The Design Department seeks to cultivate new collective imaginaries reflecting the complexity of designed worlds and design’s implications in social, economic, and ecological issues. As an open and porous learning environment the Design Department embraces peer learning and the co-creation of curricula that respond to the pressing concerns of both tutors and students such as the current planetary crises and prevailing socio material injustices. Throughout their study trajectory students develop tools and methods for research, articulation, and visualization that enable them to express and intervene with current discourses and the politics inherent in design.

Over two years of hands-on research and collaborative learning, students build lasting alliances to address pressing issues. Rather than creating "design projects," they focus on developing durable "design practices" and articulating their positions as critical designers.