Design for social innovation

This elective invites students from diverse backgrounds (e.g., Industrial Design, Built Environment, Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences) to explore design’s potential in addressing contemporary socio-environmental challenges – although experience with design processes is not a pre-requisite, students should be aware that a group-based design challenge is an integral part of the course. Throughout the course, students will engage with various design approaches connected to care and innovation, including participatory design, transformation design, value-sensitive design, and design justice. Perspectives from experts in repair economies, circular design, and community-led sustainability practices will further contextualize their learning.
A strong emphasis is placed on ethnographic and mapping methods, which students will use to analyze and document repair and maintenance practices in informal and community-led settings, such as repair cafés and grassroots sustainability initiatives. The course also features a hands-on design intervention where students explore strategies to extend object lifespans through care, repair, and adaptation. By synthesizing theoretical insights, fieldwork, and design practice, students develop a comprehensive understanding of how repair and maintenance contribute to broader social innovation efforts.

• Understand the connections between societal innovation and care in its various forms (repair, mending, maintenance, community-building...).
• Reflect on societal challenges and the role of design in fostering social innovation through care.
• Apply ethnographic methods to analyze societal challenges (in 25/26: related to care practices, repair economies, and social innovation).
• Map multi-stakeholder transformation processes.
• Create design concepts and interventions to inform and inspire social innovation (in 25/26: related to care practices, repair economies).

• The course materials and publications will be provided during the course.