Mariano Ramirez

Sustainability in the education of industrial designers: the case for Australia

Purpose – The paper intends to determine the extent to which environmental sustainability issues are integrated in the curricula of industrial design programs in Australian universities.Design/methodology/approach – Industrial design lecturers and program heads were invited to participate in a web‐based survey on their universitys industrial design curricula. Online university handbooks were also examined to determine which courses cover sustainability aspects. Survey results were then tabulated and analysed using descriptive statistics.Findings – The study shows that, while there is a concern that sustainable development issues are important and relevant to design courses, the permeation of environmental sensitivity through most industrial design curricula, and indeed among design academics, is only starting to gain ground. Comparative examination of the curricular structures in Australian universities offering degree programs in industrial and product design revealed that, on average, 12 out of every 1...

Commitments of University Leaders to the Talloires Declaration: Are They Evidenced in Industrial Design Teaching and Learning?

By the act of signing the Talloires Declaration, university presidents and chancellors worldwide committed themselves to educate young people towards being more sustainability-focused, with a lofty ambition to change the world for the better. A good number of these higher education institutions offer degrees in industrial design, a career which has often been implicated for its sizeable contributions to the mountains of short-lived products and packages in landfills around the world. This paper investigates whether the promises made in this declaration are permeating in the education of industrial designers in signatory universities. It looks into the curricula and student portfolios of industrial design degrees and uses content analysis to understand how sustainability thinking is integrated into product design pedagogy.

Industrial design accolades: Do they support socially sustainable product innovation?

This paper looks for evidences of socially sustainable product innovations amongst the entries recognized in international industrial design awards. The winning designs for the last four years in three of the most popular mainstream accolades were investigated and profiled. The analysis shows that attention to socially sustainability in design is gradually picking up. Several special awards that pay special attention to social sustainability issues were found, suggesting that support for this type of innovation in the design profession is growing.

Sustainability consideration amongst award-winning industrial design graduation projects in Australia

This paper investigates the engagement towards sustainability of graduating industrial design students in Australia. This was achieved by completing a content analysis of the entries in the Australian Design Award - James Dyson Award, focusing on the claims made in the product descriptions, their rationale for representing design excellence and why they believe their work is award winning. The findings were encouraging, as the overwhelming majority of finalists and winners had incorporated an environmentally responsive strategy or addressed an issue of significance to society. The analysis results provide evidence that sustainability issues are increasingly being tackled in Australian industrial design education. That graduating students choose to do final-year projects which reflect their sensitivity to these global issues suggest concern and readiness on their part in exploring real solutions to these problems, and perhaps a desire and optimism for a more promising world for future generations.