Rethinking the Design Insitute

We are currently preparing for a new phase of the DI's existence.  Meanwhile, the mission and a number of projects of the Design Institute are continuing under the auspices of the College of Design.

Design Camp for teens, offered for six years beginning in 2002, will not be offered in the summer of 2009.  Last year, the program was offered to PK-12 teachers as a prototype for future design camps to "teach the teachers." We anticipate offering this program again in the summer of 2010.

The interdisciplinary undergraduate design minor, administered by the DI until last year, has significantly expanded its enrollment and curriculum, with the creation of eight new elective courses. And in the last two years, the DI has supported initiatives such as Design and PK-12 Education as part of its "D-labs," which will continue as incubators for new initiatives.

When the University created the College of Design in 2006, joining together the design disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, graphic design, interior design, apparel design, and product design, as well as housing studies and retail merchandising, it created a college whose mission encompassed that set for the DI by former University President Mark Yudof in the late 1990s:

• to create connections between the design disciplines across the University;
• to engage in outreach and public education about design;
• to pursue research that would define new areas of design thinking and application.

Design as a way of connecting diverse disciplines, envisioning alternative futures, provoking innovative ideas, and organizing collective action is alive and well at the University of Minnesota's College of Design.

Second Printing of ELSE/WHERE: MAPPING - New Cartographies of Networks and Territories

The second printing of the DI's award-winning book is now available through the University of Minnesota Press and Amazon.