Richard Buchanan will speak on "Design, Systems, and Organizational Change" on Thursday, October 21 at 7:00 pm in Williams 225.
Organizational change is an emerging theme in design theory and practice around the world, and the reason is not difficult to discover: modern organizations, despite their importance in our lives, are seldom as satisfying and successful as they could be. This lecture will explore the way designers are beginning to think about organizations and how they are carrying their ideas into new practice. Part of the lecture will focus on a specific case of system design thinking for the United States Postal Service, suggesting ideas about systems from a design perspective. Ithaca College and its School of Communication has already begun its own exploration of the theme, so this lecture seeks to add to the momentum.
Richard Buchanan is Professor of Design and former Head of the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. His work focuses on the theory and practice of design and the application of design thinking to new areas of professional practice. He teaches courses in information and communication design, industrial design, interaction design, and the design of human and cultural systems. He is an editor of Design Issues, an international journal of design history, theory, and criticism published by the MIT Press. He is also President of the Design Research Society, an international learned society founded in the United Kingdom and serving a multidisciplinary network of design researchers in 35 countries. Professor Buchanan received his A.B. and Ph.D. from the Committee on the Analysis of Ideas and the Study of Methods at the University of Chicago.
Buchanan will also present a Sustainability Café on Thursday, October 21, from 12:10-1:05 pm in Park 277. The title of this presentation is "Design as Inquiry: The Problem of Ecology and Sustainability".
Contributed by Marian Brown
