Design for Sustainability and Circular Economy MSc

The Design for Sustainability and Circular Economy MSc provides the knowledge, skills and creativity to design solutions that can contribute towards a sustainable society, and aims to produce highly qualified and sought-after designers able to tackle some of our most pressing sustainability challenges. You'll learn how to use design to foster environmental, social and economic sustainability, and support the transition towards a circular economy. The unique feature of this programme is that it will enable you to apply design for sustainability at different levels:

• At a product level, you will learn how to design the life cycle of products in order to reduce their environmental impact and foster circularity of resources;
• At a product-service system level, you will learn how to develop articulated solutions that integrate product, service, business model and supply chain design;
• At a social and behavioural level, you will learn about social innovation and how design can be used to shape social practices and behaviours towards sustainability;
• At a socio-technical system level, you will learn to adopt a long-term systemic perspective and understand how design can play a role in supporting the systemic changes that sustainability requires.

You will learn how to use a range of different sustainability methods and tools in the design process, and how to put theory into practice in a range of projects, some of which are in collaboration with industries and other organisations.

You will have the opportunity to customise your learning journey by selecting 2 elective modules from other master design programmes. You will have access to modern facilities that include a dedicated master’s design studio and extensive prototyping workshops.

Our programme includes an optional internship (6-12 weeks) or placement (6-12 months), allowing you to be embedded in businesses and design consultancies and work on sustainability-related topics. This is an opportunity to apply what you learned in the programme in a real-world setting, improving your practical design skills and fostering your future career prospects.

This program is linked to the internationally renowned Brunel Design for Sustainability research group, creating strong synergies between teaching and research, and allowing cutting-edge research output to be used to inform the programme teaching content, projects and dissertations.

Made in Brunel is a unique, student-led initiative that showcases our design talent at its finest. Each year design students run a series of industry and community events leading up to the Made in Brunel exhibition. The annual showcase is a highlight of the London design calendar and promotes the incredible work our students produce for the creative community, and is a great way for our students to network with design professionals and potential employers.

You will also have the opportunity to engage with the Design Factory London, an innovative and dynamic hub for multidisciplinary collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving, where you can work on real-world projects with industry organisations.

If you're interested in turning an idea into a business after your postgraduate studies, we are in partnership with the Central Research Laboratory (CRL), a design incubator for start-ups. You’ll have access to meeting rooms and workspace as well as prototyping facilities. A team of in-house professionals will guide and support you at each stage and a number of our previous entrepreneurial students have successfully commercialised their products.

You can contact the Course Director, Dr Fabrizio Ceschin (fabrizio.ceschin@brunel.ac.uk) if you have any questions.

You can explore our campus and facilities for yourself by taking our virtual tour.

The programme consists of three core taught modules and two optional taught modules.

The core modules include ‘Professional Design Studio’ (30 credits, terms 1 and 2), ‘Product and Product-Service System Design for Sustainability and Circular Economy’ (30 credits, term 1), and ‘Social, Behavioural and Socio-technical System Change for Sustainability and Circular Economy’ (30 credits, term 2). For each term you will have the opportunity to select one 15-credit optional module.

You'll take the taught modules in the first two terms and then move on to your dissertation. The dissertation may include a substantial practical design element, but in all cases will be assessed through a final 20,000 word submission. The optional internship or placement start after the dissertation submission.

This course can be studied 1 year full-time, 16 months with internship full-time or 24 months with placement full-time, starting in September.

Please note that all modules are subject to change.

Read more about the structure of postgraduate degrees at Brunel

After completing the programme graduates will have a range of options:

• Join a business organisation, start-up, non-profit organisation or government agency as a sustainability and circular economy designer, design team leader, design project manager, design strategist or design researcher.
• Become a design and innovation consultant or join a design and innovation consultancy, with a focus on sustainability and circular economy projects.
• Start your own sustainable business.
• Undertake a PhD degree in the area of design, sustainability and circular economy, to then become a researcher (working in private and public organisations) or pursue a career in academia.

The majority of teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person on campus. Some modules may provide pre-recorded content for you to engage with prior to on-campus activities such as in-person seminars, face-to-face interactive sessions and/or face-to-face tutorials.

On-campus teaching and learning activities allow you to make the most of the Design facilities available on campus, e.g., workshops, computer rooms and dedicated studios. In-person teaching and learning activities also help you to integrate into the Brunel Design School community and connect with students from other year groups and other programmes.

Teaching and learning content (e.g., lecture slides and recorded lectures) will be available online via the University Virtual Learning Environment, Brightspace. The majority of assessments will be submitted via the University digital assessment platform although a few may require in person attendance on campus.

Assessments in this programme encompass a wide variety of formats, to cover all the needs and abilities required by designers in their practice, and to support students to achieve the programme learning outcomes. Assessment formats include project portfolios, logbooks, reports, essays, and oral and poster presentations. For the coursework submissions we use the WISEflow platform for streamlined management.

Overall, the various assignments’ outputs (e.g. presentations, reports) will enable the students to experience and learn multiples ways to communicate design process, design decision and design outcomes. A particular emphasis will be on learning how to communicate sustainability related problems, evaluation, priorities, design strategies, ideas, concepts.

Some assessments combine group elements with individual elements, in order to enhance opportunities for peer-to-peer learning and to expose the students to the collaborative working that they will experience in their future professional life.

Additionally, your dissertation, along with the reflective portfolio if you opt for the optional internship or placement period, also serve as forms of assessment.

Read our guide on how to avoid plagiarism in your assessments at Brunel.