About the Life-centred Design Lab & Academy
Pioneering and teaching ‘Design for All Life’
LCD Lab is a Sydney-based life-centred design studio and school, born of an experimental studio model, developing and teaching sustainable and regenerative design & business in support of sustainable futures.
We work with designers, teams, organisations, and universities worldwide to help them shift their work to do less planetary harm and more good while still supporting commercial goals.
The Lab experiments and applies this thinking in real and hypothetical contexts.
The Academy teaches it to designers and innovators ready to lead the shift.
Hi, I’m Damien Lutz, Senior UX Designer, Founder of LCD Lab, and author of ‘The Life-centred Design Guide’.
I’ve always seen design as a superpower for nurturing the planet and each other.
Since first encountering the emerging ideas of life-centred design in 2020, I knew I had found my design ikigai (that which brings value to the world and joy to self).
Through cross-disciplinary research, self-learning, and experimentation, I shaped a life-centred design approach that blends 12 practices. I published it in The Life-Centred Design Guide (2020) and have since evolved it through workshops and courses in Australia, Portugal, Italy, and Germany.
Now, my mission is to empower designers and decision-makers with life-centred superpowers to create sustainable and regenerative futures.
Damien Lutz
Founder of LCD Lab
About the Lab
The Lab experiments with and applies Life-centred Design in real and conceptual contexts — working with professionals, teams, and organisations through studios, workshops, and strategic training.
It also actively develops the practice itself, refining the framework and advancing the field alongside the wider design community.
Research
Through rigorous research, expert interviews, and multidisciplinary study, the Lab develops the theoretical and practical foundations of Life-centred Design.
Experiments
Life-centred Design is tested and applied across digital, industrial, urban, and business contexts — both in speculative explorations and real-world workshops.
Workshops & Events
Online and in-person workshops across Australia and Europe raise awareness, build capability, and strengthen design and climate communities.
Papers
In collaboration with academics and the LCD Collective, the Lab contributes to the evolving discourse on Life-centred and more-than-human design.
Teaching & Lectures
Design teams, students, innovators, and climate professionals are trained to integrate Life-centred principles into practice.
Speaking
From keynote presentations at AdaptNSW to talks at NOVA School of Business in Lisbon, the Lab shares its work on national and international stages.
Consultation
Organisations and educational institutions are supported in embedding Life-centred Design into strategy, operations, and curricula.
Using our small profits to fuel our big purpose
While the Lab operates as a for-profit entity, we aim to balance income with contribution, giving back to the planet and the community:
- Free tools and open resources
- Free Academy membership
- Donated time to education and research
- Accessible entry points for courses, etc.
- Free events and talks
About the Academy
The Academy is the online learning space for those ready to turn ideas into action, supporting designers and innovators to apply Life-centred Design in their own contexts, and to forge their own distinctive methods and paths within the movement.
Courses
Structured online courses—self-paced and live—provide professional pathways into digital, industrial, and urban Life-centred Design.
Projects & Case Studies
Sharing insight through real and speculative projects across disciplines to demonstrate how Life-centred thinking works in practice.
Design Branches
Introductions to 12+ multidisciplinary fields reveal the practices that converge within Life-centred Design.
Tools
Purpose-built design tools help integrate more-than-human life directly into research, ideation, strategy, and decision-making.
Our Unconventional Team
Life-centred Design Lab is a small, frugal, living experiment in balancing profit and planetary purpose.
The Lab not only experiments with how life-centred design can be applied to itself, but our model also challenges what a ‘team’ can be, combining nature and technology—how human creativity, ecological responsibility, and AI can work in alignment, and how that alignment can exist in a feedback loop with the design and business communities.
Damien Lutz
Founder, Designer, Teacher
Designer, researcher, and educator applying Life-centred Design across digital, industrial, and urban contexts — demonstrating what one person can build when business and practice are aligned with planetary responsibility.
Nature
Embedded Team Voice
Represented through an active commitment to engagement and a persona reflecting the three Life groups—people, animals, and environments—with planetary boundaries woven directly into decisions, tools, and workflow.
AI
Multidisciplinary Support
Used responsibly to support research, iteration, and innovation — while continually refining efficient, lower-impact ways of working.
Design & Business Community
Interconnected Team Actors
The Lab views the designers, students, and collaborators who apply, challenge, and evolve the framework as part of the team. Your participation creates a feedback loop, shaping the Lab and Academy as much as they support you, turning shared learning into collective momentum to inspire others.
Our Guiding Lights
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