Design for sustainability I

HUM-397 / 3 credits

Teacher(s): Conti Marius, Laperrouza Marc, Mélo Michka Sylvain

Language: English

Remark: Une seule inscription à un cours SHS+MGT autorisée. En cas d'inscriptions multiples elles seront toutes supprimées sans notification.

Summary

This course explores and practices some of the fundamental tools of designing for sustainability with a focus on the sustainability, desirability, and economic viability of solutions.

Content

Design for Sustainability takes the participants through practical concepts, tools and processes to propose design solutions that aim to improve the co-existence of humans, preserve biodiversity, and life-supporting systems. It integrates environmental, economic, social and cultural dimensions.

The course explores approaches at different levels (material, product, product-service system, social innovation, and system transformation). It covers the framing, ideation and prototyping phases of designing for sustainability.

Teams will be made up of engineers (EPFL) and industrial designers (ECAL).

Sessions in the fall semester are devoted to discovering and defining a project opportunity through a structured design approach. During the spring semester, sessions are devoted to the prototyping of a solution through a project-based approach.

There will be two workshops (one in fall, one in spring) aimed at strengthening professional competences (interdisciplinary and team work, etc.).

Keywords

design process, desirability, viability, sustainability, prototyping, interdisciplinarity

POLY-perspective :

perspective interdisciplinaire
perspective créative

https://www.epfl.ch/schools/cdh/fr/la-vision-du-cdh-poly-perspective/

Learning Prerequisites

Required courses

None

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

Identify opportunities for ill-defined problems through a structured design process
Apply a sustainability and viability centered design process
Develop a project proposal

Transversal skills

Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.

Teaching methods

Mix of mini-lectures and flipped classes
In-class and out-of-class activities
Consultations with lecturers

Expected student activities

Work in interdisciplinary teams
Document and valorize the processes of designing for sustainability

Assessment methods

Project proposal: 2/3 (group, end of the semester)
Reflexive note: 1/3 (individual, end of the semester)

Supervision

Office hours	No
Assistants	No
Forum	No

Resources

Bibliography

Ceschin, F., & Gaziulusoy, I. d. (2020). Design for sustainability : a multi-level framework from products to socio-technical systems. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Manzini, E. (2015). Design, when everybody designs : an introduction to design for social innovation. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Papanek, V. J. (1972). Design for the real world; human ecology and social change. New York,: Pantheon Books.
Thompson, P. B., & Norris, P. E. (2021). Sustainability : what everyone needs to know. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Verganti, R. (2016). Overcrowded : designing meaningful products in a world awash with ideas. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Wizinsky, M. (2022). Design after capitalism : transforming design today for an equitable tomorrow. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.