The School of Design, in cooperation with with the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), and Cape Peninsula University of Technology, held the first Design Strategy for Climate Change Symposium in Hunan University from May 9 to May 10, 2017.

President of World Design Organization (WDO) Prof. Mugendi K. M’Rithaa, Director of AHO Institute of Design Prof. Håkan Edeholt, UNESCO Climate Change Teaching Chair in China Liu Yun, as well as experts and representatives from leading higher educational institutions and enterprises, such as Tsinghua University, Tongji University, LENOVO Group, and Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Limited, attended the symposium. They discussed sustainable design and innovative topics on tackling climate change.

Prof. Mugendi advocated “design for a better world”, and put his “Socially Intelligent” plan on the agenda. He proposed a hypothesis of building a multi-local society, and analyzed BRICS countries’ roles in it. He stated WDO’s 17 global goals, to call for universal participation in “Design for a better world”.

Prof. Håkan introduced the designBRICS project initiated by HNU and AHO. He looked forward to find out systematic solutions to tackle climate change.

Prof. Liu Yun, UNESCO Climate Change Teaching Chair in China, and dean of School of Management and Economics of Beijing Institute of Technology, delivered a lecture on promoting South-South cooperation by means of science and technology, in order to jointly address climate change.

The guests had a round-table conference, and then visited the Workshop design works exhibition in School of Design. They all spoke highly of the design education of the school.