We know that continuing to extract from nature and people will have devastating consequences but we don’t yet have alternative ways of organising our societal systems. When you understand the roots of the world’s wicked problems AND the potential of design innovation, you will develop a sense of agency and passion for design as a positive societal tool. The Societal Design Master will encourage you to challenge the deep assumptions behind how we govern, relate, and create. Through modular learning, design experiments and trans-disciplinary partnerships, you will develop the capacity to work across systemic challenges — from housing and health to carbon, biodiversity and critical resources. Building from design for social innovation, the programme offers not just new skills, but new opportunities to collaborate with professionals from diverse fields. As a graduate you will be equipped with the skills to contribute to the urgent task of societal regeneration. This is a new field of design that is practical, collaborative and in high demand.
Master in Societal Design
Learn how the World’s wicked problems are affecting the field of design and how designers can play a positive role in addressing them through societal design. With this Master you will explore the tools, techniques and practices of applied systems thinking. You will leave ready to work on complex problems, interact confidently with professionals from any field and begin your career as a societal designer.
You will have the unique opportunity of interacting with the global team at Dark Matter Labs. Founded by architects, DML has design in its DNA but has grown into a multidisciplinary team with expertise in disciplines ranging from economic, policy and law through to urban planning, engineering and organisational culture. DML is famous for its pioneering work in the field of applied systems change and continues to push the edges of what might be possible.
If you have ever wondered how designers can contribute to practical interventions in local, national and global systems then this is a chance to interact with a team of people who do it on a daily basis.
At Elisava we have many other master and postgraduate programmes, find the most suitable design master for you.
- Develop an understanding of complexity theory, the interconnected nature of living systems and how this intersects with Design.
- Learn how to map systems, surfacing and integrating diverse perspectives with innovative mapping methodologies commonly used in Ecological and Social design processes.
- Discover how to connect systemic issues to people’s personal contexts and support people from varied professions to co-design social interventions.
- Critically analyse how the language of design (in its various formats) can support generative dialogues and position designers as collaborative catalysts and facilitators within Societal design frameworks.
- Learn how to translate conceptual thinking into grounded testing prototypes, gaining hands-on experience of creative interventions involving people from non-design backgrounds, a core competence of this Societal design master.
Develop a shared understanding of the urgent need for societal design. We will learn from prominent designers and systems thinkers to ground the Master in the foundational work of those pioneers.
1.1 The Metacrisis and its implications for the field of design
1.2. Systems View of Life
1.3 Designing with the Planet in Mind
Progress your practical skills and practice applying tools and relational design approaches for real-world applications, strengthening your ability to operate within design for ecological and social innovation contexts.
2.1 Conversational Dimensions
2.2 Flexible Design Languages
2.3 Designing Dialogues
Get hands-on experience of designing processes and structures that foster collaboration and lead organisations toward innovative, life-centric goals.
3.1 Holistic systems mapping
3.2 Prototyping for Social and Environmental Impact
3.3 Tools for Collaborative Workspaces
Explore how designers can be an integrated part of business development and strategy within emerging Ecological and Social design master career pathways. You will learn about the Anti-Brief Framework and practice applying it to gain buy-in from clients for alternative societal design briefs.
4.1 Introduction to the Anti-Brief Framework
4.2 Learning to write an Anti-Brief
4.3 Creative strategies
In your final project you will use design as a strategic tool to provoke societal change. Your strategy might manifest as a design artefact, like a website, a publication, a campaign, an event, an object or a space, but it could also be a curatorial proposal or an academic program. Starting from a topic that sparks your personal interest we will guide you to consolidate your learning and develop an inspirational project that demonstrates your future potential as a professional in Societal design.
Do you want to know more about the Masters’ School?
Each academic year, students with very diverse professional and cultural profiles of more than 80 nationalities from all over the world attend their master’s or postgraduate training at Elisava. We want to promote connections and networks among students beyond the context of each master’s degree to promote the exchange of knowledge through very diverse projects: we organize interdisciplinary workshops and conferences; transdisciplinary projects with students from several master’s degrees; collaborations with companies, institutions and NGOs…
Masters’ Scholarships
Do you want to study the Master in Design for Exhibition Environments at Elisava? In this section you will be able to check all the information on the annual call for scholarships, which recognize, reward and disseminate the talent and excellence of future master’s students.