Design for sustainability—collaborative learning and dissemination at IIT Guwahati, Assam

Abstract

In India, the Indian Institutes’ of Technology (IIT’s) are recognized as autonomous Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) of national importance. They have played a stellar role in planning and development of state of art technical educational curricula that address priority areas of contextually relevant developing needs. These institutions anchor the role of ‘Influencers of Change’ for other technical institutions across the country that outline their curricula following the IIT models’. Collaborations at national and international levels with HEI’s form a means in updating and strengthening academic and research exchange. IIT Guwahati (IITG), Department of Design (DoD), recently participated as a partner institute on one such international collaborative project titled ‘Learning network on Sustainability International (LeNS.in). The project aimed to develop and promote courseware on Design for Sustainability with thirtytwo leading international schools of Design participating on this global project. This course is now formally included in the curriculum of the Design program at IITG and is offered to graduate researchers and undergraduate students of DoD. In this chapter, we present DoD’s role in introducing and developing the courseware on Design for Sustainability (DfS). The course covers concepts, context sensitive applications, methods and their assessment appropriate for Indian context. Theoretical framework on sustainability are introduced while undertaking field-based projects. These inputs form an integral and important contribution in training the next generation of designers in the design and development of products, services and systems (PSS) that are contextually appropriate and address needs of development. Case examples of classroom projects undertaken during the coursework on Design for sustainability are presented. Introducing DfS formally into the Design education curriculum is timely and significant considering the influence it may have on training manpower required in the growing field of Design and Design Education in India.