Abstract
What is the status quo of contemporary design education in the context of sustainability as a holistic and timely training, a binding professional ethos, and materialised everyday practice for future designers? This research investigates how contemporary tertiary design education is responding to polycrisis discourse and the multilaterally demanded paradigm shift towards sustainability. This includes a critical reflection on the political dimension of the term itself. A mixed-methods approach, combining systematic programme mapping, discourse analytical case studies of tertiary design education, and interviews with educators, investigates the translation of sustainability rhetoric into pedagogical practice across design and architecture education worldwide. A considerable variation exists in the conceptualisation and pedagogy of resilient design, transformation design, eco-social design, democratic design, slow design, and many more across institutions. Are design schools, in their capacity as (trans)formative entities, effectively nurturing the ‘resilient designers‘ of the future?
Keywords
sustainable design education, resilient design pedagogy, sustainable design discourse
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.532
Citation
Mameli, F.A. (2026) Resilient design pedagogies: Examining sustainability's translation into contemporary design education, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.532
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Resilient design pedagogies: Examining sustainability's translation into contemporary design education
What is the status quo of contemporary design education in the context of sustainability as a holistic and timely training, a binding professional ethos, and materialised everyday practice for future designers? This research investigates how contemporary tertiary design education is responding to polycrisis discourse and the multilaterally demanded paradigm shift towards sustainability. This includes a critical reflection on the political dimension of the term itself. A mixed-methods approach, combining systematic programme mapping, discourse analytical case studies of tertiary design education, and interviews with educators, investigates the translation of sustainability rhetoric into pedagogical practice across design and architecture education worldwide. A considerable variation exists in the conceptualisation and pedagogy of resilient design, transformation design, eco-social design, democratic design, slow design, and many more across institutions. Are design schools, in their capacity as (trans)formative entities, effectively nurturing the ‘resilient designers‘ of the future?