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Research

An Interdisciplinary Approach

Design Research at the Open University is of the highest quality. We were ranked 3rd out of 72 UK Institutions in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise, and have been rated 5 in all previous research assessement exercises.

The common concern of design research staff is to advance design theory and knowledge with a view to improving design practice and increasing the effectiveness of design education. The uniqueness of our research lies in the emphasis on the generic aspects of design activity, rather than developing specific disciplinary areas. Our research is carried out under three strategic themes with an even spread of staff and research students associated with each:

There are considerable overlaps between themes, which are actively encouraged, with many staff contributing to more than one theme. Our view is that the potential for the most innovative research is in the linkage between themes.

Research Themes

Our design research has developed around three core thematic areas, within which research on the principles, procedures and processes of design is undertaken by a mixture of individuals and research groups. The research groups cluster members from within our department together with researchers from elsewhere in the Open University (and other universities).

Theme A: Design Processes and Products

Including:

Design Thinking
Design Representations
Design Knowledge and Management

e-Learning in Design

Theme B: Sustainable Design

Including:

Design for Sustainability
Transport Systems
Energy and Renewables

Theme C: Complexity Science and Design

Including:

Complexity and Multi-agent behaviour
Complexity, Art and Design
Kinematic Design and Robot Applications

Externally-Funded Grants

Title	Funder	Investigators	Dates	Value
Heat Pump Field Trial	The Energy Saving Trust	Robin Roy (PI) and Sally Caird	2009-2010	£39k
Designing with Vision	The Leverhulme Trust	Steve Garner (PI)	2009-2011	£196k
Achieving Transformation, Enhanced Learning and Innovation through Educational Resources in Design (Atelier-D)	JISC	Steve Garner (PI) Georgy Holden, Peter Lloyd, Emma Dewberry, Nicole Schadewitz, Theodore Zamenopoulos (CIs)	2009-2011	£181k
Design Synthesis and Shape Generation	AHRC	Steve Garner and Chris Earl (CIs)	2007-2008	£319k
Design Meeting Protocols	AHRC	Peter Lloyd (PI)	2006-2008	£29K

Embracing Complexity in
Design

AHRC

Jeff Johnson (PI)

2006-2008

£105k

Open Network of Centres of Excellence in Complex Systems

CEC

Jeff Johnson (PI)

2005-2007

Publications

Researchers have listed publications on their own pages within this site. In addition, many of our recent design research publications are publicly available through Open Research Online.

PhD Projects

We have a large number of full and part-time PhD projects within the broadly defined research themes and also provide support for PhD research at the Architectural Association and the Transport Research Laboratory through the Open University's Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) programme.

We host an ARC Transport Research Laboratory page as part of our support work.

Research Facilities

We now have a number of superbly equipped SRIF-funded lab-spaces in which to conduct our research:

The Complexity Science and Design Laboratory
The FRAS Laboratory
The Design Observatory
The FabLab
The Robotics and Autonomous Systems Laboratory
The Digital Media Laboratory

Page Last Updated: 6 April, 2011