Morag Myerscough on transforming spaces with colour and embracing the unknown

Growing up as the middle child in a household where she often had to share space with her siblings has influenced designer Morag Myerscough’s idea of what it means to have a sense of belonging.
Standing on the Design Indaba 2018 stage, in yellow shoes and a green pinstripe jacket and her blonde bob framing her face, she explained that while other people find belonging in having friends or a sort of tribe, belonging to her meant space.
“My sense of belonging isn’t about having lots and lots of friends or having a tribe…to me it’s about having space and a place to escape to,” she says.
But she has spent her career as a designer not only creating a space for herself to escape to ( like her London home and studio which she shares with partner and muse, Luke Morgan) but for others.
She has transformed dull hospital hallways and children’s areas into inviting, warm and colourful spaces.
And from London to Mexico and at this year’s Design Indaba, she has kept transforming public spaces into areas with more meaning and inviting a sense of belonging for the different kinds of people in those spaces.
Commissioned by Design Indaba to turn the concrete area outside the Artscape Theatre into an adult playground, she created the Embrace the Unknown installation which came complete with shaded areas to chill as well as swings.
“I believe in seeing things and looking at things as if you were a child,” she says.
Her influences include her grandparents, some of whom were in the circus, as well as artists like Any Warhol and Memphis.
Watch more of the Design Indaba 2018 talks: 
Landscape architect Peter Veenstra on the importance of bringing nature into our cities
Lonny van Ryswyck on the importance of looking after our diminishing resources as designers
Martha Cotton on the growth and influence that design has on business