Institute of Design and Communication

Subject area
The institute’s area of study encompasses architectural design (with its various design-related specialisations), architectural tools and methods for description and visualisation (for use in processes of documentation, analysis, design), and communication and information technology and its possible uses in the design process. 

The design process is the institute’s common overall subject area. It includes the study of design as artistic/architectural work, as a part of systems and processes, and as a methodical process ranging from sensing and reflection to the creation of practical objects, supported by analysis/description, visualisation/communication in various media.

Research areas
There are three main areas of study:

Design deals with the development of types and widely useable systems. The area is to contribute to the study of building types and supplementary systems, furniture and inventory systems together with signs, symbols, and text and information systems. Studies that are not site-specific and that focus on general research problems are characteristic of this subject area. Design includes such subjects as Designing Building Components, Industrial Design, Furniture and Room Design and Industrial Graphic Design.

Information and Communication Technology involves a relatively new social factor that not alone has changed both the processes and products of design but has also influenced our understanding of architecture as a concept. This subject area is to contribute to the study of IT in design products, as a tool in the design process and as a media. It includes subjects such as CAD/CAM and Digital Visualisation.

Visual Communication deals with the relationship between the representations of architectural projecting and concrete architectural products. The area is to contribute to the development of architectural tools and approaches to visualisation in relation to architectural proposals and communication, as well as the development of a theoretical and practical basis for teaching in this area. Visual Communication includes subject areas such as Architectural Visualisation, Descriptive Geometry and Morphology, Colour, Photography and Model-Making.