Architecture Papers of the Faculty of Architecture and Design STU (Oct 2020)
Design strategy in industrial design – university environment
Abstract
The paper focuses on the development of a specific design strategy in a creative process, on multidisciplinary communication, personal experience and teaching methodology at the Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava. A path full of individual effort and initiatives, trodden by both the students and pedagogues, resulted in creating an open design team FAST at the Faculty of Architecture (leader Martin Baláž) in collaboration with the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The first conjoint project of the newly founded FAST and the existing FME Racing Team was a Futuristic Prototype for the competition Shell Eco Marathon 2014. The process was a challenge, even though the opportunity to design a functional vehicle was appealing. Despite the team’s differences as to their nature, work environment, design strategies and output expectations, the teams finally matched. The project received a grant “Viac dizajnu” (More Design) and the results have also been exhibited in Germany and the Czech Republic. Numerous presentations and articles have been accomplished concomitantly. The paper also describes a new pedagogical approach, which was subsequently developed. Based on almost 5 years of experience with a new study course Design Strategy in Industrial Design, we would like to emphasize that a multidisciplinary and action-centric approach clearly had a positive impact on students’ works. We also quote student feedback. In conclusion, we present selected outcomes of our pedagogical efforts in the form of various case studies and a publication that has resulted from a multidisciplinary cooperation with Jana Gulanová, a pedagogue at FME STU in Bratislava.
