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70 504 Systems Oriented Design: “Design for Democracy“
Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO in design or architecture or equivalent, 180 ECTS.
The course is suitable for all design topics including architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture. The course ranges from micro to macro scale and students can develop and choose their perspective. The course has a main theme but even individual programming is possible. The course is well suited as preparation for the diploma.
Design for a complex world
Designers today are confronted with an increasing complexity. Constantly new fields and tasks are opened up for designers, and the importance of design increases. Designers address complex socio-technical problems, both in the development of solutions and processes. To be better prepared for this development, designers must learn to handle greater complexity, understand larger contexts, learn more about the consequences of our choices, both for businesses, customers, individual users as well as society and the environment.
Systems thinking
A deeper understanding of complex processes is called systems thinking. In Systems Oriented Design (SOD), we have developed an approach to systems thinking that is especially developed for practicing designers. It is the designerly approach to systems.
SOD is part of a larger movement with many approaches called Systemic Design (systemic-design.net). This movement was started by SOD teachers here at AHO and other people mainly from Canada, India, Italy and the US.
Read more on
www.systemsorienteddesign.net
Focus theme – autumn 2018: Design for Democracy
We are experiencing major unrest in the world, democratic values are at stake, people fleeing from their homes and from war. Many nations are heading to democracy, but it is a cumbersome way forward. Even established democracies are struggling, examples we have from the European Union and the United States. Norway is not an exception when it comes to the need for better participation and accountability of voters and citizens in general. The democratic systems' inherent short-term perspectives together with the complexity of the driving processes, makes it very difficult for citizens to voice long-term considerations and to know how to claim participation. Local democracy is underdeveloped compared to the major tasks that communities are confronted with. These range from sustainability to economic development and integration.
On the other hand, design has a long tradition of developing processes from a democratic perspective. Universal Design and Participatory Design processes are examples of this. Also, designers have been involved in democracy in designing voting processes and information distribution for a long time. But design for democracy can be developed further. Can we, through design, envision and describe a future that supports a balanced distribution of power, values and resources? Can we contribute to building democratic cultures and lowering the threshold for participation in democratic processes? Can we design processes that make it easier to think long term and through this encourage sustainable development? Can we, through the design of our surroundings help the emergence of democratic organizations?
The course is open to all students at AHO and it endeavors to think in transdisciplinary perspectives and to develop new perspectives or take positions that are not covered by the AHO disciplines. Examples include organizational design and design for action (action design) or entirely new perspectives.
- Students will be introduced to System Oriented Design (SOD) as a method and approach, to be able to work with a greater degree of complexity.
Knowledge
Students are:
- introduced to System Oriented Design (SOD) as a method and approach, to be able to work with a greater degree of complexity.
- expected to learn system-oriented design.
- given a thorough introduction to System Oriented Design, Rich Design Space, GIGA mapping, ZIP analysis and systemic evaluation.
- Given an understanding and a general knowledge of systems thinking, systems theory, systems dynamics: cause and effect relationships and complexity for practicing designers.
Skills
Students will aquire skills in:
- SOD as process-led methodology
- Research by design methodology
- Develop a sensibility for systems, relationships and consequences: cause and effect
- Unfold, understand complexity and work with problematiques
- Workshop facilitation
- Participatory design
General competence
Students will be able to use this methodology to understand and tackle complex problems and to think systemically. Systems thinking in design is a highly relevant skill as the world is becoming increasingly interconnected, and since the challenges the world need us to solve today are fuzzy and consists of a great degree of complexity. This competence is often required by design consultancies today as they take on a higher degree of projects that demands design capacity that can work with ill-defined problems.
The Systems-oriented designer is a valuable member in a design team, with e.g. a specialization in product, service or interaction design - and the added ability to think systemically and to understand the context and complexity surrounding the product, service or interaction design, the systems-oriented designer will be able foresee consequences of design proposals with the objective to create sustainable solutions for the future.
Holistic perspectives, ethics and sustainability as well as cultural, organizational, economic and technical considerations are central to the Systems oriented designer. These perspectives and the ability to have the project overview is a very good competence for a designer in a team, and also excellent proficiency for a project leader. Systems-oriented designers can play a decisive role in managing complexity in future societal developments. Systems-oriented designers typically can work in design consultancies, in organizations, in municipalities with service design, on policy level, in the private sector to give some examples.
Systems-oriented designers are trained in techniques such as Gigamapping, this enables them to cope with complexity, - and to take more responsibility for the consequences of their actions. The systems-oriented designer is also a skilled workshop facilitator and leader of co-design processes, e.g. Giga mapping workshops to achieve the holistic picture of design problem with different stakeholders.
Students will work on a semester project individually or in groups (recommended size of groups is maximum two students).
Project plans are created for each project individually according to their demands. Each project requires, in principle, its own project design. The course itself is a dynamic social system that must be adjusted and tweaked in real time. Therefore, students must be actively involved in designing the course. We expect corrections of the course and changes in the approaches along the way.
Portfolio evaluation that consists of:
Project presentation and report, video and exhibition that easily communicate the project for the AHO WORKS EXHIBITION. The report is the man delivery.
The students are evaluated on the basis of participation and effort, milestone reviews, assessment and final project delivery.
He course is assessed as: Pass / Fail
There is a high expectance of attendance at lectures, tutorials and presentations.
Sevaldson, B. & Blaasvær, L. (2016). 70504 Systems Oriented Design: Design for Democracy. Hentet fra http://aho.no/en/course/8455/8456/IDE/2013
Sevaldson, B. (2011). GIGA mapping: Visualization for Complexity and Systems Thinking in Design. Artikkel presentert på Nordic Design Research Conference, Helsingfors 2011.
Sevaldson, B. (2008). Rich Design Research Space. FORMakademisk, 2008 bind 1 (1) s. 28–44.
Meadows D. (2008). Thinking in Systems. A Primer. Redaktører: Wright D. Forlag: Chelsea Green Publishing Company.
Sevaldson, B. (2012). Can Designers Design Anything? AHO WORKS STUDIES 2011–2012. Oslo: Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i Oslo.
Manzini, E. og Margolin, V. (2017). Open Letter to the Design Community:
Stand Up For Democracy. Hentet fra http://www.democracy-design.org/open-letter-stand-up-democracy/
Nelson, H. og Sevaldson, B. (2017). The Democracy Files. Hentet fra http://www.systemsorienteddesign.net/index.php/projects/design-for-democracy/the-democracy-files
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | - | Pass / fail | Project presentation and report, video and exhibition that easily communicate the project for the AHO WORKS EXHIBITION. The report is the man delivery. The students are evaluated on the basis of participation and effort, milestone reviews, assessment and final project delivery. There is a high expectance of attendance at lectures, tutorials and presentations. |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Attendance | Students are expected to be able to work independently and be able to use their previous experience from design or architectural education into their project. We expect a high level of activity and effort |