Course Summary
Sustainability, Sociotechnical Systems and Change introduces you to the various theories and practices of design for sustainability and change-making. A significant proportion of the environmental impacts of a product or service are determined within the design phase. As such, industrial designers must contend with, and adapt their approaches within a global landscape of rapidly depleting natural capital and serious challenges for human systems to sustain themselves. By critically questioning tacit and presumed notions of use, utility, production and consumption, designers - as agents of change - have a unique capacity to affect significant social and behavioural transformation towards reduced degrees of un-sustainability.
Strategies for imparting a greater balance of often competing social, cultural, environmental and economic concerns are increasingly in demand of contemporary design practice. This course will equip you with the knowledge and methods to inform your design processes, and to establish a framework for responsible design decision-making and action. You will learn about: macro-level environmental, cultural and economic concerns; the nature and structure of complex socio-technical systems; patterns of production and consumption; whole-of-systems and product life cycle thinking; design strategies for sustainment, and design thinking for change.
This course is a component of a major and minor offered by the BH104P25 Bachelor of Industrial Design (Honours) program.