Presentation of the Intensive Program in Designing Policies for Resilience of the Elisava Barcelona School of Design and Engineering. The program, developed with the collaboration of the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability, aims at empowering agents of positive change for contributing to action and impact for a better society.
Monday November 12, 2018
18:30
Sant Leopold Pavilion, Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site, Barcelona
How can design contribute to a more just society based on global knowledge and, at the same time, based on grassroots initiatives? How can design transform our environment, without affecting it negatively, without generating waste and without programmed obsolescence? Can we design with environmental awareness while fostering ethics and social justice? Can we design environments to improve the resilience of the inhabitants of our urban environments?
Design, as a discipline, requires knowledge about the specific ethical and political implications of professional performance in the contemporary social scenario. The knowledge and analysis of strategic policies of the international scenario that affect the work of the designer, is absolutely necessary.
The relationship with the creation strategy, the use of material resources, the means of production or the generation of services must have, in order for the design to fulfill its service task, a direct articulation with the current problems that people and the environment environment go through. In this Anthropocene era, designers as problem solvers, stand as catalytic agents for global change.
The community of designers faces to think beyond the omnipotent designer and the obsession with certain products, proposing a commitment towards a socially transforming design.
The program supports students to overcome the obstacles of design for resilience through the combination of different formats and tools, including coaching, online and face-to-face talks, laboratories and travel.
The program will last 6 months, divided into 4 different phases: a fist one-month online, a 2 month stage in Barcelona, following a 3 month online coaching and labs sessions. After the stay in BCN, each student returns to his place of origin, and works as an international team, using collaborative working tools.
The proposals developed by each team are presented in a one week Final Summit. During this Summit a workshop is held, where each group presents the projects, which are evaluated by a multidisciplinary international jury.
Each year the Summit will be organized in a different city. At the moment, there are agreements with Universities from the RECNET and UNESCO Chair on Sustainability networks, in 9 cities from 6 different countries (Brazil, Peru, Colombia, Costa Rica, Argentina and Mexico).
The presentation session will end with a networking cocktail.