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DRS’s Interdisciplinary Textiles together with Design for Inclusivity SIGs will organize a commemorative moment for Julia Cassim on 26th of November 2024 from 12.00 – 13.00 (GMT). Prof. Hua Dong, Prof. Kaori Ueda, Tincuta Heinzel and Sara Robertson invites you to remember Julia together with them following this link.
Julia Cassim, a co-convenor of the Interdisciplinary Textiles Research SIG of the DRS, passed away unexpectedly on 16th of June 2024. She was Professor at the Kyoto Institute of Technology, charged with setting up the KYOTO Design Lab, as a centre for interdisciplinary design innovation projects in collaboration with industry, the public sector and other national and international partners and visiting professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem and Visiting Fellow at the RCA and an advisor to the Science Museum and Natural History Museum in London.
“Julia Cassim, a co-convenor of the Interdisciplinary Textiles Research SIG of DRS and global inclusive design activist, passed away on the 16th June 2024.
Julia Cassim introduced ‘critical users’ through DBA Inclusive Design Challenges, at the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre, Royal College of Art. Julia brought her inclusive design innovation ideas to many countries. She had created new co-design-led inclusive business models that generated income and allowed disabled people to be economically independent. In 2010, Julia was listed in the Design Week’s Hot 50 that described her as “bringing together creative communities across the world to work with disabled or ageing people, allowing them to understand their needs in order to seek a remedy to them through design.”
Hua Dong – Professor, Head of Brunel Design School London and co-chair of DRS – Design Research Society.
“Julia worked on many advanced projects as a specially appointed professor in charge of the KYOTO Design Lab (establishment of a cross-disciplinary design centre for design innovation) at the Kyoto Institute of Technology from 2014 to 2019. Among these projects was the Textiles Summer School, which Julia launched in 2017, a residency-based workshop in connection to the Japanese dyeing and weaving industry. It was a large-scale initiative, inviting around 30 international participants every year. Julia oversaw everything from the start-up to the content. Her precise and passionate leadership succeeded in bringing together Japanese textile production areas and international researchers, a relationship that has remained unchanged to the present day. Through her designs, Julia brought Japan and the world together.”
Kaori Ueda – Associated Professor, Kyoto Saga University of Arts, Japan.
“We learnt with a lot of sadness that Julia Cassim, one of the co-convenors of the Interdisciplinary Textiles Research SIG of DRS passed away on 16th of June 2024. Julia actively supported the textiles research communities in the UK, Netherlands and Japan, building bridges and establishing collaborations that are still active today. Julia encouraged a vision in which the past techniques, the present infrastructures and knowledge, as well as the future of textiles are merging, being pivotal in initiating the Textiles Summer School in Kyoto Japan. Her dedication, energy and passion will be remembered.”
Tincuta Heinzel – Senior Lecturer in Textiles, Loughborough University and Convenor of Interdisciplinary Textiles Research SIG of DRS.
“What a joy it was to meet Julia in 2018 and to be swept up by her infectious passion for bringing people together through textiles. Her dedication to organising the textile summer camp left a lasting impact on me, and the experience of visiting Japan and being part of that vibrant community was something I owe entirely to her vision. Julia’s enthusiasm for uniting disciplines and cultures to foster knowledge-sharing was boundless, and her legacy in bringing people together lives on.”
Sara Robertson - Co-CEO Sara + Sarah Smart Textile Design Llp.
