Social Design (BA)

This programme attempts to expand the scope of design beyond
the current commercialised and compartmentalised professional
practices by orienting towards the ‘social dimension of design’,
with emphasis on civic participation, social engagement and
collaborative design practices. Dedicated to the promotion of social
and cultural sustainability, the programme focuses on the realisation
of social innovations and civic goals through the framework of
design thinking and solution prototyping.

The programme aims to:

• augment students’ (empathic) understanding of social needs/changes from real-life perspectives
• introduce students to methods for social observation, ethnographic design research and co-designing practices
• engage students with outside partners to address social issues and develop design resolutions
• inaugurate designerly thinking into the professional practices of nondesign disciplines
• prototype and realise design solutions for sustainable and positive social change

Upon successful completion of this Programme, students will be able to:

1. Appreciate and reflect upon the multiple social dimensions of design and their real-world complexity;
2. Learn independently and continuously develop cultural, social, technological and design literacy through local, regional and global contexts;
3. Explore and address social and community issues through design research, experimentations and reflective implementation practices;
4. Make acute analysis of social situations and propose creative and realistic design solutions;
5. Apply professional skills of design to deliver outcome with real-life impact;
6. Communicate and collaborate with social institutions, communities and people to experiment with different approaches to social design;
7. Develop strategic and design insights for relevant business, social and cultural endeavours;
8. Design projects and create platforms and solutions for positive social change.

The BA (Hons) in Social Design is divided into two levels:

Level 3 (Year 1) - learn to research and apply knowledge and skills

Students are expected to broaden their critical knowledge and analytical ability through contextual research, design thinking and integrate conceptual and technical skills into the development and communication of creative ideas in projects and other opportunities.

Level 4 (Year 2) - learn to be collaborative, initiative and resourceful

Students are expected to incorporate knowledge, insights, design skills and social resources into creative and meaningful projects that will potentially generate positive impacts on societal systems. Students shall identify issues critical to future professional and social conditions and take the initiative to tackle them in collaboration with corresponding partners or stakeholders.

Subjects

Senior year students are required to complete a total of 60 credits in order to graduate; including 9 credits earned from General University Requirements subjects, 9 from Common Compulsory Subjects, and 42 from Discipline-Specific and Elective Subjects.

✓ Compulsory Subjects

*Senior Year Students who fail to meet the equivalent standard of the Undergraduate Degree LCR will be required to take up to 9 credits of degree LCR subjects.

Project Showcase

Why Social Design?

_〈誰要做個 Social Designer?〉蕭競聰　(in Chinese)
_〈設計改變社會 2017 Beyond Social Innovation〉 Credit: U Magazine, 30 December 2016 (PDF format, in Chinese)

_ Video: "Designing with Community?"
An introductory talk on what Social Design does by Mr Chan Kam Fai (in Cantonese)

Answering to the emerging design demands and market for social innovations globally and in Hong Kong, the School of Design strives to expand its spectrum of design so as to contribute to the newly developed international movement of Social Design. Since social design is transdisciplinary by nature, this top-up programme of the senior year curriculum is set to admit candidates from a broader spectrum of disciplines, ranging from different areas of design to other social or service fields. The programme aspires to breed a generation of well-rounded dynamic designers and project coordinators who will become design practitioners, consultants and changemakers in service of social needs.

Graduates are equipped with the knowledge and skills necessary in professional design practice to help sustain the creative and social economy. They have a wide choice of careers as designers in mainstream industries or in alternative creative and social enterprises. Graduates can become designers not only in design consultancies, but also project coordinators and producers in the fields of social and cultural business, nongovernmental organisations or the public sector, etc.

Siu King Chung — Associate Professor, BFA, MA

SIU, King Chung is Programme Leader of the BA (Hons) in Social Design Programme. He is an art & design commentator, an installation artist, an independent curator and is actively involved in arts policy and art/design curriculum development in Hong Kong. He writes on art, creativity, design, museum and education. He co-organized the 2006 and 2008 Creative Education Summit for the Home Affairs Bureau of HK. His recent research is on “lesser” design, information design, visual culture and museum methods. Since 2002, he has been involving in establishing a creativity-oriented senior secondary school in Hong Kong (www.creativehk.edu.hk)

He produces experimental exhibitions and often participates in local and international creative and visual culture projects. For many years, he has been exploring ways to initiate collaboration among students, teachers, designers and artists through organizing exhibitions and publishing projects, such as "The Blackbox Exercise" series (June-Aug. 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 in Osaka, Japan, 2000, in Berlin, Germany) and the "Sentimental Education" series (July 1997 & July 98), which have given him chances to explore and develop possible forms and strategies for exhibition design, installation display, publication design and alternative museum practices.

He was former President of the Hong Kong Society for Education in Art (HKSEA) from 1998 to 2001. (www.hksea.org.hk) He co-founded the “Designs You Don’t Know What to Do With Association” (www.dydk.com/DYDK) and the "Community Museum Project" (www.hkcmp.org) in 2002 & 2003 respectively.

Email  sdking@polyu.edu.hk

• Kam Fai Chan
• Kevin Denney
• Brian Lee
• Sylvia Xihui Liu
• King Chung Siu

See also: Meet our staff