The years when Swedish08 design research 14 took off thanks to the Swedish Faculty for Design Research and Research Education Design research for new approaches, innovation and sustainable growth Design research D! 08–14 in Swedish? Contents You will find a pdf to download at: needs further designfakulteten.kth.se development Design research needs further development 3 A useful calendar on the website A successful programme whose future must be secured 4 At designfakulteten.kth.se you will Design is society’s biggest cultural sector! 6 not only find news, minutes of board meetings, details about supervisors Short & sweet 8 and information about all our doctoral students, workshop events (internat), The statistics 10 courses and member institutions. You will also find a calendar with Design for a desirable future 12 important dates and activities, ranging from when our students are defending Award­winning alumni share their stories 18 their theses and notifications that new Flexit positions are open to applicants, In brief 21 to when various conferences are being held and other information that may Workshop events – a source of knowledge 22 be of interest to anyone interested in design research. The need to think big – and internationalise! 24 Theses and members 25 PHOTO: PER KRISTIANSEN WHAT DO SOCIETY and industry lose due to a services for the unemployed, sick people or lack of knowledge about design? We have families in crisis. become used to equating design with In many parts of the world new initi­ attractive and smart gadgets. Design has atives to use design for comprehensive enabled the manifestation of an acquisitive improve ments are occurring, not at least in society and a waste of resources. However, the public sector. In Sweden the conscious This publication is a summary of the Swedish Faculty for Design design is primarily a method and a process positive development of society has slowed Research and Research Education’s activities between 2008 and of creatively catching up with complex down. To achieve a restart, a new kind of May 2014 as we are seeking funding for our continued existence. problems in a changing context. These complementary research is needed which The summary is published by the Faculty, a national centre for types of problems requiring the combi­ includes broader perspectives without design research based at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in nation of different sets of know ledge and sacrificing complexity. Stockholm. Our aim here at the Design Faculty is to is to develop experiences have become more and more Design research can contribute by facil­ design as a discipline in order to make it possible to respond widespread in today’s globalised world, itating constructive and creative dialogues to social, economic and technological challenges in society in especially with its ambitions of sustain­ between people with various kinds of a sustainable, innovative and aesthetically aware manner. Just ability, integration, improved health and knowledge and experiences. The core over 50 doctoral students are currently participating in our the fight against poverty. of this expertise is the openness to new research school. They come from our many member universities Design is about the ability to discover perspectives and the ability to discover the and colleges around Sweden. 19 have already achieved their wholes that are more meaningful and actual patterns and visualise the proposals. doctorates. interesting than the sum of their parts. To develop this capacity requires not only Design is implemented by a process of applied projects but also basic research. trial and error which uses various points The Swedish Faculty for Design Research of departure and approaches and which and Research Education (the Design Faculty) Publisher responsible under Swedish press law: Bo Westerlund involves learning from experience what has been the centre of these ambitions Cover: A discussion at Materia in Tranås during one of the Faculty’s workshop events. works and what does not. In this way in Sweden for the past seven years. The Editor and writer of texts where no other writer is named: Susanne Helgeson Other writers: Maria Hellström Reimer, Stefan Holmlid, Ramia Mazé, Johan Redström, design is more like artistic work. This question now is how this continuation can Anna Rylander, Peter Ullmark, Bo Westerlund expertise is of crucial importance whether be secured. And how Sweden will continue English translation and language editing: Fenela Childs, Tussilago Communications it is a question of straws for water cleaning, to develop through design. Graphic design and layout: Typisk Form designbyrå Printers: Printfabriken, Karlskrona 2014 (printed Swedish version) instruments for auricular frequency in Peter Ullmark & Bo Westerlund, the former and ISBN 978-91-7595-200-0 contexts without electricity or improved current heads respectively of the Design Faculty 2 • THE DESIGN FACULTY 08–14 08–14 THE DESIGN FACULTY • 3 A successful programme whose future must be secured There is no doubt that design and research about design are vital to the major problems of society that exist today. The Design Faculty has vitalised this field following funding from the Swedish Research Council but the funds run out by the end of 2014/beginning of 2015. A future for this work must now be secured. PHOTO: THORBJÖRN MAGNUSSON This image is from “Ytans materialitet” (The materiality of surface), an interartistic research project at the School of Design and Crafts at the University THE DESIGN FACULTY’S GRADUATE SCHOOL was only traditional design schools but also tions and the Design Faculty now face two of Gothenburg by Kristina Fridh, project manager, researcher and architect, and Thomas Laurien, product designer, pattern designer and PhD student launched in 2008 with funds from the Swed­ institutions in the fields of technology and challenges. The first is to secure the future at the Design Faculty. The project is funded by the Swedish Research Council. ish Research Council. The initiators were 19 economics. This interest subsequently of the graduate school so that competen­ third­level institutions with research am­ broadened further due to society’s greater cy development and the construction of bitions in the field of design together with emphasis on the need for innovations in a powerful network can continue. One the Swedish Industrial Design Foundation such fields as new types of services and the step in this is Nordic cooperation within The Design Faculty’s strategic planning for the next operational period from 2015 (SVID). The faculty was based at KTH Royal management of complex social process­ the Nordes framework via the exchange has resulted in the following programmes: Institute of Technology, and the funding of es. It became more relevant to have new of courses. This complements previous five million kronor annually for five years connections to both the social sciences and cooperation in organising an international 1. The national graduate school continues in alternating years, there are plans for the next few years this work will result in came after a Riksdag decision as a follow­up the humanities. At the same time, more research conference every second year with the same organisation as before, with Nordic courses in fields where the base in a number of EU projects involving several to the 2005 Year of Design in Sweden. knowledge about the core of design knowl­ and a summer school for doctoral students a basic course and in­depth courses. How­ each country is too small or where some member institutions. At that time design was still a relatively edge in particular as well as basic research in the intervening years. The second ever, the responsibility for course planning institution has special expertise. clear­cut discipline with its roots in the in the design field also became more and challenge is to make use of the expertise and implementation is split between the As a start, a catalogue of Nordic courses is 6. Funding for the Faculty’s future work is applied arts and industrial product devel­ more necessary. of the new graduates. Many of them will member institutions in order to limit the being produced and this will also include being sought from both research councils opment. However, the design professionals leave academia to work in industry and the central costs. the field of architecture. and private foundations. In order to main­ and the institutions’ instructors lacked an Competency development needed public sector. Others will be in demand to tain a stable foundation, a basic organisa­ academic anchor. The need for a developed The application to the Swedish Research teach within academia. 2. To coordinate a more developed collab­ 4. An activity for postdocs and other hold­ tion is being created, which is funded by knowledge base was further highlighted by Council predicted that 15 doctoral students If competency development is to be oration over initiating research, a group ers of doctorates in the field of design will the member institutions. This organisation the fact that design applications began to would be interested in participating in the broadened and deepened, however, the op­ of senior researchers from the member be initiated. The aim is to develop the net­ will primarily ensure the implementation broaden at an increasingly rapid pace. The graduate school at any one time. portunities to do continued research must institutions was appointed. The core of work and create new areas of cooperation. of the courses in the graduate school and development of new information and com­ However, during the seven years that also be secured. It is not clear how this will this group was drawn from the now­active As part of this activity there are plans for coordinate the initiation of new research munication technology played a key role the school has been operating, significantly be done.