Examination of model making courses and approaches in terms of sustainability in industrial design education in turkey

Sustainability perspective which offers a map to solve and handle the environmental, economic and social problems the world is going through, created a new mission for the industrial design which is closely related to the processes of production and consumption. Industrial designer has a great potential to decrease the negative effects that occur during the production and consumption and this potential makes the training of designer even more important. The industrial design programs in many universities are observed to have specialized courses focusing on sustainable design. However, in order to make future industrial designers internalize sustainability and make them interpret it right, the whole curriculum of the program should have the sustainable perspective rather than having only specialized classes about it. Within the light of this information, this research tries to determine the sustainability perspective of model-making courses since they also have their own process of production and consumption. In the literature review part of the study, firstly the emergence and development of sustainability as a term is explained through related events which have been organized globally to point out the challenges that our planet has been facing since the Industrial Revolution. After that, effects of sustainability agenda on education field are indicated from two point of view. Firstly, the integration of sustainability into university curriculum is examined and effective declarations for this process are mentioned. Also, the importance of sustainability in accreditation conditions of wellknown accrediting agencies as NAAB and ABET is addressed. Secondly, the integration of sustainability into operational practises of universities is investigated. For this purpose, sustainable campus networks and initiatives are examined which evaluate and guide universities to have more sustainable processes. After investigating the integration of sustainability into university education generally, the integration of sustainability into industrial design field is sought specificly to understand the effect and development of sustainability approach in industrial design. In this part, the evolution of sustainable design practice and different approaches in design research are summarized through indicating differences between key terms like green design, eco-design and sustainable design. Approaches related to material usage are explained detailly which are minimising resource consumption, selecting low impact resourcess and extending the lifespan of materials through recycling and reusing. The chapter continues with curriculums of industrial design programmes from Turkey and Europe to understand the place of sustainability in industrial design undergraduate education. And also, graduate courses and research areas are detected to see the tendency to sustainability in design research. The sustainability becomes more of an issue in design practice and education, since there are undergraduate and graduate courses focused on sustainable design. After gathering information on sustainability and education, in the literature review for the model-making in industrial design, the methods, tools and materials used in model-making courses are analyzed in terms of sustainability. The chapter continues with offered model-making courses in industrial design education. In the context of the study, the courses offered for teaching model-making in industrial design education in Turkey were determined. For the sample, in addition to the universities which are WDO (formerly ICSID) members, the universities specialized in model-making and the universities that are the earliest in order to have industrial design department were chosen. The chosen universities also constitute the main research sample of the study. Addition to model-making courses in industrial design programmes, the content of model-making ateliers in universities which may serve as also laboratories having digital tools like CNC, 3D printer and laser cut. Then, the literature indicating the relationship of model-making and sustainability is reviewed. Sample applications from design programmes of universities on model-making materials selection, reuse and recycle of model-making materials are mentioned to address the sustainability approach in model-making process. As the main research for the study, semi-structered interviews with six model-making course instructers were conducted to analyse model-making courses and approaches in terms of sustainability. The instructers of the model-making courses of the six schools that are chosen with this method were interviewed. The aims of these interviews were to understand how the content of model-making courses are related to the sustainability and to find out the approaches of the instructers of these courses. Each instructer answered 12 questions which examine topics like the materials used during the course, model-making material research, approach on minimising the effects of used materials, recycling and reusing abilities and thoughts of instructers for a more sustainable model-making education. After the analysis of these interviews, findings are gathered in primary titles like materials used in courses, disposal of materials, safety and health issues in courses, the content of courses and the model-making instructers. According to the findings about used materials, materials which are harmful for humans and environment are sometimes chosen for training model-making by instructers. Only one instructer claimed that it is forbidden to use hazardous materials in the course and in the university, but the most effective criterias when selecting material are the easy and speedy forming ability of the material. In addition to that, the issue of recycling and reusing of materials is also problematic for some universities. In most of the sample universities, the recycling process is unclear. And also, the waste is not seperated in model-making atelier and it is believed that the waste arrives into recycling areas and be seperated there. It is seen that some waste emerged from model-making process is not recyclable, but it is not regarded mostly. Since the obligation of work safety regulations, the workspaces have been controlled to avoid injuries and unhealthy circumstances during working. In model-making courses the instructers care about these rules and take precaution to prevent students to have an injury during machine use in atelier. There are forbidden machines that students cannot use without the help of a technician or instructer due to safety reasons. Another problematic area is the efficiency of air conditioning which is substantial to remove not only dust occured during forming materials like wood and foam and also gases emerged from casting poliester in atelier. For painting process, which is one of the dirties sectors in industry, specialized booth or paint oven is needed with an aspirator system. In most universities there are not comprehensive solutions for painting process, which is argued by instructers. It is also mentioned by the instructer having the most sustainability sensitive modelling course that the existence of a good quality air conditioning does not mean that it is okay to use paints containing hazardous chemicals. In fact, this approach on air conditioning is unique since in other universities a complete sustainability approach, regarding the environment as a whole, is not detected. There are also differences between model-making course syllabus. After the comparison of model-making course contents, it is seen that courses may focus on model and prototype or only presentation model or all model types that student need during design projects including mock-ups and digital modelling. Also, some instructers claimed that the model-making course should avoid from design and focus on only gaining model-making ability, others argued isolation from design activity is not needed for model-making course. Since the approach of the instructer and the university is effective on the model-making course syllabus, some of the courses seem to care more safety regulations or sustainability than others. If there is a general guidance accross the university for recycling and permitted chemicals to use, the model-making course reflects it in its syllabus also. At the end of the study, results are given with their relations with research aims. In the light of these findings, the solutions were offered in order to make the model-making courses more sustainable. One of the main results of the study is that there is a need for complete sustainability approach covering whole curriculum and operations of the university. Only in that case, it is feasible to design a model-making course regarding safety, health, environmental and economic side effects. Unless, sustainability being a complete approach having environmental, economic and social points is not achieved truely. Since the students and also in some cases instructers do not have an compherensive information about the materials and techniques they prefer, there should be a material guide showing the hazardous materials with alternative materials and suggesting more sustainable methods for model-making from environmental, health and economic point of views. Subjects like resource minimisation, recycling, reusing can be added to course content to raise awareness of students not only during model-making but also during making decisions on materials and production methods, with which the students meet first time in model-making course mostly.