Project Design Space, which bills itself as “the UAE’s biggest student design competition” (though it’s the only one for schools, as far as we know) has gone virtual for its fifth edition. That has meant it could easily take entries from overseas schools for the first time, and a total of 106 schools – from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt, Jordan and the States as well as the UAE – have enrolled in the 2020-2021 programme.
Project Design Space sets itself apart from similar programmes by using real-world design projects for actual clients. Design briefs have been set by Dettol Arabia, Eltizam, EY MENA, Global Village Dubai and Landor & Fitch, meaning the high-school students will need to solve genuine and practical design challenges – albeit as a digital-only experience, which presumably eliminates the late-night too-much-coffee meetings so beloved of creative folk (not to mention the kind of face-to-face discussion featured in our top image of Cranleigh students in a pre-Covid competition).
“Project Design Space has grown in participation year-on-year in line with student demand for design-related careers,” said Mohammad Abdullah, President of Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation (right) which runs the competition. “This year’s design briefs are exciting, creative and far from simplistic; solving them will require critical thinking, collaboration and complex problem solving – skills young people must develop if they are to thrive in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.”
The programme is designed for students in grades 9 to 12, forming teams that have to submit design proposals by 2 May. Teachers from participating schools have received programme materials and training on how to coach students on how to think and work like designers; DIDI faculty will also run monthly virtual workshops for teachers and students throughout the programme.
The key programme concepts of Project Design Space include Defining Design, Designer’s Journey, and Design Modes and Methods. The aim is to take students through the entire design journey from concept, team creation, picking a design brief, learning about the challenge, to discovery.
Students are required to conduct research and develop new perspectives about the challenge. At the development phase, they will generate many alternative solutions and refine ideas through prototyping and testing.
At the delivery stage the teams are required to create a prototype and film a video to pitch their solution to the client. The programme will conclude with a bootcamp in May and a competition final in June.
The briefs:
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