Practicing Universal Design Principles in Design Education through a CAD-Based Game Erasmus Project

Project Title

Practicing Universal Design Principles in Design Education through a CAD-Based Game

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Inclusion – equity; Disabilities – special needs

Project Summary

The Practicing Universal Design Principles in Design Education through a CAD-Based Game (PUDCAD) aims to support and strengthen the universal design education in international networks.

The project is related to one of the foremost priorities of European Commission: to provide the inclusion and efficient accessibility of the people with disabilities into everyday life. The ratio of people with disabilities who are at the risk of poverty or social exclusion is much higher than people without disabilities. Thus, European Commission encourages many organizations to work on the mentioned subject to raise awareness about universal design, accessibility and the rights of the people with disabilities. Design is one of the keys to prevent their isolation from the society and it is designer’s duty to provide accessible environments for everyone.

Since 80’s architects and designers have been working on universal design principles. Unfortunately, it is still not a common topic in design world. Therefore, it is essential to embed and widen the awareness of universal design knowledge and provide the efficient education for the future designers to practice it in innovative ways. Regarding the European Universal Design Standards, and the current state of the universal design education in international networks, this project offers a design game on a CAD-Based platform which aims at students’ learning and practicing their universal design knowledge skills through an empathetic approach. It intends to provide an innovative way to learn and practice universal design principles for undergraduate students. The project will deal with undergraduate design education to trigger the awareness of accessibility and let future designers and architects to develop accessible and innovative design ideas.

PUDCAD involves a design game on a CAD-based platform which will allow students to learn about basic and advanced universal design principles and train them on an entertaining context. The game will focus especially on inclusive high school design for the students with cerebral palsy that includes several distinct forms of impairment of motor functions which cause different movement disorders. The major tasks of the project are described as in the following order:

– Analyses and Documentation
– Pilot Research / In-site Observation
– Scrutinizing the Game Database
– Developing the Infrastructure
– Developing the Game and Its Supplementary Learning Materials
– Implementing the Game into Universal Design Curricula in International Education Networks
– Widening the Awareness of Universal Design and Creating Innovative Learning Environments

The academic partners of this project are deliberately selected regarding their broad experiences and proficiencies on universal design, education and research. Additionally, related to project content, the non-profit organisation partners are reasonably selected to create an effective multidisciplinary research platform.

The partner institutions and organizations of the PUDCAD Project are;

ITU, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul, Turkey,
HS-OWL, University of Applied Science, Detmolder School of Architecture and Interior Architecture, Detmold, Germany
LAMK, Institute of Design and Fine Arts, Lahti, Finland
UNIFI, Dipartimento di Architettura dell’Università degli Studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy
POLIMI, Dipartimento di Design, Milano, Italy
HFT Stuttgart, University of Applied Science, IMIAD, Stuttgart, Germany

SERCEV, The Association for Well-being of Children with Cerebral Palsy, Turkey
ED, The Occupational Therapy Association of Turkey

The project is expected to be completed in 36 months starting from September 2017. In particular, a workshop is going to be organized within the contribution of Hacettepe University (Ankara, Turkey) to train students from design and physiotherapy faculties. With such organizations, the awareness of universal design and designing accessible environments with new technologies will get a strong boost.

For a long-term impact, the game will be promoted via different online learning/teaching platforms and social media channels. Aside, the website of the game and its supplementary materials will be updated regularly to reach out more international education institutions in a long period of time.

Since the game will be based on the real-life needs, the project is open for different focus areas in universal design, design education, and new design teaching/learning technologies for design students as well as professionals.

The collected information of universal design and inclusive design principles in education throughout the project will be shared as academic and press publications occasionally; and these publications will be accessible through online libraries to broaden the awareness of universal design and trigger the further studies in different research fields.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 285845 Eur

Project Coordinator

ISTANBUL TEKNIK UNIVERSITESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• BAHCESEHIR UNIVERSITESI FOUNDATION
• POLITECNICO DI MILANO
• Ergoterapi Dernegi
• TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE OSTWESTFALEN-LIPPE
• sercev serebral palsili cocuklar dernegi
• LAB AMMATTIKORKEAKOULU OY
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE