Engaging Material Education in Design

OVERVIEW

For years now, design students have started to hold a conscious dialogue with materials, especially considering materials and their experiential attributes as designable elements. However, the design education focused on materials still struggles to keep pace with the practical needs of future designers and contradicts the technological and material world where we live. This study aims to comprehend the dynamic role materials play in design education and propose a feasible pedagogical framework based on the concept of materials experience. Through two consistent studies where the materials courses and their results in design schools are analysed, the research has worked out the corresponding material innovation patterns and highlighted the relevant design capacity. Then, the hypothesis of the pedagogical framework is proposed, with its feasibility verified in a real classroom to conclude the research.

Keywords:

• material education
• design education
• materials experience
• material speculation
• DIY-Materials
• experimental knowledge

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr Valentina Rognoli and co-supervisor Prof. Dr Manuela Celi from Politecnico di Milano. This research is funded by China Scholarship Council.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ziyu Zhou

Ziyu Zhou is a PhD student in Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design. She is a member of the DIY materials research group (http://www.diymaterials.it/) and the Materials Experience Lab (http://materialsexperiencelab.com/ziyu-zhou).