FACULTY OF ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

MA SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

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FACULTY OF ARTS & ARCHITECTURE

MA SUSTAINABLE DESIGN

Subject to validation in February 2009 Overview According to the UK Design Council, 80% of a product or buildings ecological impact is determined at the design stage. Designers are key-holders, situated within the nucleus of the sustainability debate, and not purveyors (or procurers) of bolt-on after measures that simply apply damage control, but never really gain any ground on the issue. Despite a steady increase in growth, Sustainable Design is still very much an unresolved approach to ecologically responsible practice. The MA Sustainable Design aims to address this by embracing the opportunities delineated by current practices, whilst stepping forward to pioneer new and provocative means through which sustainability may be more fully achieved. The MA Sustainable Design at Brighton places critical debate at its core, as a means to fully explore, create and implement practical and effective ways of designing, producing and consuming, in an age of looming ecological crisis, mounting environmental legislation, and limited design progress on this front. Through the research and development of objects, spaces and experiences, this three-semester (one-year) programme of postgraduate study aims to invigorate the culture of critique that empowers design with the qualities of social, economic and environmental change. Details of curriculum The MA Sustainable Design uses an integrated project-based structure, enabling the three core units and their concerns (Research, Studio and Industry) to run consecutively throughout the programme. This provides a fully integrated experience for students in which theoretical, practical and professional concerns are fused and correlated through each project: Sustainable Design: Futures (20 credits) This unit takes the form of a series of seminars and workshops, which collectively provide students with a comprehensive understanding of contemporary sustainable design thinking and the state of the discipline.

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Sustainable Design: Research (20 credits) Undertaken within the postgraduate framework of the MA Arts and Cultural Studies, students will develop their research skills training, helping devise particular research questions and tactical methodologies for integration within work. Sustainable Design: Industry (20 credits) This unit will focus upon the escalating issues and the increasingly abundant opportunities that characterize sustainable design, production and consumption today, and will require students to contextualize their work in this way as a means to demonstrate industrial viability. Sustainable Design: Studio (60 credits) The studio unit provides students with the space and resources to explore, develop and realize sustainable objects, spaces and experiences to a high level of execution this is where the integration and application of research work takes place, and is essential to the process of sustainable design. Sustainable Design: Master (60 credits) This unit enables students to select the weighting of research, studio and professional elements to support individual working practices and specialisms, whilst fully realising self-directed major projects.

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100% Sustainable? - Models of sustainable design

Career and progression opportunities The design industry has been challenged by leading politicians, economists and ecologists with the task of aiding both the planet and the economy in uncertain times this programme enables students to take advantage of the accelerated growth in areas of sustainable design and increasing opportunities within the design industry to bring innovation and balance to the ecological and economic growth of the nation through a range of commercial design disciplines. Students work within a broad range of creative contexts, including product design, furniture and lighting, interior and architectural practice, fashion and textiles, media and journalism, legislation and policy development, conservation and planning. Location Situated in the heart of one of Europes most vibrant and creative cities, the MA Sustainable Design has critical, creative debate at its core. The University of Brightons School of Architecture and Design, within the Faculty of Arts and Architecture, has a mature culture of creativity and research in the area of design particularly, sustainability has become an increasingly prominent issue within the work of the design-related courses, to the point where in some programmes the majority of work presented at degree show demonstrates a particular individual approach to sustainable design issues. Brighton 3D Design students routinely win awards of national and international significance on the basis of the sustainable innovation in their work. The MA Sustainable Design is a carefully focused academic product that offers routes for progression with a specific emphasis on Sustainability. The MA Sustainable Design is intrinsically linked with the Inheritable Futures Laboratory (IF:Lab) sustainable design research group. Founded by Dr Jonathan Chapman and Nick Gant, the IF:Lab is a sustainable design research group that generates practice-led and theoretical research initiatives that nurture the interrelationships between academia and industry. This research culture provides a unique source of constantly refreshed and updated sustainable design information, knowledge and understanding, and feeds directly into the content of the MA Sustainable Design, offering students opportunities to participate in industry-leading research projects, while ensuring both the currency and timeliness of its orientation. In this way, the MA Sustainable Design is

strategically positioned within the critical territory between sustainable design theory and practice, to fully engage, develop and act upon the escalating issues and the increasingly abundant opportunities that characterise sustainable design, production and consumption today.

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Entry criteria Candidates will have a previous degree in a design subject (for example, Product, Industrial, Furniture and 3D Design, Fashion and Textile Design, Three Dimensional Craft, Graphic Design and Illustration, Interior and Spatial Design) or equivalent experience in design practice. Applicants must demonstrate a clear motivation to engage with issues of sustainability and design. Direct access to semester 3 of the programme will be considered only where applicants have accrued appropriate number of credits at either M-Level or postgraduate study in a relevant subject. At interview students will be expected to demonstrate the following: an ability to articulate individual perceptions and understandings of sustainable design an ability to positively engage in critical discussion regarding their work and its broader implications in relation to sustainability a body of work that demonstrates experience and competency within the design processes ambition to critically appraise and develop their practice within the context of sustainability

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For further information on the MA Sustainable Design, please email: mds@brighton.ac.uk Braille or audiotape extracts of this document are available on request.
The Faculty of Arts & Architecture at the University of Brighton is the host and lead partner of the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning through Design (CETLD). Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), this world class partnership also includes the Royal College of Art, The Royal Institute of British Architects and the Victoria & Albert Museum. Legal terms and conditions: course information may change at any point, the University of Brighton reserves the right to withdraw any course at any time and applicants should always check with the admissions department to confirm that the course is still available.

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