Head of Department
Michael Mullins

FIELDS OF ACTIVITY
The activities of the institute cover a wide range of disciplines within architecture, urban design, industrial design, and digital design. The activities are based on an interdisciplinary approach with disciplines from humanities, social science as well as engineering and science. Examples are: architecture and design, urban planning and urban design, culture analysis, sociological analysis, visual communication, history, technical and ecological aspects.
The theme of the work is "integrated design" in a broad sense. The aim is to transform requirements and needs within function, aesthetics, production technology and environment into an expressive form and design. The design must be sustainable as well as functional, and at the same time be able to tell a story. This presupposes a combination of creative and analytical skills as well as aesthetic and technical proficiency. The application of information technology is an important part of the work as it is part of the whole process.

TEACHING
The teaching activities of the institute are related to MSc programmes in architecture, industrial design, urban design, and digital design. The programme consists of a 5-semester basic study-programme and a 5-semester specialization programme. The basic study programme emphasizes design in large and small scale. In the specialization programme, the students chose one of the four specializations: architecture, industrial design, urban design, and digital design. In 2004 a new specialization programme in digital design will start.
The study board is continuously engaged in developing the concept of the problem based study forms e.g. developing individual mini projects, workshops, study circles as supplement to the group based project work. At the same time the pedagogical initiative is supported and developed through research in the pedagogical dimension of the subject.

RESEARCHER EDUCATION
The researcher education at A&D is bound up with the European Doctoral School at the Faculty of Engineering and Science. The Institute makes a contribution to the development of the offers of the European Doctoral School under the programme Development and Planning.
The education of researchers is furthermore completed in collaboration with a range of other education institutions. The Institute's PhD students have for instance attended researcher courses at Aarhus School of Architecture. In addition to this the researcher education has embraced the Nordic Millennium Project where the Oslo School of Architecture, School of Architecture at NTNU, Kungliga Tekniske Högskole, Chalmars Tekniske Högskole, Aarhus School of Architecture, and AAU are involved. To this must an educational cooperation with national and international educations and organisations be added, where PhD students are staying for a shorter or longer time during their education.

The collaboration with the more institutions forms an important part of the building up of the researcher education at A&D. By this contacts and researcher network are established, which is essential in order to elevate the offers of courses.

RESEARCH
The Institute's research areas are under development; however, they are reflected in the following areas:

• Architecture - and - design theory, which includes theory and history concerning the city, architecture and design, theory of form and form language, graphic communication, chromatology, etc.
• Urban architectural planning, which includes areas such as urban theory, urban planning, building planning and urban design, and specifically, the relationship between architecture, life style, and the cultural zoning in an urban context.
• Industrial design, which includes design methods, design processes, product design, manmachine interface, ecology and universal design.
• Digital Design comprises contemporary digital technology put into perspective through modelling concepts, which by virtue of their visual conceptual strength have survived for centuries in the common virtual space. The research within Digital Design assumes a hybrid identity, which is phenomenological, social constructivistic (post-human), socio-technical, and technical.

The research within the Institute's field of interest - in addition to the classic theoretical- empirical dimension - also includes the creative dimension, which searches for solutions to both technical and aesthetic challenges. The creative design process is comprised of documentation of a theoretical character, applied design methods, product analyses, etc. and is therefore central to the Institute's research. The research includes, for instance:

• A theoretical dimension, which is aimed at establishing new knowledge
• An analytical dimension, which is aimed at developing the subject and research methods with respect to the particular field of interest
• A design dimension, which is aimed at finding new solutions and new aesthetic expressions with respect to practical application.

An interdisciplinary dimension, which is aimed not only at integrating the primary research within the field but also at integrating these areas with those related to the engineering field.