Wealth from Waste: a transdisciplinary approach to design education

摘要: Design academics, students and industry experts collaboratively participated in designing an on-site system of organic waste management (food waste) at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). With feedback from stakeholders in government, industry and facilities management, the principles of systems thinking and methods of service design were applied to a live transdisciplinary project with students across disciplines of visual communication, industrial design, fashion and textiles. The proposed model of design education required students to engage in three phases of transdisciplinary practice: 1. Problem formation, 2. Co-creation of knowledge and 3. Implementation and evaluation of the end product in an intensive two-week teaching period with students primed to understand the approach as problem-focused. This consisted of an evolving, emergent methodology, which was highly collaborative in nature. By presenting the complexities and evaluation of this model, we argue for the development of educational structures, methods and practices to support students in: