DE7048 - Relational Design Studio

You will be introduced to relational design through real-life project briefs in a studio environment exploring how a relational lens can be applied to any design challenge. For example, how might a relational approach help the design of a new neighbourhood, how a charity or local authority is run, how education or healthcare is designed more holistically? As a team, with a range of collaborative partners, you will learn through project practice experimenting with the use of design-as-relationship-building. Invited guests will join the studio to share their experiences of relational working and provide inspiration for your projects. As you learn from hands-on project work, you will consider with peers, your academic team and with project partners a multiplicity of futures in which institutions, systems, communities and cultures value relationships.



Through critical discussions with peers, academic and research staff you will explore how neo-liberalist and capitalist contexts have stripped away relational elements of modern-day life. In the Relational Design Studio critical discourses include ‘who and what is designing/designed’, ‘relational design ethics’, ‘transactional versus relational design’ and ‘is relational design needed for system change?’



Regular feedback provided by peers, academic tutors and collaborators alongside your studio practice will help you track your progress and make improvements. Written feedback will be provided in response to your assignment submission at the end of the module. The assignment and this feedback will help you consolidate your learning to date and carry it forward into the next part of the programme.

It is important that relational practice is not abstract. It is important that you connect with the people, places and things that you will be participating and collaborating with during this module. In the Relational Design Studio, the academic team will support the development of your confidence and relational practice capabilities within a university context before progressing to engage with organisational, institutional or community settings outside of the university. Relational design practice tools and resources will be introduced, and you will be guided to understand how to adapt them for different contexts of practice.



You will be provided with a module guide at the start of this module. This guide will provide all the important information about the module. It will describe the module’s learning outcomes and how these relate to the programme’s overall learning outcomes. It will provide a detailed schedule for your teaching and learning and describe how your learning will be assessed. These details will be explained in a module briefing where you will have the opportunity to ask questions.



The module’s tutors, together with other leading specialist academics from across the university, will support you throughout the module so that you understand what to expect, how classes and project-based activities relate to your assignments, and so you can receive feedback within supervised studio sessions. You will see your tutors throughout each week of the module where there will be opportunities to ask questions and gain support. Digital platforms allow you to engage in discussions and share relevant resources with the studio members (your peers, tutors and collaborators). These platforms also provide the means to contact your tutors directly.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:

Demonstrate knowledge about relationships and their importance when designing in the contexts of transition.

Identify key theories and ideas that are inspiring your relational design practice.



Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

Recognise and describe different relational qualities and how they relate to an innovation context.

Produce relationship-centred and relationship developing proposals.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

Recognise the importance of sensitivity to existing and potential relationships.

Formative assessment will be provided through a mid-term review.



Summative assessment will take the format of a 20 minute long published podcast episode (including show notes) produced in collaboration with project partners, sharing your reflections on relational design practice for a lay audience with an interest in relational ways of working.



Written summative feedback will be provided to highlight the strengths of your assignment submission and its areas of improvement. This feedback will make clear how you performed against the assessment criteria. All MLOs will be assessed through your podcast.

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Put relationships at the heart of sustainable, social change! Step into the dance of relational design, where every step, every movement, is part of a larger choreography of meaningful connection and interdependency. Here you are not just a creator, you’re a facilitator, a curator and an architect.



Grounded in a philosophy of interconnectedness and mutual growth, we encourage you to use design as a conduit for nurturing the relationships that build a better, cohesive future. Working with your peers on projects with external stakeholders will enable you to explore, understand and manipulate the complex interplay of our human connections with one another, with other life forms, and the planet itself.



This studio is designed to enable students to act as co-researchers contributing new knowledge and understanding to the developing field of relational design. You will learn how to discuss your practice and you will be assessed on the production of a published podcast produced with your project partners.