Thematic framework
The themes “project” and “disciplinary statute” were addressed separately, although natural connections emerged in the debate on March 27, 2015.
Initially, the topic of teaching design within the academy was addressed, starting from the ongoing SID reflections (and actions):
1. How to enable teachers of different design disciplines to “design to teach design” by overcoming current regulatory constraints and limits, thus contributing to a better quality of education.
2. How to regulate – in a nationally agreed manner, even through innovative forms – the possibility for university research centers to carry out design activities in various possible meanings.
3. How to link applied university research to the revision and innovation of basic education and the updates required by lifelong learning.
4. How to identify clearer and more shareable criteria for evaluating the quality of projects and scientific products in the scientific sectors of design.
Furthermore, discussions were held on: the idea of pursuing mixed integration formulas between structured design teachers and external professionals; the responsibility towards formulating educational systems that can relate to the world of work; and finally, the opportunity to collect “microstories” of good practices related to the relationship between profession and teaching.
Regarding the second theme, the disciplinary statute, it was reflected that design is a discipline naturally averse to recognizing itself in a closed and definitive definition, a definition imposed/requested by institutions and other external interlocutors to the academy. Similarly, the multiverse nature of design makes the discipline difficult to communicate outside the academy. Hence, the proposal to collect “microstories” that testify to interesting cases of the discipline’s evolution.
Objective 01_ design teaching/microstories
Collection of “microstories” on good practices of relationships/integrations between “profession and design teaching.” The objective is, first of all, to stimulate a discussion within the SID community, and subsequently, to use the material to communicate these examples inside and outside the academy.
Action 01_ design teaching/microstories
(For each objective, indicate the methods, actors, planned activities, and timelines (max 1,000 characters). Actions can be of a technical, scientific, and/or political nature).
A format useful for collecting microstories has been prepared, which will be distributed by the SID secretariat to all participants in Table 2 and all SID members.
The T2 coordinators will collect the microstories and conduct a preliminary analysis of the collected material.
The T2 coordinators and the SID secretariat will organize a roundtable to discuss:
– Material collected and analyzed by the coordinators;
– Activities following the analysis: drafting and dissemination of results.
Activity program:
– Publication of format and call
– Collection of microstories by 07/24/2015
– Roundtable to discuss the collected material October 2015
– Elaboration of roundtable results December 2015
Objective 02_ disciplinary statute/microstories
Collection of “microstories” that testify to interesting cases of the discipline’s development, even towards new disciplinary boundaries. The objective is to stimulate a discussion within the SID community on the constitutive and identifying aspects of the disciplinary statute from an evolutionary perspective, starting from the object (what design deals with today) to how it is addressed (tools, processes, activities) to the difficulties in external communication.
Action 02_ disciplinary statute/microstories
(what is planned to be done, who are the actors, with what methods For each objective, indicate the methods, actors, planned activities, and timelines (max 1,000 characters). Actions can be of a technical, scientific, and/or political nature.
A format useful for collecting microstories has been prepared, which will be distributed by the SID secretariat to all participants in Table 2 and all SID members.
The T2 coordinators will collect the microstories and conduct a preliminary analysis of the collected material.
The T2 coordinators and the SID secretariat will organize a roundtable to discuss:
– Material collected and analyzed by the coordinators;
– Activities following the analysis: drafting and dissemination of results.
Activity program:
– Publication of format and call
– Collection of microstories by 07/24/2015
– Roundtable to discuss the collected material October 2015
– Elaboration of roundtable results December 2015
Objective 03 and 04
Enable teachers of different design disciplines to “design to teach design” by overcoming current regulatory constraints and limits, thus contributing to a better quality of education.
Regulate – in a nationally agreed manner, even through innovative forms – the possibility for university research centers to carry out design activities in various possible meanings.
Link applied university research to the revision and innovation of basic education and the updates required by lifelong learning.
Action 03 and 04
SID has actively participated in the establishment of a “Network of Scientific Societies of Design” (representing more than 1000 teachers and researchers affiliated with various SSDs of Schools of Architecture, Engineering, and Design) both to promote the exchange of experiences and reflections on research evaluation and to undertake initiatives aimed at modifying current legislative frameworks, in line with what is already provided in other European countries, so that the activity of design experimentation must be considered an unavoidable condition for design discipline teachers (along with medical and legal ones) to fulfill this mandate without distinction of legal status (see PDF 1 – Proactive Manifesto). Furthermore, in light of the provisions of the latest university law, it is intended to request that academic research centers, departments, etc., may have the opportunity to carry out, according to appropriate and agreed formulas, tasks of different nature in the field of design.
These themes were at the center of a national meeting at the Casa dell’Architettura in Rome, (June 19, 2014) “Experimenting with Design. Teaching and Scientific Research in Schools of Architecture and Design” and subsequently the subject of requests, presented to the competent institutions (MIUR, CUN, Professional Associations, etc.), whose discussion is ongoing.
Objective 05
How to identify clearer and more shareable criteria for evaluating the quality of projects and scientific products in the scientific sectors of design, taking into account the results of recent national evaluations VQR and ASN.”
Action 05
The “productive” culture of design, in its social, cultural, and economic values, must return to the forefront in design university education and research, as well as in VQR procedures.
In recent years, academic research has focused more on the theoretical and methodological aspects of design than on the “material” culture of design in its various dimensions and degrees of complexity.
One of the causes of this drift is attributable to research evaluation parameters. Design products are currently considered with a limited level of merit, inevitably favoring the growth of a scientific community of “analysts,” where the presence of educators with design experience is increasingly scarce. It is therefore urgent to proceed with the construction of a new, more effective, and equitable regulation that oversees the research product evaluation system. In this direction, initiatives (still ongoing) have been agreed upon with other scientific societies in the 08/C1 competition sector, at the reference institutions (CUN, ANVUR), for the reformulation of criteria and parameters concerning design products currently used in VQR and ASN.
