PRS Opening Event & Keynote Panel - October 2025

Celebrate the opening of PRS Australia in the Design Hub Gallery for networking opportunities with our community of practice researchers and to view the research of our PhD and Masters by Research Examination candidates. Welcome drinks and finger food will be provided. This will be followed by a Keynote Panel in the Design Hub Lecture Theatre.

PRS Australia is delighted to host Professor Chris Speed to lead a panel discussion with Dr. Guy Keulemans, Dr. Melissa Pineda Pinto and Dr. Olivier Cotsaftis.

Keynote: Reimagining Design's Role in Regenerative Futures

Professor Chris Speed will host a panel conversation addressing design's current trajectory toward sustainability by proposing a framework for regenerative design that transcends conventional environmental thinking - including challenging the "thingification" of design objects and argues for a shift from extractive to regenerative design practices. Through examples of contemporary design from the recent NGV exhibition ‘Making Good’, Professor Speed engages panelists in a conversation on how design can move beyond sustainability's limitations to actively heal and restore social-ecological systems.

Speakers

Chris Speed FRSE is Professor of Design for Regenerative Futures at RMIT, Melbourne, Australia, and Director of the Regenerative Futures Institute where he collaborates with a wide variety of communities and partners to explore how design provides methods to adapt toward becoming a regenerative society. Chris has an established track record in directing large complex grants and educational programmes with academic, industry and third sector partners, that apply design and data methods to social, environmental and economic challenges.  

Guy Keulemans is a craft and design practice researcher at the University of South Australia exploring repair, reuse and ethical materials for environmental sustainability. He exhibits internationally and has works in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of South Australia. His Australian Research Council funded project Transformative Repair (2020-25) won awards from Australian Council of University Art and Design Schools (ACUADS) and Australian Council of Deans and Directors of Creative Arts (DDCA) in 2024 and was named a Top 100 Game Changer in Design by Architectural Digest Italia in 2021. 

Melissa Pineda Pinto is a McKenzie Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She uses a multispecies justice approach to make visible urban novel ecosystems in marginal, forgotten spaces, working through co-design and critical geography methods in Australian and international cities. She is also part of the European Research Council–funded project NovelEco, which studies urban novel ecosystems through forecasting, co-design, and governance analysis. Her research brings justice-oriented perspectives to urban nature to help shape regenerative futures. 

Olivier Cotsaftis is a researcher-practitioner within the School of Design at RMIT University. Working at the intersection of design, ecology, and futures, his practice is grounded in living systems, critical ecologies, and material entanglements—contributing to regenerative transitions. Before joining RMIT, Ollie was a design lead at Fjord Design and Innovation and the founder of future ensemble studio. He is currently Co-Program Manager of the Master of Design Innovation and Technology, Design and Architecture Lead of the RMIT Nature Positive Network, and co-founder of neomatter, a nature repair and nature-based solutions startup. 

Order of Proceedings

PRS exhibition opening: 5:30pm – 6:30pm, Design Hub Gallery, Level 2
Keynote: 6:30pm - 7:30pm, Design Hub Lecture Theatre, Level 3 
Event ends at 7:30pm at the conclusion of the Keynote Presentation.

Access
The keynote presentation will be recorded but not live-streamed.
Both Level 2 and Level 3 spaces are accessible via level pathway from the street entry and lifts to each floor.
Accessibility requirements can be provided through the registration process or please contact host.

Guy Keulemans photo by Carine Thevenau.
Olivier Cotsaftis photo by Cat Black.