“The greatest thing about the IwB is that is doesn’t tell you what to look for but how to look.”
– Thomas Lamée, Alumni from World House Project, Year 1
Education
The Institute without Boundaries (IwB) has a nine-month intensive postgraduate certificate program called Interdisciplinary Design Strategy (IDS) offered through the School of Design, at George Brown College in Toronto. The program teaches design strategy, research, and collaboration to students from diverse professional and academic backgrounds.
In the IDS program, students and faculty collaborate with a partner organization to understand and tackle real-world challenges. Guided by the demands of a major project partner, students learn skills, conduct research, create comprehensive proposals and present their work to stakeholders and the public. The IDS program runs in tandem with the IwB’s research, special projects, and consulting work thereby giving students and partnering organizations the opportunity to learn from one another.
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The IwB equips graduates with the capacity to solve 21st century challenges. Students experience the demands of a real project and develop the intellectual and creative rigour required to tackle it.
Curriculum
In 2013, the IwB launched the Regional Ecologies Project, a five-year research plan to examine complex networks and interconnected systems of innovation that define our regions. The goal is to study how to design intelligent and balanced solutions that will foster prosperous, livable and resilient regions.
In 2013-2014, the Institute ran year 1 of Regional Ecologies called Gateway Cities. This project investigated the future development and competitiveness within the Toronto, New York City, and Chicago regions. We examined the resilience of the three cities by delivering a model for a smart region.
Connecting Divided Places is year 2 or Regional Ecologies. In 2014-2015, the IwB students will look at the social, economic, environmental, and cultural divisions in Chicago, Eastpointe (Detroit), and Toronto. The goals of the project are to locate and generate connective tissues in these cities, using design that forges linkages that cross political, class, race, economic, communication, and environmental divisions.
For more information, see our course outline and sample curriculum book below.
Teaching & Learning Methodology
The IDS program changes theme from year to year, paralleling the arc of the Institute’s major research concerns. Our curriculum is composed of core courses, modules, research trips, and hands-on work with our partners. The curriculum is tailored to the students’ learning needs, the major project research objectives, and the partner organization’s goals.
The Institute has pioneered a graduate-level curriculum using a design-based education model that fosters learning across disciplines, integrating specialized knowledge, and breaking down geographic, cultural, and social barriers.
Throughout the semester, students engage in a process of research, analysis, conceptualization, proposition, visualization, experimentation, testing, revision, and presentation of their ideas and projects. The Institute also hosts lectures, seminars, workshops, and intensive learning sessions from industry leaders. This process combines apprenticeship with classroom and studio-based education, forming a unique pedagogical approach.
The IDS program is very demanding and provides a myriad of critical thinking and hard skills. Graduates of the IDS program receive a postgraduate certificate in Interdisciplinary Design Strategy. The IwB’s design education prepares students for a variety of jobs at a strategic level across industries, in the private, public, and not for profit sectors. Our graduates can also be found in top design offices internationally.
Interdisciplinary Design Strategy Courses
The IwB curriculum is delivered in a studio environment where students work on real projects. The nine-month school year is broken into two semesters: Fall (September-December) and Spring (January-June). The program is a combination of short and long-term projects as well as several courses that connect and overlap throughout the year. Below is a list of our courses. For course descriptions see the sample curriculum book below.
FALL
DESN 4010 Major Project: Preparation
DESN 4007 Design Issues, History and Theory
DESN 4008 Integrated Design Process I
DESN 4004 Design Project: Product
DESN 4006 Design Project: Systems & Services
DESN 4005 Design Project: Environment
DESN 4009 Design Charrette I
SPRING
DESN 4021 Major Project: Development
Atelier: Small
Atelier: Medium
Atelier: Large
DESN 4025 Integrated Design Process II
DESN 4003 Design Project: Communications
DESN 4022 Major Project: Communications
DESN 4024 Design Charrette II
IwB Student Learning Outcomes
The IwB is an interdisciplinary and hands-on learning environment where the design process is of equal importance to the final design results. It is expected that students will collaborate with faculty, mentors and advisors to continuously evolve and improve their design ideas and products through a process of research, analysis, ideation, visualization, testing, reiteration, and self-evaluation. For a detailed account of IwB student learning outcomes, benefits, and evaluation procedures see the sample curriculum book below.
Students will:
- Contribute to a multi-disciplinary studio environment where faculty, mentors and advisors collaborate to conceptualize, visualize, design and learn from each other.
- Work on real-world challenges that have the potential for global benefits.
- Share findings with the public and IwB partners in a meaningful way.
- Learn through participation in every aspect of a project, assuming a variety of roles.
- Attend lectures, seminars and workshops from industry leaders that augment overall knowledge and skills.
- Receive critical feedback, appraisal, direction and support from faculty, peers and mentors on project deliverables to augment the self-evaluation process.
- Practice a “think and do” research approach, applying primary and secondary applied research methodologies to the design process.
- Follow best practices of a professional design studio using design strategy, design briefs, design management and project management tools.
Summer schools abroad
The IwB frequently partners with other educational institutions around the world to run summer school programs and charrettes. Past summer schools have included the Belgian Summer School, in partnership with REcentre, and the Dublin Charrette, organized in partnership with the Dublin City Council.
IwB summer programming is a great opportunity for both students and clients to engage in short term hands-on projects using IwB methods.
Contact us if you’re interested in being a charrette participant or if you would like to hire us to run a charrette for you during the summer months.
To apply to the IwB, please click here.
In addition to the academic division, the IwB also has a special projects and a professional projects division.
To find out more about the IwB please visit our FAQ or contact us.
