Design pedagogy competencies: cross-cultural collaboration for a changing future

The last twenty years have seen a fundamental shift in the design profession. Where once design was neatly segmented into specific practices based upon form or output (graphic, product, fashion, etc.), design is now often practiced holistically, less concerned with final forms but with overall change affected. Additionally, advances in production and communication technologies have reshaped the design marketplace. Design is truly a global affair where an artefact might be designed on one continent, produced on another and sold in a third. There is a need for design education to evolve to address these changes. This paper interrogates a pair of collaborative international projects that attempt to address some of the opportunities and challenges required for a new design curriculum. Through the lens of cross-cultural design education, students in Canada and Hong Kong collaborated on projects that explored issues of culture, research and communication and examined new design territories through co-creation