Postgraduate Diploma in
Design, Society and Thought
1st programme: from October 2011 to March 2012
ECTS Credits: 30
Language: Spanish
Qualification: Postgraduate Diploma in Design, Society and Thought, degree awarded
by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering
of Barcelona.
Presentation
Society dynamics in the information era raise
the need to develop new mental structures
and fundamentals of knowledge on which to
base analysis and critical personal perspec-
tives towards the objects and phenomena
forming contemporary culture.
Both the practice of and reflection on design
and architecture in the present, which posi-
tively consolidate active and reformist bases
for the immediate future, require the con-
struction of new creative parameters and a
new mental attitude, which, to a large extent,
depend on the formation of sound, yet at the
same time flexible criteria concerning the un-
derstanding of the state of reality.
For professionals involved in creative and in-
tellectual tasks, the actual exercise of reana-
lysing and reformulating existing definitions
using the transformation process of the pres-
ent as a basis has become an inextricable
part of the work itself.
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Objectives
The purpose of the course is to study the
current cultural meaning of design-related
activities and how it is formulated, to explore
its relevance and significance, and study its
presence as the subject of the convergence
of the synergies of the flows forming the
present state of reality in order to provide
students with the keys to defining and as-
sessing modes of active and reactive cultural
intervention.
 
The following are the main objectives:
– To enhance the creative and intellectual
abilities of professionals trained in design
with regard to the understanding and
conceptual structure of their own work
and any other contemporary cultural
manifestation.
– To encourage students to construct
methods of dealing with and reacting to
the synergies and events that define the
immediate state of the present.
– To develop creative resources in students
so they can propose new concepts,
methods and strategies for reflection and
creation, which give their professional
work more awareness of their intervention
and action capacity in current social and
cultural dynamics.
Entry Requirements
– Designer.
– Architect.
– Graduate in Fine Arts.
– Graduate in History of Art.
– Writers, philosophers, engineers,
journalists and other professionals who
have a flair for the analysis of forms and
concepts, and who wish to express and
issue opinions in public.
Programme Directors
FREDY MASSAD
Architect and photographer.
ALICIA GUERRERO YESTE
Graduate in Art History.
They founded ¿btbW/Architecture in 1996,
joining forces to specialise in the research
and analysis of contemporary architecture.
They are guest tutors for several Master’s
Degrees, and invited members of review
supervisory teams and boards of examin-
ers at ELISAVA. They are currently working
as critics for the magazine EXIT Express,
and the cultural supplements of ABC and La
Vanguardia. They also collaborate with vari-
ous international media specialised in ar-
chitecture and design. They are the authors
and editors of various books, and they have
acted as organisers of various exhibition
projects for Sònar and the Association of
Architects of Catalonia, among others.
Results of September 11, 2001 in New York.
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