Aalborg University

Mission Statement

The Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology (AD:MT) at Aalborg University is a young a dynamic environment in which design teaching and research follow innovative paths, experimenting on upcoming issues related to the design discipline, but also consolidating the existing knowledge and promoting new projects, research and collaboration.

The department has a strong focus on systemic, social and strategic implications on design. Here the students, working on concrete projects, are working on many design disciplines and on multiple perspectives, from aesthetic characteristics of products, to technical and organizational definition of services, and to strategic and systemic aspects related to the evolution of society, culture and urban contexts.

International Role

Recent international evaluations placed Aalborg University among the world best and more dynamic universities in the engineering disciplines. This encourages the department of AD:MT to reinforce its role as a leading player in design research, and in particular in applications of design thinking and design knowledge in different sectors of the economy, the urban context and society.

The Master in Service Systems Design, for instance, is one of the first of its kind in Europe and is active in the international debate on service design education.

The Department of AD:MT at Aalborg University has a consolidated network of collaborations in Europe and overseas. Such network has been built through a number of research projects and teaching exchanges. In particular, the department has promoted, coordinated or participated to a number of EU projects on themes, such as smart cities, design for elderly people, open data, or mobility, where the role of design has become crucial for the development of future generation of solutions. 

Such international links are also offering opportunities for new exchanges and collaboration, also including teaching activities and exchanges of researchers and teaching staff.

National Role

Denmark is well known for its design tradition, but it is also very active in keeping its contribution to the general design culture always relevant and active. The AAU’s contribution to this effort is particularly relevant in several areas: industrial design at AAU, for instance, has a leading role in promoting an education based on the integration of the traditions of design with the most advanced engineering research. The Service Systems Design master is the only education of this kind in Denmark, and for this reason it has solid relations with a number of public institutions and private companies in this country, which are proposing service innovation. The focus on social innovation and on innovation in the public sector gave our students the opportunity to work in internships with the leading public institutions in Denmark such as Skat (the Danish taxation office), MindLab, Innovation Huset, and the Copenhagen Healthcare Centre. 

Through the organization of events, hackathons and other initiatives (including an upcoming OpenDataLab) the department is creating new links with local innovation initiatives. This activity is also strengthened by the role of the Service Design Lab as partner in the EU funded Designscapes project, which is promoting design-driven innovation in the urban context.

Finally, the design alumni are now working in several public and private organisations (including Danske Bank, Bang&Olufsen, Maersk) in Denmark and are therefore reinforcing the links between the department and the national context.

Main Focus

The educational programs at the department of AD:MT@Aalborg University are based on a strong integration of technical and creative component of the design discipline. 

The whole teaching activity is based on Problem Based Learning (PBL) and therefore organized around group collaboration on project work that integrates different aspects of the disciplinary knowledge on design. Lectures and supervision are also integrating the contribution of technical experts from different disciplines and from other departments.

The involvement of the teaching staff into different research activities makes also possible to integrate teaching with research and, when possible, to involve the students into advanced experiments on relevant research themes.