module specification

DN7P02 - Project as Professional Practice: Furniture Design (2024/25)

Module specification Module approved to run in 2024/25
Module title Project as Professional Practice: Furniture Design
Module level Masters (07)
Credit rating for module 60
School School of Art, Architecture and Design
Total study hours 600
 
96 hours Scheduled learning & teaching activities
504 hours Guided independent study
Assessment components
Type Weighting Qualifying mark Description
Coursework 5%   Reflective Report
Coursework 95%   Portfolio to include project report: 2500 words
Running in 2024/25

(Please note that module timeslots are subject to change)
Period Campus Day Time Module Leader
Summer studies City Thursday Afternoon
Summer studies City Thursday Morning

Module summary

This module asks you to present a fully developed furniture design proposal using a range of industry standard written and representational formats and techniques, including effectively collated and presented research material, to a public and professional audience. It specifically builds on research and preparatory work carried out in DN7017 Design Research for Practice, and DN7018 Design Project Development, and will address a problem or scenario approved by the course team as worthwhile and leading to successful fulfilment of the course learning outcomes.

The context for your project should be researched in the widest possible sense, and presented with a full set of supporting evidence through which you will test and prove the viability, validity and applicability of your designs, in an evidence-based audit of probable outcomes and relative success.

The module and project will enable you to prove your ability successfully to negotiate highly complex problems and situations, to engage in both speculative and well-grounded evidence-based design processes, and to generate valid, applicable and innovative outcomes. You will communicate your individual approach as a designer, your discipline-specific abilities and your professional attributes in an appropriate and convincing manner, in order to enhance your career opportunities upon graduation.

Prior learning requirements

Completion of DN7018 ‘Design Project Development’ and pass of component 2 ‘Portfolio 2 (Major Project development)’

Syllabus

With tutorial support, you will realise the project plan devised through ‘DN7017 Design Research for Practice’, and ‘DN7018 Design Project Development’. Your project plan will be approved and supervised by tutors to ensure that it is capable of meeting the module and course learning outcomes. Although the module will be individually led and developed, there will continue to be group seminars and work reviews through which you will continue to benefit from the inter-disciplinary opportunities that the suite of MA Design courses offers, gaining useful insights from others’ progress and challenges as they progress towards completion of their projects. (LO1-5)

Balance of independent study and scheduled teaching activity

Individualised tutorials provide the guidance and foundation necessary to ensure that the independent study conducted throughout this module is effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks.

There is regular interim formative feedback that asks you to reflect on your progress and identify areas for improvement, including redirection or reframing of project deliverables as the iterative process of realisation reveals challenges and opportunities.

Towards the end of the module you will start to consider how your final portfolio of work can best be displayed at the end of year postgraduate and research student show.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the module, you will be able to:

Transferable skills

1. design, manage and evaluate a rigorous research and design process to produce  an ambitious, convincing, evidence-led and well-defended postgraduate level design project;

Subject specific skills

2. effectively deploy to a high standard a range of current industry-specific design research, development and realisation skills and methods;

Cognitive intellectual abilities

3. prove your ability to negotiate highly complex problems and situations, to engage in both speculative and evidence-based design processes, and to generate valid, applicable and innovative outcomes;

Knowledge and understanding

4. understand how to communicate your individual identity and approach as a designer, your discipline-specific abilities and your professional attributes in an effective and convincing manner through appropriate written, visual and verbal presentation techniques;

Professionalism and values

5. demonstrate how you will act as an inclusive, collaborative and socially responsible practitioner and professional in your discipline.

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