The Design Council is the UK's national charity for design, whose Design Council CABE team gives expert design review on buildings, places and the built environment.
The Design Council is a UK charity that describes its mission as "to be the UK's national champion for design". It covers design in a broad sense, from products and services to places, so it sits at the edge of this sector. We include it here because of its built environment work: since 2011 its Design Council CABE team has offered design review, tailored expert support and training for building and planning projects, backed by a network of around 250 Built Environment Experts. CABE stands for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, an earlier public body that merged into the Design Council.
The Design Council began on 19 December 1944 as the Council of Industrial Design, founded by Hugh Dalton, then President of the Board of Trade. Its first aim was to promote the improvement of design in the products of British industry. It later became the Design Council and is incorporated by royal charter. In the 1950s it opened the Design Centre in London's Haymarket, which opened in 1956 and closed to the public after a restructuring in 1994. Wikipedia says its chief executive since 2021 is Minnie Moll, who introduced a "Design for Planet" mission, and that Sarah Weir led it from 2017.
In the UK, its registered contact address is care of an accountancy firm on Golden Lane in London, so it does not publish a grand headquarters for the public. Its design review work takes it to projects across England. The Wikipedia page we could read gives no list of regional offices, so we do not claim any. The Design Council has also hosted the British Design Awards, so events and awards are part of what its staff do.
Roles at an organisation of this sort include design review managers, programme and project staff, researchers, communications and events people, and the expert advisers who sit on review panels. Design review is a process in which independent experts, often architects and urban designers, give constructive advice on a scheme before it is built. The idea is to make places better for the people who use them. The Design Council's own site is the best place to learn how it describes its working culture, as we did not read that.
For a student, the Design Council is a good example of how design thinking is used in public life, and it is a way into the built environment from a design direction. If you enjoy drawing, problem-solving and improving how things work for people, it is worth following its projects. Our sources were limited, so check the Design Council's own website for current programmes and vacancies.
Website: www.designcouncil.org.uk
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