Course detail
Systems Thinking and Design 1
FaVU-1SMaD1Acad. year: 2025/2026
Many of the challenges associated with the layering of crises, the need for sustainability, the introduction of new technologies, accelerated automation and other aspects of today have been called wicked problems in some areas of design. Designers face the unpredictability of their internal processes and the incomprehensibility of the entire complex of relationships. The traditional approach of design thinking is not sufficient to solve such problems. Systems-oriented design responds to this inadequacy by incorporating the procedures of critical systems thinking. Unlike previous trends, systems are no longer viewed as constant features of real life, but rather as thought experiments or mental maps that help us cope with the often invisible, but nevertheless important relationships between things. “Systemicity” is more in the observation than in the observed. In a similar vein, systems-oriented designs encourage designers to try to design things, services, artefacts, or digital products in such a way that they respond to the so-called emergent properties of systems and thus influence how they develop. This entails a consistent reflection on the choice of scales, the degree of abstraction, and who and what will be or not affected by the change in the system. To this end, it is useful to supplement the methods of systems thinking with analytical and application approaches from other fields, such as anthropology, ecology, but also philosophy or cybernetics. The interdisciplinary enrichment this brings is the primary aim of the course. The approaches that students will become familiar with are selected concerning their usability in any design practice, from product design, service, interaction design, to architecture or policy making. The structure of the course is based on blocks consisting of a lecture part and workshops, or a seminar part. Each semester plan includes contributions from guest speakers from various fields.
Language of instruction
Number of ECTS credits
Mode of study
Guarantor
Department
Entry knowledge
Rules for evaluation and completion of the course
The following conditions are set for the award of credit/examination:
- Compulsory attendance - 75% attendance (attendance at a minimum of 4 blocks out of 6)
- Colloquium - presentation of a semester assignment announced at the beginning of the semester.
The course is taught in blocks (2 hours lecture, 2 hours seminar). Minimum attendance is 75%.
Aims
The course aims to contribute to building theoretical and practical design competencies oriented towards working with complex systems and so-called wicked problems in their broadest sense. To this end, students will become familiar with various methods and techniques intended to identify and create hybrid spatiotemporal interventions, connections, dependencies, and feedback loops. The spectrum of these methods and techniques is partly based on questioning the established practices of so-called design thinking and is inspired by the practices of so-called critical systems thinking and systems-oriented design. However, it is freely supplemented with analytical and application approaches known from other fields, such as intersectionality, more-than-human social relations, speculative fabulation, sensory ethnography, ecological modelling, and others. Experience with these interdisciplinary methodologies aims to support the designerly imagination and cultivate the ability to reflect on design practices, including the awareness that the starting point of the design process is constantly changing and that each implemented solution leaves irreversible "traces".
Study aids
Prerequisites and corequisites
Basic literature
Recommended reading
Buchanan, Richard. “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking.” Design Issues, vol. 8, no. 2, 1992, p. 5, 10.2307/1511637. (EN)
Davelaar, Danielle. “Transformation for Sustainability: A Deep Leverage Points Approach.” Sustainability Science, vol. 16, no. 3, 19 Jan. 2021, 10.1007/s11625-020-00872-0. (EN)
Fry, Tony. Design as politics. Bloomsbury, 2010. (EN)
Hickel, Jason. Less is more: how degrowth will save the world. London: Windmill, 2021. (EN)
Meadows, Donella. Thinking in Systems. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008. (EN)
Raworth, Kate. Ekonomie koblihy. Praha: Družstevní nakladatelství IDEA, 2020. (CS)
Senge, Peter M. Pátá disciplína: teorie a praxe učící se organizace. Vydání 1. (reedice). Praha: Management Press, 2016. Knihovna světového managementu. (CS)
Sevaldson, Birger. “Leverage Points.” Systems Oriented Design, 2017, systemsorienteddesign.net/index.php/tools/leverage-points. (EN)
Classification of course in study plans
- Programme DES_M Master's 1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory
1 year of study, winter semester, compulsory - Programme VUM_M Master's 2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
2 year of study, winter semester, elective
Type of course unit
Lecture
Teacher / Lecturer
Syllabus
2. Design as politics.
3. Wicked problems X Systems thinking
4. Foresight methods. Future scenarios and pathways to sustainability.
5. A critique of economic growth as an example of systems thinking.
6. Climate crisis and resilience design.