Student work and experiences - Sustainable Design
Sarah van Maarseveen
Master
of Sustainable Design
I originally studied Furniture Making and Interior Architecture in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, because of my interest in how spaces influence our mood and experience. After working in the Interior Design industry in the Netherlands for a number of years, I felt there should be more depth to the role of the design industry. Design is a tool to create spaces and objects that can benefit users, positively influence interaction, encourage social inclusion, and much more. However design currently contributes significantly to environmental impact through the creation of waste and increasingly transient spaces and products which give very little thought into end of life solutions. I feel design has the potential to contribute in a good way to well being and address both social and environmental issues.
I chose to study at UniSA as it offered one of very few programs internationally where it was possible to do an interdisciplinary Master in Sustainable Design. Sustainability requires a much broader look than 'business as usual', so I specifically wanted to do an interdisciplinary program. Working across different disciplines allows one to work on different scales and has broadened my own knowledge, as well as experiencing different design approaches.
The program has given me the opportunity to pursue a lot of my own areas of interest and participate in electives to expand my knowledge in areas I feel are important to my career. Current levels of consumption are exhausting the earth's natural resources; sustainable design focuses a great deal on the motivation and behaviour that drives consumption and examines implications that design could bring about. Because I believe that understanding more about why people consume from a marketing perspective is important, I chose to do electives with the UniSA Schools of Marketing and Business, including a course which provided an excellent business perspective and theoretical foundations of the principles and practice of sustainable business.
During my studies in the Sustainable Design coursework program I have been able to do a lot of research in a very wide range of topics from environmental impact, to material implications, social inequities, to behaviour and expectations, and much, much more.