Experts discuss the future of industrial design at UNSW BE Utzon Lecture Series
Published on the 22 Jun 2012
Last night the faculty hosted the fifth Utzon lecture of 2012. This lecture took a different format to the others, presenting a panel of experts to discuss “The Future of Industrial Design”. Miles Park, Program Director for Industrial Design at UNSW BE opened the evening by launching the Industrial Design Educators Network (IDEN) Journal. Miles acknowledged Berto Pandolfo from UTS who is the co editor of the publication.
The panel was made up of a group of experts in Industrial Design including; Oliver Kratzer, National President Design Institute of Australia/Managing Director, Ideal Industrial, Mark Armstrong, Blue Sky Creative, Brandon Gien, Good Design Australia, President Elect ICSID and Professor Dr Sam Bucolo, QUT.
Against the backdrop of recent financial turmoil and seismic shifts in technology and geopolitics, they explored the future of Industrial Design around three inter-dependent themes, Strategic Design, Crowdsourcing and Manufacturing 2.0.
When asked what he thought of the evening Oliver Kratzer commented “It was a real pleasure and an honour to be invited to participate in the Utzon Lecture series. The organisation was exceptional and it was great to see so many familiar faces in the audience. I was fortunate to get three exceptional panellists to participate, all recognised leaders in their fields. They were honest, open and giving with their answers and provided genuine insight into the profession and how it is evolving.
When the panel had finished the audience were asked to write down questions. There were plenty of questions and remarks and Oliver choose from a broad range of topics to address. “I saw lots of people in the audience taking notes. The quality of the questions in the Q&A session also showed that people's thinking was really stimulated. UNSW is showing real leadership by running this series of public lectures!” commented Oliver.
Approximately 150 people attended the lecture. The next instalment of the series will take place on 25 July. Titled “From showcase to place: the London 2012 Athletes Village” the lecture will be delivered by Mr. Greg Deas, Lend Lease Principal Village Architect. Fittingly, we will be immersed in 2012 Olympic fever and the lecture promises an interesting insight into life behind the Olympic Games.