TOWARD A NEW APPROACH TO DESIGN EDUCATION

Abstract

We are all designers. Designing is a part of life. It is the way we make and assemble the things we need for the way we like to live, or have to live. It is a way of organizing both the tangible and intangible structures of our lives, the structures which we form and which then in turn form us. In designing these structures we balance an inward knowledge of ourselves with an outward knowledge of the world. We learn to interact with the social and physical environment that surrounds us, to accommodate the needs of others within our purpose, and adapt our purpose to their needs. At the professional level, designing is an interdisciplinary process in which methods of scientific, technical and artistic investigation are combined with an understanding of human and functional needs to modify and affect almost any aspect of the environment.