IN-PERSON New Schools of Thought

Abstract

Nowadays, the design education system faces the challenge of redefining the scopes, possibilities and methods of educating future designers. The complexity of the world around us, both in the technological and geopolitical dimensions, as well as goals connected with climate protection and public health, create entirely new challenges for the practice of design. The design has changed from goal-oriented design to criterion-oriented design – the focus of the design is no longer the object but its usability, accessibility, serviceability or, in a general way speaking: innovation. In design, the context of products, services, or communication becomes crucial – contemporary design education should focus on a holistic approach to design methodology, supplementing education with social, technical, economic and environmental contexts. The current discussion of the design community on re-designing design education is crucial. However, it is closed towards an external perspective – interdisciplinarity, which is emphasised at every step in a theoretical sense, but not widely used in this ongoing discussion. What has not been discussed within the design community and design scholar community is the decentralisation of design education towards democratisation. The paper outlines the pivotal roadmap to decentralisation design education by considering three primary criteria. The first criterion is the development of a specific type of sensitivity. The second criterion is paying attention to the atmospheric nature of communication. The third criterion is the ability and competence to organise and manage an iterative form of the design process.