PROFESSOR RACHEL COOPER OBE MEMORIAL SESSION

In July 2025 Professor Lady Rachel Cooper passed away. It is empty without her at the European Academy of Design conference, one of the institutions Rachel founded in 1995, alongside The Design Journal in 1997 – just to name two of her creations.

Rachel was not only a person with visions but a someone who institutionalized her ideas so they would last. In the book The Design Experience (with Mike Press) it is stated that

“…the designer is an active citizen… The designer is also a social initiator and an internationalist…”

Rachel was all that, and a visionary person who trusted people around her to accomplish what design could do to society.

Trust was something she showed to many of us. To remember her legacy a panel with Prof. Heitor Alvelos, Prof. Leon Cruickshank, Prof. Deana McDonagh and Prof.em. Lisbeth Svengren Holm will discuss Rachel’s legacy and the evolution of design research.