What impact is AI having on education? "It's too soon to say any one thing," says IE University's David Goodman

An emphasis on traditional craft whilst adapting to AI is among the priorities at IE University, says David Goodman, dean of IE School of Architecture and Design.

Dezeen School Shows: Designing the Future examines the changes that design and architecture departments at universities are currently undertaking.

It looks at how courses are being adapted to meet the challenges faced by the industry.

Dezeen spoke to Goodman about the emergence of AI in design and architecture, placing sustainability at the forefront of design education and how courses can be developed to tackle modern socio-political issues.

Ruby Betts: How has design education changed over the last ten years?

David Goodman: At our school, we have increasingly focused on the critical role that design education plays in building a more sustainable and just world.

We're not alone in this approach. Good design must be sustainable. It's no longer an option or a luxury, as it may have been viewed in the past.

We find that our candidates are interested in design with a broader purpose, beyond individual artefacts – be it a building, a product or a garment. Programmes that put this purpose at the forefront seem to be successful.

Just looking out the window, or reading the news, makes it clear that we're living in extremely challenging times. It feels only natural that people drawn to design want to apply their creativity to help address those challenges.

Ruby Betts: What new skills are you teaching your students?

David Goodman: Critical thinking has always been important, and remains so. But we're also placing emphasis on craft – the actual making of things.

Craft also applies to virtual environments. Actually knowing how to do the work, knowing how to make 'the thing'. This is a crucial part of what we’re doing because we believe that architects, designers and city makers have an obligation to understand, firsthand, how things come together. It's not an abstract approach.

The intersection between cutting-edge fabrication technologies and age-old techniques can be especially exciting. We try neither to accept nor reject technologies without some critique and questioning.

Over the last 5 to 10 years, we've seen that combining traditional and contemporary methods can be incredibly productive, particularly when it comes to sustainability.

Ruby Betts: Are there any skill sets that feature more or less in the curriculum than they did in previous years?

David Goodman: Our students need to know quite a lot of software, but we find that in many cases, we don't need to dedicate curricular space to that.

There are more efficient ways to use class time than to teach the use of software.

Ruby Betts: What impact is AI having now?

David Goodman: It's too soon to say any one thing. We're seeing everything. We see lots of interesting experiments – from groundbreaking experiments to trivial applications, along with a lot of predicting and hand-wringing about what the future might bring.

AI will change how we work and what we make, but at the moment, after the euphoria of the past year or so subsides, I think we'll see a more incremental, but nevertheless important, change to how design is done.

We're developing programmes across the creative industries, and we felt that these fields were especially relevant in addressing our mission – to harness the power of human creativity to build a more sustainable, more just and beautiful world.

This may be a physical world, a virtual one or a hybrid. But we think that the work of the designer ought to be linked to this goal.

Ruby Betts: What issues – societal, political, environmental or otherwise – are your students eager to explore?

David Goodman: Like our faculty, our students are concerned about the impact we're having on the planet.

I also see a real interest in rediscovering traditional crafts, techniques and materials, and reimagining them. I think this may have something to do with a search for permanence and rootedness in a time when so much feels uncertain and transient, though that may just be my reading of it.

Students in our school are working across scales within the creative industries, from the detail of an individual garment to the complexity of an entire city.

At the moment, our students are developing biotextiles for fashion design to minimise the environmental impact of product packaging, creating full-scale timber architecture prototypes and reimagining real estate development as a tool for the sustainable growth of the Madrid metropolitan area.

Ruby Betts: Do you have any new courses that you have recently developed?

David Goodman: Our first cohort of Bachelor in Fashion Design students completed their first year last summer, and our new Master in Interior Design programme has just started in September. We are also introducing a new Master in Design for Immersive Experiences and XR.

Ruby Betts: What changes do you envisage for architecture and design education in the future?

David Goodman: Sadly, I cannot see the future. But I am encouraged by the current energy in reinventing and rediscovering earlier ways of making.

I hope that spirit continues and gradually produces novel work that also contributes to a better and more humane world.

Dezeen School Shows: Designing the Future

This article is part of Dezeen School Shows: Designing the Future, a series of interviews exploring design and architecture education.

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