Dundee-led 21st Century Design Project wraps up year 1

A UK-wide initiative to investigate the key issues facing design in the 21st Century has come to the end of a successful first year in which 21 teams from around the nation explored topics ranging from architecture and medicine to food and fashion design.

Designing for the 21st Century is led from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design under the Direction of Professor Tom Inns in the School of Design, who will lead a day-long event in March to review the year's work.

The Designing for the 21st Century project is geared towards understanding and stimulating the evolution of new design.

(image above produced by one of the Designing for the 21st Century Research Clusters who are looking into 'Sensory Design and its Implications for Food Deisgn and Presentation in the 21st Century'.)

"The new Century demands more from design practice. New technologies require more sophisticated design and with higher consumer expectations there is more pressure on businesses to create innovative solutions to design problems," Professor Inns said.

The project is supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC).

Initiative coordinator Vicky Hale, also in the School of Design, said, "In the first year of the five-year project the 21 research teams organised more than 130 workshops which were attended by more than 750 delegates. The Design Dialogues Symposium in March is a forum to review this work and to explore how the future research agenda for design might evolve."

The symposium will take place at RIBA in London on March 7 and is open to all in the design community. The registration charge is £75. More information is available at www.design21.dundee.ac.uk.

The AHRC & EPSRC have just announced details of a phase 2 research call to support further Designing for the 21st Century research projects during 2006, 2007 and 2008.