Sustainable Design MA

MA Sustainable Design is ideal for showing how designers need to adapt and respond better to current challenges we face locally and globally. The lectures were exceptional, with a breadth of industry experience led by one of the best course leaders a university could have. We benefited from being taught every pillar of sustainability, and being able to dive deeper into how it all joins up and relates to us personally.

After the course we had an impulse to be part of the change we want to see in the world, applying practical design methods to address the various strands of sustainability, so we set up Climate Labs.

The experience on the course was way over my expectations - meeting like-minded people from such diverse backgrounds was a real eye opener. Being able to collaborate with talented designers from various disciplines helped produce some amazing projects.

As governments, private sector and civil society are now being asked to deliver the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the relevance of this course couldn't be greater - inspiring future generations to design better services, products and experiences for the prosperity of people and the planet.

I can honestly say the Design for Social Innovation stand-alone module was one of the most interesting, sufficiently challenging and thoughtfully delivered courses I've completed, and I've done a fair few.

I wanted to say thank you for sharing your knowledge and providing the opportunity, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I'm finding the tools extremely useful day to day, working with live 'wicked problems.

I'm gaining deeper insight, being disciplined enough to do sufficient iteration and co-designing products to prototype and develop better outcomes.

The course was more than I expected – a professional and personal growth.

It was an intense year. I had the chance to deconstruct the concept I had of sustainability and social innovation, and then rebuild and re-frame it with a new postmodern perspective.

The course made me skilled with different social design and social research methodologies, ethnographic methods, service design tools, human-centred and participatory design approaches, as well as developing sustainability literacy. It really helped me understand my role as a designer, and what I can offer.

Nowadays I am working as a Social and Service Designer for SocialFare, the Centre of Social Innovation based in Torino, Italy.

During the course, my classmates and I often discussed the right name for our future job position. We identified ‘social and local designer'. The Sustainable Design MA showed me the right path to follow in order to bear that title.

For me, the course was an ideal combination of practical research methods and theory, of innovation and design, all with a continuous focus on sustainability.

Being on the course broadened my horizons and gave me the confidence and a setting from which to explore topics I wouldn't have otherwise considered.

For my masters major project, I investigated streets as public spaces in a suburban setting (specifically, Surbiton), and how participatory design could contribute to the creation of such places.

Ultimately, the course led me to my current role, which I wouldn't have considered, or have had the right skillset for, before doing the course.

The Sustainable Design course at Kingston changed the way I design for good.

The way sustainability is addressed in this course is holistic and goes far beyond the lecture slides and usual green clichés. Students reflect on different ways in which they can contribute to tackling the biggest problem of our time – enhancing the well-being of people whilst protecting the environment, in a positive and thoughtful way.

The course leader took the class on a journey of deep reflection and learning, prompting passionate debates, for which we needed to read, research a lot and, of course, design. My fellow students were also professionals with thriving creative careers, which contributed to a very fruitful environment for collaboration.

I now work in social housing within a major housing association, contributing to the creation of safe and sustainable communities.

Something else that I highly valued, was the presence of the 'stand-alone-module-students'. They brought in a completely new perspective as they were working in the professional field. I was not familiar with this context, and would therefore not have been able to see things from this angle without them. I hope the insight this gave me allows me to see things from this angle in the future too.

Prior to the course, I felt like I was not qualified to solve social challenges or had the skills to do so. However, the fact that all the peers are from different backgrounds in terms of culture and industry it made the learning richer. This resulted in developing my inner confidence, where I felt I could use my skills to help drive social change after studying this course. The course format complements the way I learn, particularly with the peer-learning and tutor facilitating with workshops, and getting you to think of topics in different angles.

A big thank you for delivering such an interesting and thought-provoking module. I am keen to study this area further in some way and so will be investigating various routes. It was also such a pleasure to be among such a diverse cohort and I really look forward to seeing the other MA students' presentations later in the year.

The double diamond process for design has not only thrown out a service which could be developed into a sustainable social franchise, but has taught me an awful lot about how to solve 'wicked' social problems and how to innovate within a structure.

I have no formal design experience and, in the beginning, had no context in which to sit this process on. It has felt like a steep learning curve, but one which cannot be undone. When talking to clients (schools), I now visualise the process and the stakeholder journey – ensuring the person really is at the heart of solving the problem, rather than just throwing out another idea because we 'think' it is right and it might stick.