Instructors: Štěpánka Stein and Matěj Chabera
Credits: 3
GEP: Elective

Course Description

The course will present an introduction to the history of European industrial design in global contexts and on various scales. Design products and environments, as well as design processes, both material and cognitive, will be discussed on a timeline spanning over the last 200 years. A roughly chronological overview should provide a background for addressing topics still relevant today. Through a history of design with its various figures, movements and problems we will thus take a look at history itself as something designed. With the help of anthropological, social, and environmental frames, we will examine how design history is (and how it is not) relevant to today’s design practitioners, producers, and users.

Learning Outcomes

Students will get a general overview of the history of European design in relation to broader cultural questions. Individual and/or group presentations should feed into critical and speculative reflections on numerous design problems. Students should attain basic orientation in relevant topics as well as an ability to navigate in complex related ecosystems of design production, distribution and consumption.