Introduction
School of Design was established on Aug. 1st, 1992, the first in Taiwan. The School includes Department of Architecture (with two tracks of Architecture and Cultural Heritage in the postgraduate program), Department of Interior Design (with a postgraduate program), Department of Commercial Design (with a postgraduate program), Department of Landscape Architecture(with a postgraduate program), Program in Indigenous Culture and Design, and Ph. D. Program in Design. In terms of curriculum and research, we cover “Architectural Design,” “Landscape Design,” “Urban Design,” “Commercial Design,” “Cultural Heritage,” and other relevant areas. The main purpose of establishing School of Design is aiming at building a holistic education system while integrating design so as to develop specific in each design field, to train professional talents in design responding to social needs, to carry out ideals of professional education, to strengthen the concepts of “sustainable care” and “creative service” on the basis of issues raised in the 21st century, and lastly to increase social welfare.
Misson
School of Design regards “Cultural Sites Revolution” in the 21st century as its education goal and aims at carrying out the concept of “Sustainable Care, Creative Service.” Additionally, it plans to integrate teaching and research in every field of each department and schools and transform the environments of each department, school, and colleges as a life core for academic and spiritual communication.
We hope students under our training are able to walk on their own path out of traditional classics, to the world of “Others,” dealing with things rationally and at the same time getting hold of inner meaning with thorough understandings and interpreting their life in their own languages and forming healthy concepts and attitudes. After graduation, they shall comment on current situations by self-reflection and devote themselves to the society by making good use of interdisciplinary general education as a designer full of passion in service.
It is also hoped that through organization reconstruction and curriculum integration, cultural formation in general education and education of characteristics can be enhanced, apart from professional education research, to implement holistic education and labor service of Chung Yuan Christian University.
Our School attaches great importance to the connection between SDGs and USR, so that the promotion of University Social Responsibility can be combined with the Sustainable Development Goals, integrating the issues of the United Nations sustainable development of the fourth goal “Quality Education”, the sixth goal “Clean water and Sanitation” and the second 17th goal “Partnerships”, the USR team of our school combines the strengths of the departments of architecture, interior design, commercial design, landscape architecture, environmental engineering, and teaching Chinese as a second language, to jointly build an education and life network of “one pond, one school, one community” across fields, and to carry out international cooperation with UCSI University in Malaysia, and cooperate with thematic learning methods to explore the integration of multiple educational approaches into teaching to achieve the purpose of unity of learning and application.
Key Features
So far School of Design has accumulated abundant results in academic researches and cooperative education. Not only have we taken the lead among academies by our college journals and international academic conference proceedings, but built up excellent results in repairing ancient heritages, community building, and labor service. The following illustrates history and achievements of each department respectively.
Department of Architecture was founded in the year of 1960 whose education goal aims at developing students’ open-minded attitudes, professional knowledge, and sophisticated skills of architecture. Its historical research, cultural heritage reservation, urban design, and green building are outstanding among others.
Department of Commercial Design was established in 1984 following “Design and Marketing” as its development direction. It also lays the emphasis on graphic arts, interdisciplinary performance in commercial products, competition and patents, “Studies on Applications of Marketing and Visual Design,” “Balance on Theory and Design Labor Service,” “Integrated Research on Design, Computer and New Media.”
Department of Interior Design was set up in 1985 which characterize itself on the basis of culture and life aesthetics with emphasis on interior design theory, environment of universal design, space of flows, environmental welfare, interior architectural environmental control, and so on.
Department of Landscape Architecture was founded in 2004 and it formally established its Master’s Program in 2011. With a stable footing and a professional attitude of reflection we have opened up a new field of vision for landscape design –and have already been affirmed by both the academic and professional sectors.
In 2013, the Bachelor Program in Indigenous Culture and Design was established under the direction of former Dean of School of Design. The program accepts indigenous student only, students are required to pass the entry interview and portfolio examination in order to enter the program.
The Degree of Social Design Program was founded in 2018 and composed by 3 major scopes: Senior Welfare, Sustainable Neighborhood Development and Design Entrepreneurship. It aiming to promote activities which are ethical, inclusive and beneficial to the public. The program also emphasizing on environmental conservation, sustainability, and a balanced social development. This program is opened for 1st to 2nd year undergraduate students and courses will be conducted in small class teaching mode with combining CYCU Design School’s five existing departments’ curriculum properly. This will ensure the integration of various fields of expertise and cultivating cross-disciplinary design talents significantly.
Meanwhile, the graduate school of Culture and Nature Resources was transformed as Cultural Heritage track in the postgraduate program in Department of Architecture. On the other hand, the doctorate program in Departments of Design and Landscape Architecture are deemed as assistance to our overall development. The of Department of Landscape Architecture lie in teaching strategies for developing talents in designs of the ecological environment and land ethics for the coming century. In order to promote research in School of Design, the journal of “Design Science” was launched and calling for papers which has developed a unique design journal in Taiwan.
Future Prospects
It is our belief that solid training of creation and professional skills, adding with an open worldview and “Interdisciplinary Integration of Programs,” and “International Cooperation,” we can develop as a “Professional Design School,” holding global visions to work and compete with those in Cheng-du, Hong Kong, Japan, Florence, Malaysia, San Francisco and Oxford. In this way we are more able to train excellent design talents for the society for new perspectives in design.
The overarching objective is to establish a complete integration of design education system and develop the special characteristics of each area of design, while training design professionals, coordinating with the needs of society, and implementing ideals associated with professional education. The future direction for the School will coordinate with the University’s ideology of “holistic education” and together with the goal of symbiosis, the resources of the University will be combined and concepts related to science, management, humanities and art in Taiwan.
Towards CYCU’s 70th Anniversary with the main axis of “teaching excellence, first-rate features, excellence and sustainability”, our school will cooperate with CYCU’s medium and long-term school development plan in the future to implement the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) development strategy.
The future trends and opportunities of the design industry include (1) the opportunity for digital transformation of the design industry; (2) implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with circular design to establish sustainable environmental development; (3) integrating design, environment, engineering and products (DEEP) comprehensive whole new design thinking. Through the implementation process of linking with the industry, sustainable issues can be transformed from circular design→circular business model→circular economy→establishment of a sustainable ecosystem. The goal of enhancing students’ workplace competitiveness, is to train students in the area of humanities and social science by understanding the interdisciplinary teaching of technology application.
