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Institute without Boundaries
A new kind of Education The Institute without Boundaries (IwB) was founded in 2003 by the School of Design at George Brown College, Toronto. It is a graduate program that emphasizes collaborative design in a studio environment. Each year, a small group of students are selected to work together on real problems with real clients. With diverse backgrounds in design, the arts, sciences and business, they collaborate to research, design and realize social and environmental projects. The Institute was launched as part of the Massive Change initiative. Developed with the Bruce Mau Design Studio, Massive Change explored design’s potential to affect positive change globally. A communications project, Massive Change became a highly successful exhibition and book. The Institute is now working on the multi-year World House Project.
The World House Project
The Institute is both an educational and research institution and functioning design studio working on social projects. At its core are the faculty and students, working and learning together. In this way, the Institute seeks to eliminate the boundaries between designers and other professionals and champion design that is collaborative and holistic. All projects take account of ecology, social equity, cultural values and economic feasibility. “Design is too critical an endeavour to be left to designers alone,” said Luigi Ferrara, Director, Institute without Boundaries, Centre for Arts & Design, George Brown College. “Our approach at the Institute is to catalyze students and faculty and apply whole systems design to major problems our world is facing. Our work doesn’t result in objects but typically in systems that enable others to design for themselves.” Each year there is a primary project (Massive Change, World House) that the students and faculty collaborate on. This is supplemented by additional activities such as workshops, exhibitions and publications. Every project has a client to whom the Institute is accountable.
Learn by doing
Students learn by doing and by researching and developing original ideas and solving complex, real-world problems in a high-stakes community context. The Institute provides an opportunity to work with thinkers, industry experts, international organizations and communities around the world. Students are encouraged to share their expertise amongst themselves and take advantage of the unique inter-professional environment at the Institute.
No boundaries
If Massive Change was about exploring the potential for design, World House is about testing this potential. The project proposes new ways of living and then explores their impact in a real world context.
Markos Teshome Photography
The World House Project is structured in phases. In the first year it developed systems that enable a richer understanding of the home. Complex structural, social, historical and economic factors were distilled into a systems approach. This provided tools to create holistic and integrated designs that take account of different ways of living. The current phase of World House is applying these ideas to a real life case study. In 2007, the Government of Costa Rica asked the Institute to create models for the development of sustainable communities in the rapidly developing province of Guanacaste. Focusing on the small town of Matapalo, the students’ work provides a blueprint for similar communities in Costa Rica and around the world. The next phase of the World House Project investigates the role of intentional communities in society. Such communities are formed to bring about a common vision, yet are often considered a retreat from the
world’s problems. By contrast, the World House Project will focus on the potential for intentional communities to engage and transform the world around them.
Curriculum
As the Institute’s projects change, so does the curriculum. Each year the program is redesigned to meet the needs of the new project and reflect the knowledge gained from the previous year. No two years are the same. Yet, at the heart of the program, is an emphasis on systems design and a set of high-level skills that can be applied in any context. “The Institute is an experiment,” said Silvio Ciarlandini, Associate Director of Design, Construction and Logistics. “We improve it each year but want to keep its essentially experimental nature. Joining the Institute means leaving your comfort zone. The faculty and students have to be flexible.”