OCAD University
AC-5: Immersive Experience

1. Course Code: 0.5 cr GDES- S3002 Special Topics This land-based program invites students to a 15-day workshop in Freeport Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago) to Wa Samaki Ecosystems, a 35-acre permaculture-designed and operated farm. Students are guided through the core ethics of the program: Care for the earth, people and community. These ethics provide a framework for the principles that foster a regenerative relationship between land and people and are instrumental in designing and developing sustainable human settlements and institutions.   Course Description:  In this land-based and experiential learning course, with Professor Michael Lee Poy, students will investigate the Wa Samaki site and apply permaculture design principles through a variety of project-based exercises. Students will learn about the theory of permaculture and the evolution of site-specific design practices from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, as well as natural building techniques by assisting to build a functional cob house structure. Course topics will include mapping/leveling, companion planting, foraging, landscaping, soil remediation, energy cycling, climate change, ecosystems, biogeography, wildlife restoration, water conservation, forest/trees, recycling, social systems and economy, etc. The interdisciplinary course will support students to incorporate holistic approaches to sustainability and use hands-on, studio-based practice tools to generate innovative responses to site-specific challenges. Students will also consider how Carnival arts can be a teaching tool in sustainability and express practices of resistance to unsustainable social, economic, material systems. Moko Jumbie and Blue Devils masquerade practices will be investigated and designed to be featured in the Toronto Caribbean Carnival 2023.   Learning Outcomes/ Skills Developed: By the end of the course, students will be able to:  Understand and apply basic permaculture design strategies for water, soil, garden, and community systems.  Understand the theory of permaculture site design process.   Identify relevant, locally abundant, non-toxic materials for natural building construction in any climate or region.  Link sustainability concepts to small-scale shelter construction projects.  Understand the basics of Caribbean Carnival arts and the links to sustainability concepts. A final individual and/or group project will fulfil 0.5 credit course work. ------------ 2. SFIN-6012 Business Design (0.5 Credits) Advanced business modeling concepts are introduced and the intersection with innovation processes is explored. Leveraging whole program learning, students are challenged in a mentored environment to reconfigure business elements into innovative arrangements that increase organizational relevance and deliver greater value to stakeholders. Working in groups, students have the opportunity to develop and practice their integrative problem-solving skills in a real-world situation, as they address the challenges presented by a client organization. Group work is integrated with the concurrent course, Leading Innovation, holding the tension between enriching the design/innovation toolboxes already acquired, and applying knowledge to real-life problems and constraints. Students with credit in SFIN-6012, SFIN-6B05 may not take this course for credit. In this course within the multidisciplinary Strategic Foresight and Innovation graduate program, students collaborate in teams as a consultant group to work intensively with an identified business/organization/social enterprise to deliver analyses, reports, and recommendations to address any issues raised by a business. The businesses typically prioritized in this exercise are social enterprises or businesses/non-profits with a public good mandate, including towards sustainability. ----- 3. DESIGNwith by Prof. Ranee Lee https://www.designwith.ca/designlab With a seven-year-long relationship with the Regent Park Community Ranee Lee brought her OCAD University circular design students off-site to co-design market ready products with the women from the Regent Park Sewing Studio. The outcome was a rich experience in knowledge and skill sharing amongst a diverse range of community members and led her to develop DESIGNwith as a lab for research and co-design between various sectors and stakeholders. INDS-1008 Circular Design (1 Credits) Building on Product Design Foundations, this studio course explores design practice in consideration of social, cultural and environmental implications. The student is introduced to concepts of sustainability and consequences of material and process choice in the development of design solutions. The student considers and develops critical perspectives through contextual and situated research and iterative design development that respond to human needs and environmental constraints in the proposal and presentation of design solutions.