About the International Summer Design Workshop

Topic outline

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  General

  • What is the objective of the workshop?
    

    There is no single answer to design education. It is difficult to understand and solve global problems with only the perspective and experience of your own culture. By working in intercultural groups with students who are studying completely different design disciplines, students will be able to learn things from new perspectives. While developing design skills, students are also thrust into an authentic environment where English is used as a lingua franca to communicate. Through their work, students also learn about other cultures as they develop close relationships with their group members. This knowledge they learn about other cultures helps develop empathy which can be applied to create global designs that consider the needs of many people. Through this workshop, we aim to create opportunities for future designers to increase their intercultural awareness so they are better prepared to contribute to the global age. We believe that connecting with the wider world at a young age is an experience beyond imagination. That is the purpose of this workshop. 

    
    

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  Objectives

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    The International Summer Design Workshop (ISDW) has been held annually since 2008. University students from multiple countries in the Asia Pacific region collaborate with each other to create a design proposal. Through this, students develop: 

    • design skills 
    • communication skills
    • intercultural awareness

    
    The ISDW is about having open hearts and open minds. By bringing people open to new ideas together to share and collaborate, we can learn new perspectives and understand each other better, ultimately leading to global friendships and a more peaceful world.  

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  History

  • When and how did the International Summer Design Workshop begin? 

    The first workshop was  in 2008 between two universities: Future University Hakodate in Japan and Hongik University in Korea. At that time, the workshop was called the Asian International Workshop. Hongik University is one of the most famous art universities in Korea. On the other hand, Future University Hakodate is smaller with a focus on the logical design process from problem discovery to idea proposal. We started this activity with the thought that if these two universities were to work together on a design project, we could do something very interesting. From there, it has grown into a large event with students from up to five countries participating. 

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  Participating Universities

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    Recently , participants include students from universities in:

    • Future University Hakodate (Japan)
      
      
    • Nanyang Polytechnic (Singapore)
      
      
    • National Taiwan Ocean University (Tawian)
      
      
    • Sangmyung University (South Korea) 
      
      
    • Shibaura Institute of Technology (Japan)
      
      
    • Chiang Mai University (Thailand) 
      
      

    
    
    

  • Since 2008, we have also had participants from universities in:

    • China
    • Australia

    
    

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  Meet the Teachers