The Potential of Design in a Sustainable Engineering Profile

Sustainability is still a relatively new term in everyday public discourses, yet broad consensus is emerging that issues of sustainability should take a central part in future development strategies. Some of the professions most seriously effected by the complexities and challenges of sustainable development are the engineering professions. As a consequence many institutions are now engaged in rethinking the professional engineers’ role and contribution in contemporary society and concretize the implications that such a change will hold for engineering educations.
Design, on the other hand, is an old concept, but its use has always been fluent and changing. Today it is no longer solely a matter of formalist aesthetics employing materials and tangible form for iconic recognition. The design field is rather shifting towards a reflective, creative practice working across disciplines and professions, and the objects of design are shifting towards systems, services, and experiences rather than material products.
Illustrated by two concrete engineering programs I will argue that a reflected design practice makes it possible to deal with open, complex challenges, and that it enables a more contextually situated approach to problem solving across professions. In other words, how a reflected design practice makes it possible to deal with issues of sustainability.