Symposium The Design of History and the History of Design


London College of Communication
15 September, 2025



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SpeakerS and Abstracts:

Huda Almazroua
Alberto Atalla Filho
Russ Bestley
Kevin Biderman
Silvia Bombardini
David Cross
Dora Souza Dias
Sam Gathercole
Ian Horton and Ian Hague
Jennifer Hankin
Zarna Hart
John-Patrick Hartnett
Fenella Hitchcock
Abbie Vickress and Sakis Kyratzis
Christopher Lacy
Timothy Miller
Danah Nassief
Jesse O’Neill
Nina O’Reilly
Patrick O’Shea
David Preston
Cheryl Roberts
Rebecca Ross
Antoin Sharkey
Andrew Slatter
Kate Trant
Vanessa Vanden Berghe
Judy Willcocks
Christin Yu



A symposium for UAL’s Design History research community


The Design of History and the History of Design is a one-day symposium that maps research into, through or at the boundaries of design history at UAL. While design history may underpin our teaching across different disciplines, research in design history across UAL is somewhat hidden. This symposium aims to share and make visible the work of researchers (staff and students) at all career stages across all UAL colleges.

Exploring the intersections of historical narrative and design practice, it examines how history is constructed, represented, and mediated through design, and how the discipline of design itself is shaped by its evolving historiography.

The symposium will serve as the starting point for a Design History Network at UAL, bringing together researchers from across the university. It also lays the foundation for a welcoming research community in design history, with potential for ongoing events, collaboration, publications, and curriculum development.

If you have any questions or would like to be involved in future activities, please get in touch with the convenors:

Rujana Rebernjak
r.rebernjak@lcc.arts.ac.ukTai Cossich
t.cossich@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Please also sign up for the UAL Design Histories Newsletter




    Nina O’Reilly 

    “A few feet from where you’re standing someone was raving”: designing subcultural histories at Kings’ Cross Central


    A place is conjunction of many histories and many spaces, yet much of its identity will depend upon how and what histories are told of it.  The story of King’s Cross, in north central London, is today perhaps most authoritatively told by Argent, the developers and managers of the area’s regeneration project. Their retelling weaves narratives of urban decay and wasted land into a tale of salvation, delivered in the form of a £3 billion funded privately owned public space, with luxury shops, restaurants, and tech HQs and elite art universities, such as Central Saint Martins, as tenants. 

    This paper, drawing from ongoing PhD research, will focus specifically on how club cultures, factor into Argent’s historical account of the area. It will examine the role that club cultures play in the service of placemaking and in heightening the area’s cultural cachet. Through analysis of permanent installations, events, pop-ups, and press releases it will examine how Argent shapes historical narratives of the area’s former club scene, smoothening and designing these histories as promotional tools and experiences for the King’s Cross Central estate. 

    While ostensibly an act of preserving local cultural heritage, Argent’s position in telling these histories is contentious being that, as the estate’s redeveloper, it actively erased these clubs and practices from the area. This paper will therefore investigate how club cultures are mined for aesthetic appeal, belying the impact of these movements while also firmly rooting their dissidence in a safely distant past. It will further explore the tension between memorialising raves and club cultures in such a tightly controlled and highly securitised environment, where the same practices could not happen today.



    — Nina O’Reilly


    Nina O’Reilly is a PhD researcher at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. Her research explores the changing fortunes of youth/sub/club/queer cultures in the King’s Cross area over time, how these communities and practices have been impacted by the area’s regeneration and what the future holds. Nina also has an MA in Gender, Sexuality, & Culture from University College Dublin and an MA in Publishing from Oxford Brookes University. Her previous research has focused on music and queer subcultures as well as DIY publishing practices.