About

designBRICS is funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU). The project aims to build a platform for a lean network of different design institutes in ‘BRICS’ countries and at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design. The BRICS countries are currently represented by the design departments at Hunan University (HNU) in China and Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) in South Africa. The project assumes that two things are crucial: firstly, a new kind of dialogue between the “so-called” developed Global North and the so-called “developing” Global South; secondly, a new design education that moves its current focus from designing for affluent societies in order to provide an increased ‘standard of living’,  primarily based on consumption, to a more realistic one that focuses on ‘quality of life’.