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Do you sometimes feel lost, overwhelmed, and frustrated about how we can live more sustainable lives?
This course will introduce you to ways of making sense of the complex challenges our world is facing – and do something about it! Here you will learn how to be empowered to ‘dance’ with systems through Systems-Oriented Design (SOD) and advance sustainability knowledge by and through design.
You will experience SOD in action through a real-world example of the mountain community of Hemsedal. We will visit Hemsedal for 1 week in late March, to immerse ourselves in the local place, talking with stakeholders and learning from nature in a beautiful alpine environment.
Knowledge, skills, general competence
- Understand what you as an individual and part of society can and should contribute – especially as future designers.
- Identify how to take more effective action to address the crises we face - in whatever scale you will find yourself
- Learn how to use sustainability, systems-thinking and systemic design concepts within real-world communities
- Learn how to visualize complexity through gigamaps and synthesize complexity through writing
Week 1 will be centered around an introduction to SOD and sustainability science. You will learn how design and sustainability knowledge can be merged to help take more effective action. You will also develop a QUEST, or set of questions you are interested in, to use as a guide while in Hemsedal. This will be taught through brief lectures and outdoor reflection activities
Week 2 (COVID regulations permitting) will be a multi-day field trip to observe, talk to community members and be inspired by nature-based design approaches.
Week 3 will be focused on gathering all the information you learned from Hemsedal and starting to translate your QUEST into a gigamap and small written report. This is an independently structured week – you may work alone or in small groups - we encourage you to find a time and work rhythm that fits best for you. A few tutoring sessions will be available to guide you on your gigamapping/writing journey.
Week 4 will use discussions, self-reflections, writing and mapping to support you in finalizing your project work. At the end of the week, you will present your outcomes.
Working and learning activities:
- Lectures, discussion, tutoring, writing
- Nature walks as “vitamin N time” and (video) reflections on course content, both individually and
as a class
- Readings and facilitated class discussions on articles related to core course content
- Local field research and outdoor excursions
- Gigamapping of content across various scales
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | - | Pass / fail |