Emerging Dynamics in Design Education: Integrating Theory and Practice as Design in the Making.

Abstract

Design theories and processes are increasingly taught including emerging technological and dynamic processes that make apparent new concepts about the interfaces between people, spaces and objects. This article considers how traditional design foundations might be reconsidered, and how social and human issues are best integrated through a philosophically phenomenological foundation to design thinking. Theoretical ideas are presented as part of ongoing research in this area, and in terms of how theory and practice can be integral to dynamic design studio experiences and activities. Examples of design projects are explored, and pragmatic ways of encouraging design studio learning are discussed. Ultimately what we wish to know as designers is how to engage in design problem-solving that situates the human user as active recipient of design interventions, in ways that value both technological need and emotional, personal and social aspects of living in our complex global world.