December 2011 - Issue #14
Design Factory a creative hub
Story by Staff Writer
View articles in related topics: Design, Film, Multimedia, Industry Collaboration, Commercialisation
Key points
- Swinburne has adopted Finland’s acclaimed Design Factory model to develop the creative collaboration capability of top students.
- The model focuses teams of business, design, engineering and IT students on hard questions posed by business and industry.
The pace of change today and the complex challenges faced by business and society require an equally complex and dynamic process that accelerates creative solutions.
This view underpins the Design Factory approach to driving research and innovation learning, an approach pioneered at Finland’s Aalto University and now adopted at Swinburne University of Technology.
“The Design Factory creates a uniquely flexible environment for business, engineers, designers, end-users and researchers to come together to experiment, develop and test concepts,” says Professor Ken Friedman, Swinburne’s Dean of the Faculty of Design.
“It is a process that has been proven by Aalto to lead to breakthrough innovations for the business partners.
“For Australian students who aspire to a leading role in the global design business, it means access to academic support, technology and leading design research to develop their skills in creative innovation while delivering tangible benefits to business partners.”
Dividends for students and business partners
Communications design lecturer Simone Taffe heads the Swinburne Design Factory, where teams of students from communication, industrial and digital media design work on research-led collaborations with external partners. From 2012, participation will extend to engineering, business, marketing and information technology graduates.
Ms Taffe says the Australian Design Factory and its teamwork approach is already paying dividends for students and industry partners. “Students have added new dimensions that business partners hadn’t originally considered, as well as proactively identifying opportunities to reduce costs.”
She says working with student teams requires some extra commitment from the partners because they are part of an education process rather than clients simply wanting a brief fulfilled. “But so far they’ve been thrilled.”
Inaugural partners include the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade (MFB), Stonnington City Council and the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment. Students working on the MFB project are developing online resources for a primary school fire education program.
“It is a prime example of the crucial link between research, idea generation and sharing the lessons learned,” Ms Taffe says. “Students are applying Swinburne research on participatory design – going way beyond market research – to engage children, teachers and firefighters in the development of the creative solution.”
Australian Andrew Clutterbuck, development coordinator and coach at Aalto Design Factory, says students improve their communication, negotiation, cultural awareness and proactivity.
“Different disciplines draw students with different traits. Developing relationships within teams is an essential part of the process,” Mr Clutterbuck says. “We ask people to leave their assumptions at the door, to take the initiative if they see something that can be improved and to use their common sense.”
Aalto’s Professor Kalevi Ekman, an adjunct professor at Swinburne, is advising on the Australian initiative. He was crucial in the 30-year evolution of the interdisciplinary co-creation concept that led to the opening of the Design Factory three years ago.
Today, Aalto Design Factory partners with major corporations and start-ups, collaborates with leading researchers worldwide, and attracts more than 10,000 visitors a year – all eager to experience the creative use of space and understand the collaborative processes, design-led research and innovation that so inspired Swinburne.
