During their semester project, the latest cohort of UCT-ATLAS students tackled the UN Sustainable Development Goal 3: Health & Well-Being. As part of this multidisciplinary design project, the first years took a field trip to the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, where they witnessed the latest in Dutch design and innovation at one of the largest and most influential design events worldwide.
With the most recent Semester 1 Project, students developed a design portfolio that presented a design concept based on frugal innovation, design ethics, and sustainability. This design concept dealt with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. To create a design that is effective, realistic, and user-focused, the students were supported by a series of thematic lectures, workshops, skills labs and of course, a field trip to the Dutch Design week for inspiration and networking. The project incorporates an iterative design process which fosters creativity, while providing structure and support for the students to create a final product that does justice to their efforts.
Hosted annually in Eindhoven and attracting over 355,000 visitors from around the world, Dutch Design Week is one of the largest and most prestigious design events globally. This year, UCT-ATLAS students followed the event’s “Designing Society” route. Along their way they met winners of sociotechnical design challenges like their own. They also got to witness curated work from a range of art academies, designers, and start-ups.
During the trip, the students saw their own design priorities: frugality, design ethics, and sustainability, reflected in the current frontiers of design, research and innovation. Seeing how experienced designers tackle societal challenges, the students were able to consider their own projects in the context of the current state-of-the-art, which no doubt inspired the way they developed and delivered their own design solutions.
