Conference article

Contemporary global challenges such as social inequalities, ageing, food crises, nature disasters have encouraged designers worldwide to scrutinise their new role in these matters and to respond with design solutions. Through purposeful sampling, this paper describes how an interior design course has shifted from a more traditional spatial emphasis in the design projects to an approach focalizing on social-cultural challenges and therefore equally addressing the intangible context of design projects. In the new pedagogical strategy the design of spaces goes hand-in-hand with the design of public services and customer experiences. The educational approach leads to new design skills, knowledge and attitudes in the interior design discipline. Finally, the paper illustrates these insights by the live project Design for Education. Aspirant interior designers respond to the challenge of creating new learning and teaching environments for socially disadvantaged districts and interact with stakeholders in order to develop better user experiences.

service design, interior design, educational approach, space and service design, design challenges