In May 2016, Prof. Teresa Franqueira from University of Aveiro (Portugal) was invited to teach the “Design for social innovation” master course, which was a key course of Product Service System Design Master Program. This cooperation between ID+ DESIS Lab (Aveiro) and Tongji DESIS Lab (Shanghai) was under the framework of DESIS Network – Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability.

Classes were focused on a theoretical approach to give the students a common ground:  the concept of Social Innovation and its different definitions; the main authors and literature about the subject; identify and debate cases studies; experimentation projects to understand their transdisciplinary implications. The goal was to present students the contemporary economic, cultural, social and environmental realities the different design approaches that can help reduce some less positive elements with which designers are faced during their activity.

A reflexion and analysis of other factors was also aimed: Design as means to create, through its interventions, social and cultural awareness and civic responsibility. The role of design as a strategic element capable of reducing superfluous consumption in a consumption society  Design as a promoter of economic growth through an ethical and responsible approach Design as a promoter of an active citizenship Service design Collaboration and Co-design.

In a practical context, aims to give students research skills to observe and reflect about the emerging contemporary phenomena and act on them with a positive social, cultural and environmental impact.

In the last part, teams made by 4 students were asked to develop a design for social innovation output about different topics: Health & Care; Cultural Heritage; Agriculture & Food; Tourism & Environmental Susatinability by using tools related to Strategic Design, Service Design, Design Thinking, Modeling, and Illustration.

Teresa Franqueira

Teresa Franqueira, PhD at Politecnico di Milano woth Ezio Manzini, is currently a senior researcher at the ID+ Research Unit, at the Univerity of Aveiro (Portugal) coordinator of the ID+ DESIS Lab, and member of its international Committee (DESIS Network – Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability).  She was in charge of the Spring Cumulus Conference in 2014  in Aveiro. She was invited to create the Master in Engineering and Product Design in Aveiro where she is the coordinator since 2013. Teresa is also the coordinator of the MEDes Programme at the University of Aveiro (a partnership between seven European design schools).  She belongs to the Scientific Committee of the Design Factory (PCI) Aveiro and Department representative of the UATEC (Knowledge and Technology transfer Unit). She is also the coordinator (at the University of Aveiro) of a European Strategic Partnership (Strategy for Change) from 2015 till 2018.