Start semester
70 504 Systems Oriented Design: Design for Very Complex System
Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål:
Systems Oriented Design: Design for Very Complex System
Credits:
24
Course code:
70 504
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2023 Autumn
Assessment semester:
2023 Autumn
Language of instruction:
Norwegian / English
Year:
2023
Maximum number of students:
30
Person in charge
Andreas Wettre
Required prerequisite knowledge
Passed foundation level (BA-level) courses at AHO in design or architecture or equivalent, 180 ECTS.
The course is suitable for all programmes; design, architecture, urbanism and landscape architecture students and is mainly open to 3. semester master students.
Course content
Learn to work with complexity – using Systems Oriented Design
For dealing with the complexity and uncertainty of complex contexts of interconnected social and ecological problems, a systems approach is needed to enhance the ability of the designer to design solutions that address the underlying drivers of the socio-ecological crises. This systems approach will empower students with the ability to rapidly learn and understand the complexity of the context to find the most effective places in the system to design interventions that are relevant to addressing the problems. The SOD methodology is applicable in any context and scale, from sustainable product design, better childcare services, to policy design to sustainability transitions of tourisme and society at large. An essential part of SOD is to use design skills to visualize complexity.
The methodology can also be used within a spatial framework, where one can focus on the spaces and places of a system as the drivers of the design project. Through the application of SOD to the fields of landscape architecture and architecture the course poses a challenge of expanding student’s work to address their spatial interests at a systematic context with a cross-scalar and transdisciplinary lens.
This SOD fall masters course invites you to get on the dance floor and jointly explore and play with ideas that are rooted in systems thinking and design doing. Through hands-on approaches and tools, you'll be able to take a systemic perspective to nurture your design practice to create things that are relevant to the complex world at different scales, from products to services to experiences to sustainability transitions of entire systems. It will allow you to learn how to use the toolbox you already know and expand it. If you are a curious person who likes to puzzle and have fun with exploring a context broadly and figure out what would be relevant to design to make systemic impacts, you have found the right course for you!
If you have done the “Introduction to SOD” in your 3rd year at AHO you will find that we in this course go deeper into SOD and adapting your thinking and skills in a different context.
If you want more information look up the menu Projects/Master projects at the website https://systemsorienteddesign.net
Teachers on the course: Andreas Wettre, Abel Crawford, Jonathan Romm, Corbin Raymond and Birger Sevaldson.
Learning outcome
Knowledge: Students will be introduced to System Oriented Design (SOD) as a method and approach, to:
- Develop a sensibility for systems, relationships and consequences: cause and effect, to think of how systems are embedded within different domains and different scales
- Visualize complexity, and using these visualizations as a tool to understand and find interventions to improve the systems
- Deal with uncertainty through unfolding and understanding complexity while working with “problematiques” (multiple interlinked problems)
- Anticipate futures through developing an ability to understand and consider multiple future scenarios and evaluate the possible, probable and desirable, developing both individual and participatory visions of the future.
- Anticipate thresholds for implementation and impacts of designed solutions.
- Rich design space for working with interventions in complex problematiques
- Critically think and self-reflect through considering questioning the norms, values influencing the opinions, behavior and decisions of yourself and the stakeholders they are designing for.
- Considering your role as a designer and citizen in the local community and global society.
- Navigate sustainability by being exposed to the state of the world and guiding design criteria for sustainability Regenerative, Resilient, Circular, Cross-scale design through a critical lens
Skills: Students will acquire skills in:
- SOD as process-led methodology
- Visualizing complexity and utilizing Rich Design Space
- Research by design methodology
- Systems Thinking
- Sustainability Science
- Critical Thinking
- Dealing with uncertainty
- Collaboration through interdisciplinary problem solving in groups
- Visioning
- Design Implementation plans
- Workshop facilitation
General competence:
Students will be able to use SOD methodology to understand and tackle complex problems and to utilize systems thinking.
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 and in the private sector.
Systems-oriented designers are trained in techniques such as Gigamapping.
The systems-oriented designer is also a skilled workshop facilitator and leader of co-design processes.
Working and learning activities
Project plans are created for each project individually according to the 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.In all modules you will develop your Rich Design Space. The students will choose whether to work in pairs, in a larger group or individually.
Structure of the course:
We aim for two “tracks” so that you can choose the one you prefer;
- Systems-oriented design in ecologies of emotional experiences: A co-design project with youth, parents and workers in child welfare.
- Sustainable Tourism, looking at various regions of Europe.
This course contains modules:
Module 1 (6 ETCS): Map, visualize and use design to understand the complexity of the systems you will be working with. Includes a week of boundary discussions to define your design brief. The plan is to do a field trip at the start of the module and possibly go back for back-testing later.
Module 2 (10 ETCS) Design your service/intervention.
Module 3 (8 ETCS) Back checking and design your implementation process.
Teachers: Andreas Wettre, Audun Formo, Abel Crawford, Birger Sevaldsson, Jonathan Romm, Corbain Rymond.
Curriculum
- Designing Complexity : The Methodology and Practice of Systems Oriented Design (2022)
- Author(s): Birger Sevaldson
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | Group | Pass / fail | At the end of the course the students shall deliver the following and this is what makes up the assessement: Final delivery: - Report (45% of evaluation) - Gigamap (25% of the evaluation) - Oral/visual presentation (20% of the evaluation) - Process board (Miro) (10% of the evaluation) These elements will include the work from all three modules. All project material is to be digitally submitted to an online assignment system. |
| Workload activity | Comment |
|---|---|
| Attendance | There will be milestone presentations at the end of each module to ensure and evaluate progress. Students are expected to attend all lectures, tutorials and presentations. |