TY - JOUR

T1 - Co-learning for sustainable design

T2 - The case of a circular design collaborative project in Ireland

AU - Bakırlıoğlu, Yekta

AU - McMahon, Muireann

PY - 2021/1/10

Y1 - 2021/1/10

N2 - Incorporating concerns of sustainability and circularity into design practice is undoubtedly important for both design research and education. There is a need to equip novice designers with the skills to facilitate a sustainability-focused future, whilst also collaborating with industry to implement these concerns into contemporary design practices. On the one hand, SMMEs and small teams in other sectors (i.e. public) lack the resources and time to improve their knowledge, to explore alternative ways of conducting business and to transform their design practices. Contrarily, novice designers (i.e. design students) can access state-of-the-art knowledge on sustainability and experiment with sustainable design practices throughout their education, yet they lack insights into market realities around implementation. Similarly, design researchers and educators are on the fore-front of developing sustainability-focused design methodology through research, but they often lack exposure to the industry. If the parties were all to work together, however, the sharing of resources, knowledge and experiences become valuable commodities in creating more sustainable design practices. This paper outlines an on-campus Design for Circular Economy and Sustainability training programme where industry worked with interns and academics to address real-world challenges. The project forms a part of a larger EU collaboration. The programme aimed to create a co-learning environment for novice designers, industry partners and design researcher/educators. Here all stakeholders could exchange their knowledge and insights and learn from each other to explore and experiment with practically implementing sustainability in real-world contexts. This paper briefly introduces the development of the programme and explores how and what co-learning occurred for the different stakeholders. Finally, the paper discusses how the outcomes of this programme subsequently affected the practices of industry partners. The programme offered a unique environment to prepare novice designers for the real world and provided researcher/educators with valuable insights on how to facilitate such a transition. The industry partners utilised this experience and outcomes to review their practices and kick-start the transition towards sustainable businesses.

AB - Incorporating concerns of sustainability and circularity into design practice is undoubtedly important for both design research and education. There is a need to equip novice designers with the skills to facilitate a sustainability-focused future, whilst also collaborating with industry to implement these concerns into contemporary design practices. On the one hand, SMMEs and small teams in other sectors (i.e. public) lack the resources and time to improve their knowledge, to explore alternative ways of conducting business and to transform their design practices. Contrarily, novice designers (i.e. design students) can access state-of-the-art knowledge on sustainability and experiment with sustainable design practices throughout their education, yet they lack insights into market realities around implementation. Similarly, design researchers and educators are on the fore-front of developing sustainability-focused design methodology through research, but they often lack exposure to the industry. If the parties were all to work together, however, the sharing of resources, knowledge and experiences become valuable commodities in creating more sustainable design practices. This paper outlines an on-campus Design for Circular Economy and Sustainability training programme where industry worked with interns and academics to address real-world challenges. The project forms a part of a larger EU collaboration. The programme aimed to create a co-learning environment for novice designers, industry partners and design researcher/educators. Here all stakeholders could exchange their knowledge and insights and learn from each other to explore and experiment with practically implementing sustainability in real-world contexts. This paper briefly introduces the development of the programme and explores how and what co-learning occurred for the different stakeholders. Finally, the paper discusses how the outcomes of this programme subsequently affected the practices of industry partners. The programme offered a unique environment to prepare novice designers for the real world and provided researcher/educators with valuable insights on how to facilitate such a transition. The industry partners utilised this experience and outcomes to review their practices and kick-start the transition towards sustainable businesses.

KW - Circular economy

KW - Co-learning

KW - Design education

KW - Industry collaboration

KW - Sustainability

KW - Training programme

U2 - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123474

DO - 10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123474

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85089952792

VL - 279

JO - Journal of Cleaner Production

JF - Journal of Cleaner Production

SN - 0959-6526

M1 - 123474

ER -