Cultural Diversity at the GSD

Cultural diversity in professional design education is important for several reasons. First, despite increasing globalization of many economic and other activities, with a corresponding tendency to obscure differences between built form in one place and another, often under the influence of increasingly available international technology, expressive issues of regional and local identity persist and, if anything, tend to loom larger. Consequently, an ability to interpret and understand the idea of cultural differences is necessary for a well-educated and well-rounded design professional and one powerful way to increase this understanding is by way of rubbing shoulders with fellow students and faculty from different cultural backgrounds on a daily basis. To be sure, cross-cultural studies in design have evolved to a point where theory has emerged and where case studies can be taught in a direct manner. Nevertheless, the vitality, subtlety, comprehensiveness and complexity of the issues involved can only be enhanced when the participants themselves, in these various pedagogical venues, can draw upon and openly share different cultural experiences and perspectives. Unlike perhaps business, writ large, with its overarching paradigms, and more like law, with its distinctly different systems of jurisprudence, design is both about a quest and application of underlying principles, as well as those which respond to regional social, political, technical and hence expressive opportunities. In the best sense, it is not a case of 'one size fits all.'

Another related reason for the importance of cultural diversity in design education is the challenges often presented there to unconscious, or semi-conscious, assumptions and worldviews. In addition to simply acquiring more knowledge about a field, a strong and enduring aspect of good professional education comes about when suddenly what appeared familiar becomes strange and visa versa. Indeed, it has often been rather convincingly argued that design thinking in itself operates well at some level, under the ambit of these two apparently contradictory impetuses. Again, one way to sustain a working milieu, that might be drawn upon productively in this regard, comes by way of cultural diversity. Moreover, this is in addition to the advantage of simply knowing oneself, in some fundamental sense, by way of self-comparison and reflection with regard to others who are not like-minded and are from somewhere else.

Mohsen Mostafavi
Dean of the Faculty of Design