Sustainable Design Aalborg University

Overview

About the programme 

Why choose Sustainable Design? 

You should choose Sustainable Design if you want to work with developing and innovating products, services and systems that take users, materials and resources into account. You will learn to combine design methods with technical and societal understanding, and to design solutions that are relevant to real everyday life. The programme gives you practical experience working on cross-disciplinary projects and collaborating with companies and organisations that work with sustainable development. 

Educational content

The Master’s in Sustainable Design focuses on project work and real-life cases where you collaborate with your fellow students and external companies, municipalities or other stakeholders. The programme combines theory and methodology with hands-on design processes where you learn how to use design tools, conduct user research, work with sustainability assessments and think in a cross-disciplinary way. You will understand, prepare and execute innovative processes in order to design and implement sustainable products, services and socio-material system solutions in collaboration with relevant stakeholders. 

Your skills as a graduate  

With a Master's in Sustainable Design, you will have a solid understanding of how design can be used to address complex technical, social and environmental challenges. You will be skilled at analysing needs, planning design processes and developing solutions that work in practice. You will learn how to work in an cross-disciplinary manner and collaborate with different stakeholders, such as users, engineers and companies. 

You will build a strong skillset within concept development, user involvement, system understanding, sustainability assessment and process management. You also gain experience in balancing design quality with considerations of available materials, resources and application contexts. Whether you work with products, services or strategies, you will be able to manage and document a design process from start to finish. 

Job opportunities

With a Master’s in Sustainable Design, you can work as a sustainability consultant or specialist at design and engineering companies, innovation units, development departments, consultancies, NGOs or in the public sector. 

You can work with product development, service design, green transition, user involvement, process facilitation or strategic design. You can design and develop concepts such as the emergency shelters of the future, robotic vacuum cleaners or airbags for bicycles. You can also work in rehabilitation with a focus on the elderly or disabled, energy-efficient mobility or urban waste management.  

The programme also gives you a profile that enables you to work as a consultant, project manager or designer in organisations that focus on innovation, sustainability and user-centred development.