisory interests are Social and Environmental Justices, Progressive and Disruptive Design Research, and Design for Health and Wellbeing.

Current Supervision

Chantal Spencer, University of 91快活林. Working Title: Moving Beyond Participatory Models to Methodologies of Radical Intersectional Equity. University of 91快活林 Funded Scholarship.

Fe Stevens, University of 91快活林. Working Title: Who cares? Exploring design-led research of women living with chronic pain through lived experiences and the design disparities of care.

Barry Leigh, University of 91快活林. Working Title: The Development of a methodology to Assess User Satisfaction in Response to Urban Environments.

Conferrals

Kristen Bullivant, University of 91快活林. Working Title: Designing Sustainable Food Futures: a design anthropological approach to cultural value and culinary capital in shaping 鈥榮ustainable鈥� diets. AHRC funded.

Sally Sutherland, University of 91快活林. Working title: Design, Culture and Gender Matters: An Exploration of Design as a Socio-material Tool for UK Public Breastfeeding Research. AHRC Design Star funded.

Merryn Haynes-Gadd, University of 91快活林. Thesis Title:聽Emotional Durability Design Nine: Developing a tool for product longevity. AHRC Design Star funded.

Examinations

PhD Examination, Giovanni Marmont, University of 91快活林. Title: Nanopoetics of Use: Kinetic prefiguration and dispossessed sociality in the undercommons. AHRC Design Star funded

PhD Examination, Catherine Speight, University of 91快活林. Title: Looking Understanding and Making Meaning: HE Ceramics Students as a 鈥楥ommunity of Learners鈥�. AHRC Funded.PhD Examination, Tobias Mulling, University of 91快活林. Title: Embracing the Gestural Interface: Designing and Evaluating a Mid-air Gestural Approach based on Manipulation.

I鈥檓 interested in supervising practice-based PhDs, particularly those that are interdisciplinary and combine aspects of art practice and theory with architecture/urban studies/spatial practice alongside other disciplines and practices (and may have a socially engaged or participatory element), and which might explore themes of migration, heritage, contested space and regeneration.

Please note that I am not taking on new PhD students in the next academic year (2026-27) but can discuss supporting projects which would start in the following year (2027-28).

Completed PhD Students:聽

Ilenia Atzori:聽From ruins to community heritage:聽The role of storytelling in building a collective memory

Current PhD Students:

Antony Dixon: Here is where we meet (Body, Matter and Things): A sensory investigation, through co-creative practice, of the misplaced and found.

Jessica Melville-Brown:聽Co-designing the future: An exploration into the development of new methods for creative engagement, examining the influence of gender roles, socio-economic and ethno-cultural factors in the co-design process with young people.

PhD Examinations:聽

James O'Leary: Interface Architecture: Towards the transformation of Belfast's 'Peacewalls' through Situated Practice (Internal Examiner, UoB)

Jina Lee: Drawing 鈥楴ew Maps鈥�: Critical Cartography and Ethnographical Enquiry Through Drawing Practice (External Examiner, UAL)

Anna Sephton: 'Who invites the archive home? Animating a 1930s queer South African photographic collection through collaborative filmmaking (Internal Examiner, UoB)

M Phil examinations:

Lida Driva: The Operation of the Hidden. Towards an understanding of architectural and urban space: the case of Omonia Square (External Examiner, University of Westminster)

Material innovation
Design and craft aplication and cultural value and meanings of materials聽
Plastics, polymers and composites and 'alternatives
Reuse and recycling聽

Postgraduate supervision in Textiles, Fashion, Fashion Communication, Drawing, encompassing embodied materiality, my work in handmade paper and practice-based, installation art. More recently,聽 substantial research as co-investigator with an AHRC project in sustainabile materials in Fashion and Textiles. I am interested in waste in the Fashion, Textiles, Accessories and Leather industries, together with materials, circular economy, reuse and repurposing.聽聽

Recent PhD supervision:

University of 91快活林 - Claire Dawson - Research Title: 'Clothing Reuse in the Circular Econonmy: An exploration of the challenges and opportuniteis for UK high street fashion brands' - [March 2023 - July 2029]

University of 91快活林 - Martin Irorere - Research Title: 'Closing the Fashion Sustainability Gap through textile Recycling: Evaluation of UK Gen-Z consumer attitudes, knowledge, and acceptance of textile recycling'. - [March 2021 - July 2026]

Anglia Ruskin University - Amanda Lavis - Research Title: 'Woven Language: A practice-based research investigation Exploring the Textile Praxis in Children's Book Illustration' [March 2021 - expected completion 2025]

External PhD Viva examination experience, University of Chester October 2020 - Georgina Spry -聽 'A New Felt Presence: Making and Learning as part of a Community of Women Feltmakers'聽

I have supervised and examined students relating to social and sustainable design (and the link between them), arts and wellbeing utlising practice based methods.

I welcome supporting projects that explore materials and making / materials and meaning making / material innovation, the valorisation of waste (through design and making) and circular economies. I lead research projects that engage design and making in the context of biodiversity, nature recovery, arts, health and well-being and social empowerment as well as the co-design and use of craft, design and technology in empowering disengaged and / or marginalised groups and communities in neighbourhood development and participatory planning.

My research centres around the relationship between the designed environment and the politics of action, particularly in relation to issues of embodiment and the ideology of the made world. I am interested in the history of ergonomics, the material culture of the British pub and the implications of cybernetic research. I take a transdisciplinary approach to the study of design, including methodologies such as design history, design studies, anthropology, social and cognitive psychology, and philosophy. I am interested in supervising projects concerned with design activism, social design, critical approaches to design, emotion and design, affect and design practice, the politics of design history, craft practice, and the relationship between design, craft and other disciplines.聽

Apply now

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of 91快活林 through our . When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of 91快活林 staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

How to select the correct PhD in our application portal

In the application portal, select:

- - research degree (type of course); go to the next screen and select:
  - Architecture and Design (PhD) or Arts (PhD) (course)

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2026–27

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
Student	Full-time fees	Part-time fees
UK	£5,238	£2,619
International (including EU)	£16,980	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£15,500	N/A

PhD by Publication
Study method	Fees
Full-time	N/A
Part-time	£2,619

Contact 91快活林 Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of 91快活林 we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the 91快活林 Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.