Augmenting Design Education for Sustainability through Field Exploration: An Experience of Learning from DIY Practices in a Rural Community

Alexandra Raeva, Svetlana Usenyuk-Kravchuk, Anton Raev, Irina Surina and Marina Fionova
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Alexandra Raeva: Siberian Design Centre, Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Svetlana Usenyuk-Kravchuk: Siberian Design Centre, Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Anton Raev: Siberian Design Centre, Tomsk State University, 634050 Tomsk, Russia
Irina Surina: Industrial Design Department, Ural State University of Architecture and Art, 620075 Ekaterinburg, Russia
Marina Fionova: Industrial Design Department, Ural State University of Architecture and Art, 620075 Ekaterinburg, Russia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 23, 1-22

Abstract: This article (visual essay) provides a glimpse of a field trip ventured by design students as part of a larger study of developing a localised version of design education for sustainability, focusing on the wants and needs of non-urban populations in vast Russian hinterlands. The central goal is to introduce would-be designers to the concepts of locally appropriate technology and sustainable/circular living by real-life examples and, eventually, teach them to recognise the sustainable potential of place-based technologies and practices of their making, using and maintaining. The primary data came from the trip to Pozhva, a village in Permskiy Krai, Russia, that gained popularity among DIY activists and users of off-road vehicles in Russia in the early 2000s because of its unique, community-centred manufacture of lightweight ATVs on low-pressure tires, nicknamed “jeeps”. This article presents the students’ journey in a comic strip portraying a composite character of technologies and their user-designers as experts in local conditions and (subconsciously) agents of circularity. The article closes with a discussion on the expedition’s discoveries and learning outcomes, correlating them with broader implications for design education.

Keywords: sustainable design education; student experience; situated learning; transport design; remanufacturing; circular economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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