Simple, Complex, Innovative: Design Education at Civil Engineering

In faculties such as Civil Engineering, design is a not a core activity. Core activities at Civil Engineering are structural engineering, structural analysis, mechanics, fluid dynamics, etc. Design education has a relatively small share in the curriculum, compared to faculties such as Industrial Design or Architecture. Against this background, our group has developed a design track within the Civil Engineering curriculum. This design track starts in the Bachelor phase with design fundamentals, continues with methods and skills for dealing with complexity, and culminates in the Master phase with innovative design approaches based on concepts such as living systems, parametric design, product development and life cycle thinking.