Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://hdl.handle.net/1959.3/84477

Title

Legitimating industrial design as an academic discipline in the context of an Australian Cooperative Centre

Author(s)

Melles, Gavin;  Kuys, Blair

Abstract

Industrial design, unlike its counterpart fields in the product design process such as engineering and material science, is a recent player in the field of academic higher education. In many schools of design, industrial design remains a vocational art form rather than an industry ready research-based field. Collaborative research centers (CRC) in Australia bring different disciplines together to work on government and industry funded projects and here industrial design has begun to play a role. Such projects are often tied to PhD programs for individuals lead by more experienced research and industry experts. It is in such a multidisciplinary context where industrial design can prove its academic credibility and help further its legitimacy as an industry oriented research process. Following a review of the disciplinary rise of industrial design and the nature of the CRC environment the second part of this paper addresses the experience of a recent industrial design doctoral candidate working simultaneously on design and science oriented aspects of a timber research project. The successful outcome of the project leads to conclusions about the development of industrial design as an academic discipline and the capacity of the field to both lead and learn in this environment.

Publication type

Journal article

Research centre

Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Design

Source

Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences: selected revised papers from 'Innovation and creativity in education', the 2nd World Conference on Educational Sciences (WCES-2010), Istanbul, Turkey, 04-08 February 2010 / Huseyin Uzunboylu (ed.), Vol. 2, no. 2 (2010), pp. 5228-5232

Publication year

2010

Keyword(s)

Australia;  Collaborative research centres;  Design research;  Higher education;  Industrial design;  PhD programs;  Practice-based design;  Vocational practice

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

1877-0428

Publisher URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.850

Copyright

Copyright © 2010 Elsevier.

Peer reviewed