Arts University Plymouth partners with Fab City Foundation to shape future-focused design education

<p>Beginning from January 2026, the <a href="https://fab.city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fab City Foundation</a> is contributing a series of research-intensive sessions integrated into Arts University Plymouth’s <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/study/postgraduate">MA Design</a> provision, supporting students to explore how design can respond to environmental, social and economic challenges at local and global scales.</p>

<p>The collaboration supports our expanded postgraduate offer, which includes new MA Design pathways in <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-design">Design</a>, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-design-communication">Communication</a>, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-design-fashion">Fashion</a>, <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-design-textiles">Textiles</a> and <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/ma-design-built-environment">Built Environment</a>, launched this September. Through the partnership, students will engage with Fab City principles such as circularity, regenerative practice, open knowledge and bioregional innovation, informed by real-world projects from the international Fab City network.</p>

<p>The partnership aligns closely with Arts University Plymouth’s Centre for Circular Materials, a research hub dedicated to how materials are chosen, used and kept in circulation across creative practice, design fabrication and partnerships. Together, the Centre for Circular Materials and the Fab City partnership reinforce the university’s commitment to material-led, responsible design education that connects local resources with global systems.</p>

<p><strong>Associate Professor Stephanie Owens, Dean of Arts, Design and Media at Arts University Plymouth, said: </strong>“The educational partnership with the Fab City Foundation provides our MA students with access to a rich, developed body of knowledge and practice in bioregional design methods and allows them to meaningfully situate their learning within our local systems and surrounding environment. The link between global knowledge networks and local material ecologies provides them with real world opportunities to generate innovative solutions and projects that emerge from direct engagement with the city. More importantly, the knowledge sharing between the Fab City Global network and the university demonstrates a design-process that is led by an open, reciprocal, and restorative ethos that sets a new standard for how designers work, creating products and services which prioritize the wellbeing of people and planet first”.</p> <p><strong>Tomás Diez, Executive Director of the Fab City Foundation, said: </strong>“Fab City Plymouth has inspired many cities across the global network of territories that are also working to design and prototype alternative models of local production. Working with academic institutions allows us to challenge traditional approaches to education, as we envision learning as a consequence of taking action to address local challenges. We see these experiences as a vehicle to strengthen local Fab City consortiums and to promote the cross-pollination of ideas within our ecosystem.”</p>

<p>The partnership builds on a long-standing relationship between Arts University Plymouth and Fab City leadership through our <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/making-futures">Making Futures</a>™ research platform and investment in digital fabrication through <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/fab-lab-south-west">Fab Lab South West</a>. It reflects a shared commitment to learning in practice, international collaboration and open exchange of knowledge.</p>

<p>Alongside teaching activity, Arts University Plymouth and the Fab City Foundation will collaborate on shared storytelling, case studies and communications, showcasing student work and the wider relevance of Fab City thinking to creative practice, communities and city futures. This joint communications work will also help extend the reach of Arts University Plymouth’s <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/centre-for-circular-materials">Centre for Circular Materials</a> through the Fab City Foundation’s international networks, introducing related projects and learning to new audiences.</p>