Innovation Through Design Thinking
Fall Semester only
| 3 credits
| Elective
Majors:
Architecture,
Biotechnology,
Business,
and
Design
Design Thinking has become central to almost all disciplines, the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, business, law, medicine, engineering, public health and policy, and of course the arts, architecture, interior architecture, planning, urban design, and other associated design-based disciplines. As such, there is great interest in understanding how designers think, what are their methods, theory, and the history of design practice. It is also understood that innovation is a major result and impact of design practices, grounded in expected performance outcomes.
While innovation from design thinking is a global phenomenon, it is particularly well developed in Denmark and Scandinavia, where innovation through design has been a driving force in creating and sustaining the social-welfare model for small countries. This course is about presenting the foundations of design thinking in a language that is understood by all disciplines, no matter what experience the learner brings to the course. The following is an outline of the basic components of the course.
The course is presented in a series of illustrated lectures with project activity centered on conducting case studies of design in action and its outcomes in various disciplines. The focuses of the case studies will be to explore how they relate specifically to the Danish and European Union context. There are no prerequisites or disciplinary limits. It is expected that much of the dialogue in the course will be structured around interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary relationships in an effort to explore the potentials and challenges of design thinking and practice.
Field Studies
- Architectural Office Visits
- Architectural office visits may include Vilhelm Lauritzen, Dissing and Weitling, Julien de Smedt.
Instructors
-
Mike Martin
Ph.D. (Architecture, University of California- Berkeley, 1983). Master of Architecture (University of Washington, 1971). Bachelor of Architecture (University of Colorado, 1969). Former Undergraduate Dean and Chair of Architecture at U.C. Berkeley. With DIS since 2001.
