Applied Sustainable Design

How does industrial design change in light of the global ecological crisis? Where are the new opportunities, and how do we push the boundaries of what has traditionally been expected of industrial designers? Students will explore a full spectrum of design strategies aimed at enabling a sustainable future. This ranges from incremental improvements that are measurable by Life Cycle Assessment, as is currently practiced in industry, to systemic approaches that re-envision how to balance human well-being and planetary needs.

This course was taught remotely using zoom, mural.co and moodle. We spent a lot of time up front grounding ourselves, morning walks before ‘class time’, checking in with one another, taking the time needed to feel connected and to take the pressure off so we can show up ready to learn.

Our guest this term was Jane Abernethy, Chief Sustainability Officer at Human Scale.