Professor Sharon Baurley Articulates Vision for Design Products
Head of Design Products (DP) Dr Sharon Baurley, who joined the Royal College of Art in January 2014, has been conferred a professorship in recognition of her international standing and outstanding achievements across teaching, learning, research and scholarship.
Baurley’s leadership represents a shift of emphasis, recognising that real-world challenges are complex, multilayered and often intractable, and that – to overcome them – we need designers who are creative catalysts, along with an approach that allows for emergent experimentation to canvass, provoke, challenge and question people, places and things through crafted artefacts.
Professor Naren Barfield, Pro-Rector (Academic) said, ‘I am delighted that Sharon has been promoted to Professor, reflecting her considerable leadership experience, international eminence in her field for research and impact, and her commitment to the student experience through challenging, stimulating and highly innovative teaching. In a short time, she has already demonstrated that she is a considerable asset to the College, and has developed an exciting and transformational vision for Design Products.’
Professor Dale Harrow, Dean of the School of Design added, ‘With the new Design Products team now in place, we clearly have a broad range of knowledge, experience and expertise to deliver a programme at the forefront of the discipline, and one fully in tune with the other programmes in the School.’
Professor Baurley's approach is already paying dividends: in December 2014, she led a successful team application for a £500,000 project grant from the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for ‘The Future of Makespaces in Re-distributed Manufacturing’.
Much of Professor Baurley’s energy has gone into building the right team to deliver her academic vision. ‘Key for me,’ she explained, ‘is what I call “creativity for purpose”; at the RCA we are educating students to be design-thinkers. They’re addressing real-world challenges through balancing high levels of creativity and technical capability with contextual insight.’
She added, ‘A key outcome of the DP approach must be to inspire solutions that improve life, and make life more pleasing through high levels of empathy and aesthetic value.’
The structure of the programme takes a pluralistic approach to product design by exploring it through a number of design cultures – ‘Design through Making’, ‘Design for Manufacture’, ‘Object Mediated Interactions’, ‘Design as Catalyst’, and ‘Exploring Emergent Futures’.
These are underpinned by a set of contextual themes – Networked Design, The Making of Things, Designing Things Better, Human Culture, New Notions and Actions from New Technology – bringing knowledge and expertise from academic research and professional design practice that spans ‘open design’ and networks, to create and develop products; processes, methods, materials and tools, to make physical products; sustainability; human-centred design; and engineering.
Students are given the opportunity to develop their design thinking and determine their own design culture, while building a portfolio of work that will locate them in their desired professional context. Tutors help students to develop their own ‘business model’ through collective experience in consultancy and entrepreneurialism.
Senior Tutors are: James Tooze, who as a part-time appointment has a core responsibility for leading the ‘Exploring Emergent Futures’ platform; Rob Phillips, who as a full-time Senior Tutor (Studio Practice) has responsibility for providing day to day studio teaching support; and Jonathan Edelman, who as a full-time Senior Tutor (Design Culture) has responsibility for the provision of theory and critical thinking related to ‘Design Culture’ within the curriculum.
At Platform level, tutors are all professional designers, representing different ‘business models’ of design practice. The line-up spans designer–maker and materials developer; industrial designer; designer–artist; and consultant: Simon Hasan and James Johnson lead the ‘Design through Making’ platform; Andre Klauser and Ben Wilson lead the ‘Design for Manufacture’ platform; and Onkar Kular and Chris Thorpe lead the ‘Design as Catalyst’ platform. Three further platform tutors will be recruited this year, two to the ‘Object Mediated Interactions’ platform and one to the ‘Exploring Emergent Futures’ platform.
Professor Baurley, who completed her PhD at the RCA, is well versed in industrial partnerships and has consulted for Courtaulds Textiles, Marks & Spencer and Unilever, among other blue-chip companies.