Design-Network.

Program:

 

09:30 – 11:30   Presentations by Chairs and Moderated Interactive Discussions with Participants

11:30 – 12:30   Introduction of the Design Briefs & Lunch Break

12:30 – 16:30   Group Design Work and Hands-on Exploration (please bring your own laptops)  

16:30 – 18:00   Presentations and Review

18:00 – 18:15   Concluding Remarks

Proposers and Workshop Chairs: Dr. Tuba Kocaturk (University of Liverpool, UK), Cesare Griffa (Eurpean Institute of Design, IT)

 

Instructors: Dr. Tuba Kocaturk (UoL), Cesare Griffa (IED)

 

The proposed workshop will be the first of a series of practice-based lab activities, which we are planning to organise (with a diverse group of international group of practitioners and researchers) to test and explore a new set of concepts/propositions on “Emerging Models of Transdisciplinarity” developed by the European Design Network (www.design-network.org). The workshop resonates with the CAADFutures 2017 theme: “Future Trajectories of Computation in Design” in the sense that special emphasis will be placed on how digital design tools/methods (i.e. computational design) can aid the achievement of transdisciplinary innovation.

 

This workshop will expose the participants to a global paradigm shift and how it transforms existing models of innovation and its repercussions within and across design sectors.  Today, all design professions are facing a high degree of complexity and transformation in response to dealing with the problems of an increasingly diverse, uncertain, networked, and fast changing global context.  We have argued that the emphasis in design is shifting from “disciplinary expertise” towards “trans-disciplinary innovation”. Whether it is new technologies; or products such as smart phones, autonomous cars; or services such as Airbnb or Uber; innovators and designers from diverse industries are cross-fertilising ideas, knowledge and methods to drive innovation. We are witnessing a radical (and steady) transformation from designing objects/applications to designing systems with larger implications within and across multiple sectors. We call this new territory the trans-disciplinary design eco-system.

 

The proposed workshop is composed of two sessions. The (a) morning session will consist of a presentation (by the workshop chairs), followed by a moderated interactive discussion with all participants. This session will explore emerging models of trans-disciplinarity and its potential impact pathways in “design education”, “design research” and “design practice” (including but not limited to architectural design).  The session aims to generate alternative scenarios regarding the role trans-disciplinary approaches to design (thinking) will potentially play in shaping the future at a time when digital and global economy are disrupting ways of thinking, living, working and doing business.

 

The (b) afternoon session will consist of group design work and hands-on application and exploration of “trans-dsiciplinary design thinking” in an actual design process. Each design group will be given the task of REDESIGNING a different design object from a SYSTEM-ORIENTED approach. The design task will aim to REFRAME the design problems through integration of complex insights, interconnected concepts, methods, and technologies that defy disciplinary boundaries. Thus, the disciplinary thinking will be challenged by not merely focusing on the “product”, but rather on its “impact/implication” on the interconnected and interacting elements (and users) of the larger system within which the product resides. The group design work will be followed by group presentations and a general discussion which will evaluate the effect of system-thinking on the reframing of design problems, and on the processes, methods, products and business of design.