About Us

A Design Factory is a collaborative environment built for experimentation - where boundaries between disciplines dissolve, and creativity becomes a shared practice. Inside, students, researchers, designers, and enterprises work side by side to test, fail, and learn through making.

It rejects the traditional, closed model of innovation. Here, ideas evolve through collaboration - a sculptor advising an engineer, a scientist sketching with an architect, a designer refining a craft maker’s prototype.

First created at Aalto University, Finland, in 2008, the Design Factory movement has grown into a global network of over forty creative laboratories, each reflecting its local culture and industries.

Connected to Design Factories worldwide, Forge brings global creativity into local action. The Global Design Factory Network spans across five continents, linking Limerick to an international community of makers, thinkers, and innovators.

More than a lab or incubator, Forge is a place where research, risk, and imagination meet heat - where collisions spark innovation, and ideas are forged into impact, shaping how Ireland builds its future.