April 27, 2015

CIRRUS SUMMER SCHOOL
Emergence in Making – Rethinking Local Design Production

NORWAY, SYKKYLVEN
August 6 -14, 2015
ECTS: 3
LEADER OF SUMMER SCHOOL: TONI KAUPPILA KHIO
SEATS FOR CIRRUS SCHOOLS STUDENTS: 16

BRIEF
‘Emerging in Making – rethinking local design production’ – is a one week intensive workshop to question and investigate the value and assets in the local manufacturing of furniture and related products. The course will be organised in the Sykkylven – region on the west coast of Norway. This particular area is historically important concentration of two-third of the Norwegian furniture manufacturing industry.

CALL FOR APPLICANTS
Students in CIRRUS schools, who have passed three years of study (either in degree programmes or at their MA level currently) are invited to submit applications due May 15.
LINK TO APPLICATION HERE

SCHOLARSHIP
CIRRUS/Nordplus will cover student scholarship according to the Nordplus rules (70 EUR week + travel grant 330 EUR, Iceland 660 EUR) for travel, local transport and food.
The students will be accommodated in shared cabins (4 persons per cabin).

EVALUATION COMMITTEE
In case of high volume of applications the decision will be made by KHIO organising committee with Toni Kauppila leading the process.

WE WILL INFORM YOU ABOUT THE DECISION OF APPROVAL/DENIAL DUE 31.05.2015

MORE ABOUT THE SUMMERSCHOOL? YES, HERE:

‘Emerging in Making – rethinking local design production’ – is a one week intensive workshop to question and investigate the value and assets in the local manufacturing of furniture and related products. The course will be organised in the Sykkylven – region on the west coast of Norway. This particular area is historically important concentration of two-third of the Norwegian furniture manufacturing industry. Many of the past success stories and Norwegian design classics would have their roots in the area. In the past years though, there has been increasing challenges for the industry to compete with the more saturated and international markets within the field. Also issues raised by the polarising of the global production costs dispute the positioning of the local manufacturing in countries like Norway with high labour expenses.
Part of this phenomenon several operators within the furniture sector have been moving their activities to other locations, including the Baltic region. This dualistic geographical set-up within the design- and craft disciplines also underlines the importance of the issue within the CIRRUS network. To foster this current situation, the operators within the Sykkylven region have established a collective cluster, titled the ‘MØBELKRAFT’ – the Inspiration and Competence centre for Norwegian Furniture Industry.
The ambition of this initiative is to bring together all the parties, including nearly 30 manufacturers and suppliers, to focus on re-establishing the cluster’s position in the field. The objective of the workshop is to familiarize the students with this challenge, get acquainted with the operators within the cluster and to make design experiments to explore the emerging potential within the industry.
Aims and objectives:
• Learning the basics of working with the product industry
• Collaborative working methods
• Elaborating design processes between analytical thinking and material-based crafting
• Using designerly methods to communicate …
• Thinking about critical issues related to local and global manufacturing
The overall responsibility for the organising the teaching lies within the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, who will provide two highly internationally acknowledged professors within the specialised field, both with an academic and practical background. The responsible leader for the workshop will be professor Toni Kauppila, who is the head of the interior architecture and furniture design program. The other teacher in charge will be professor (in furniture and product design) Sigurd Strøm.
The main pedagogical and didactical approaches are: contact learning, learning by doing, lectures and presentations. The pedagogical principle of this workshop is to provide the students with an inspiring way to gain knowledge and expertise and experience, the student being in an active role in this process. It will also give an opportunity to learn project working skills from the preparatory work till the end result, as the students will participate in the documentation. Preparatory work via email will familiarize the students with the historical, social and economical facts about the cluster. The students will share their knowledge about specific production practises. It also allows the students to exchange ideas, information and cultural standing points with the fellow students and participating teachers. Contact learning on site is emphasized and it forms the core of this workshop. Teacher presentations will give a look into different projects and methods used in the disciplines in question. After the students have delivered the report and documentation material the tutoring teacher will take care of the assessment of the students. The students will receive 3 ECTS credits in case of successful evaluation (pass/fail) in ECTS system. Each institution is responsible for recognition of results by adding it to the student’s diploma supplement.
In the first part of the course students are introduced to the area and the partnering parties by visits and lectures. The teachers of the course present the design challenges and issues linked to the theme by seminars and classes. The second part of the course students will get hands-on design assignments to address the theme. Teachers will provide tutorials to assist the students’ work. The final phase includes further experimental explorations to communicate and disseminate the students’ findings both by visual and material means.
The outcomes of the workshop will be publicly presented and discussed with the representatives of the Furniture Cluster in Sykkylven at the end of the course. The students will meet several members of the MØBELKRAFT cluster in the process, including different producers and key personnel of the manufacturers. Edited version of the course will also be exhibited publicly during the Designers’ Saturday in Oslo in September 2015. The organisers will also prepare a publication of the key results of the course.