Just Five Years 2001 – 2006

Just five years…

This book charts and documents the wide spectrum of our activities and development – our enthusiasm – over the last five years (2001-2006); a period that marks the departure from many well-established certainties. The global power balance has steadily tilted, new strategic alliances have emerged and the economic focus has begun to shift eastward. The environmental impact of human intervention has been assessed and confirmed. In more than one way the world has changed beyond recognition and keeps on transforming rapidly – and so is our educational profile which is constantly being altered and adapted with respect to sustainable value creation, diffuse consumer behaviour or technological progress and more. In that sense, our Swedish microcosm duly reflects this macroscopic development. Above all, “Just five years…” is an indication of the challenge we face in restructuring our five-year education in respect to the Bologna Process.

It may seem new to a certain extent that industrial design can be an educational proposition within a traditional university frame-work. However, it is that particular aspect which characterises our approach: a well-considered merger of the artistic and creative perspective with a sound theoretical and scientific back-ground. Not surprisingly, such balanced orientation is gaining in popularity with respect to imminent changes in design education worldwide.

Design is the one particular field of work that has the potential to instantaneously reflect cultural and technological shifts, incessantly triggered by changing habits and emerging lifestyles. Unfortunately, too much of what is being put forward is mere effluence, a profusion of mimetic products and erroneous services. To prevail over managerial short-term thinking, we position design as a vocation calling for mindfulness, modesty and moral intelligence. A meaningful dialogue between professions is necessary as well as the capacity to relate the incoming research to reality, keeping a critical eye on the relevance of it all.

We hope that our educational profile is a substantial contribution to that end.

Click to read the 2001 – 2006 Yearbook