Events
Make Good Symposium 2025
How can we regenerate our woodlands and cultivate the resources they offer? Make Good and Material Cultures host an afternoon of thought-provoking talks from foresters, material specialists, authors, architects, producers and makers.
Conferences and study days
- Wednesday, 19 March 2025
- V&A South Kensington
- Free
- Wednesday, 19 March 2025
- 14.00 – 18.45
- V&A South KensingtonCromwell Road
London, SW7 2RL - Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre
- Free event
The 2025 Make Good symposium brings together leading foresters, material specialists, authors, architects, producers and makers to discuss the potential of our woodland resources, how we can cultivate them and regenerate the land on which they grow. As such, it takes its cue from Material Cultures’ pioneering research into bark, natural glue and pine needles currently on display at the V&A in Woodland Goods.
The symposium forms part of the fourth iteration of the Make Good: Rethinking Material Futures programme, supported by John Makepeace OBE. The ten-year project launched in 2022 and encompasses an annual display in the Dr Susan Weber Gallery of Furniture, an annual symposium and a programme of acquisitions dedicated to exploring the use of natural, renewable materials in design and architecture at a time of climate emergency.
Symposium overview:
Introductions by Anna Bates, V&A and Summer Islam, Material Cultures
Land
Keynote by Guy Standing, economist
Forestry
Jez Ralph, Evolving Forests
Sarmīte Polakova, Studio Sarmīte
Q&A chaired by Summer Islam
Goods
Humphrey Bunyan and Sam Holland-Bunyan, Cecence
Rosa Whiteley, Cooking Sections
Rodrigo García González, Notpla
Inês Rodrigues, Amorim
Q&A chaired by Anna Bates
Education
Lesson with Seetal Solanki, Ma-tt-er
Building
Christian Benimana, MASS Design Group
Loretta Bosence, Local Works Studio
Q&A chaired by Ruth Lang, architect, researcher and writer
Concluding remarks by Christopher Wilk, V&A
Please use the #makegood tag when posting about the symposium. To find out about future events and sign up to our quarterly newsletter, please visit: vam.ac.uk/info/make-good.
This event will be hosted in-person. Additionally, for those who prefer to join remotely, we are offering streamed online tickets as a separate option.