Moving with the times in India re-thinking the foundation course in design

Abstract

‘Design is a protean, open ended and versatile term, which, over the years, has gathered many dimensions and definitions within the folds of its discourse. The impetus to formulate a manifesto for a pluralistic discourse such as design, comes from the growing critical reflections on modern dominant paradigms of education as embodied in Indian institutions of technical education, vis-à-vis the demands of a larger developmental paradigm of the state. Leading institutions of technical education, while striving towards excellence in developing competencies in specialized fields of engineering and technology, are now increasingly concerned with augmenting opportunities for holistic education……This, in turn, compels an interrogation and re-imagining of academic processes and structures, curriculum and pedagogy for enriching the existing design departments as well as the engineering, sciences, architecture, humanities and management streams.’ (The Design Manifesto by Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, 2013). The social, cultural, economic, technological and ecological challenges facing us today requires a new discourse on how we define design. This includes the changing role of the designer in the future. The world is changing rapidly, and so too are designers who continually adapt to these changes to define new roles for themselves. What implication does this have for the future of design education? This in-progress research into design education, proposes that as designers continually expand the boundaries of the design discipline, adding new dimensions and adapting to the changing circumstances, so too must design education and more specifically, the Foundation Course for Design. The foundation year originated at the Bauhaus in 1919 as the Basic or Preliminary Course and evolved after 1945 at Ulm and Basel. In its emerging period, design was focused on individual products. Today, however, to be relevant to contemporary society, designers need to be able work on complex issues that are interdisciplinary and much broader in scope. 21st century design education needs to be able to apply design and develop strategies to solve real issues and not assume that all solutions should culminate as a ‘form’.