Fostering Tomorrow's Designers: An Approach to Incorporate Sustainability Into Thai Design Education

Although designers could cause ecological, economical, social and cultural problems threatening us, they could also direct us to a sustainable direction. Sustainability education for design students – our future lifestyle shapers – is undoubtedly crucial to ensure our sustainable future. This paper investigates whether a design project-based approach improves or deteriorates sustainability education. Three sustainable design projects for industrial design undergraduates were compared and analysed in terms of key factors influencing project learning outcomes. The implication of this study is that to achieve sustainability learning outcomes of design project-based learning, not only appropriate teaching and learning strategies are required, but also the sustainability topic's contents. Moreover, the scope and complexity of the project need to be consistent with the students’ maturity, knowledge, experience and design skills; otherwise, students' proposed sustainable design solution will be rather conceptual. Sustainability will remain theoretical for students and difficult to integrate into their professional practice.