Transition Design: Design for Systems-Level Change
by Terry Irwin

This poster provides an overview of a masters and doctoral level seminar in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Design. Transition Design is a new, transdisciplinary area of design-led focus that argues for societal transitions toward more sustainable futures and the re-conception of entire lifestyles to me more sustainable and place-based, yet cosmopolitan in their global awareness and sharing of knowledge and technology—Cosmopolitan Localism.

The seminar syllabus is an open-source website designed to be accessed by outside educators and researchers who can use it in its entirety or in part. The website including extensive readings with links as well as project materials that can be downloaded. Learning outcomes for the course have been highlighted as well as the Transition Design Framework, which integrates knowledge, approaches and skillsets from outside design that can be used to seed and catalyze systems-level change.