The Design Village

As the world keeps changing, designers must learn to anticipate, intervene and steer systems towards a more just and sustainable direction. To achieve this, we need to rethink not just the skills required but the very foundations of design education itself.

The Design Village embodies a new vision for design education, advocating for a radical rethinking of how we prepare designers for an ever-changing landscape. Co-founders Mridu Sahai and Paul Hekkert draw on their decade-long experience establishing this pioneering school in India.

Rather than simply adding courses aimed at impact, they propose different educational frameworks, pivoting towards values that matter in today’s world: how to become a villager. At the heart of this book are three guiding principles: Impact First, Pedagogy Centric, and Internationally Embodied. These address key aspects from breaking down silos to promoting collaboration among facilitators, learners and partners, all while fostering a shared commitment to social responsibility locally and globally.

Through a combination of interviews and research-based essays rich with practical examples, you’ll explore how to instill key values like compassion and courage in learners, how to shift teaching from mastering fast-changing skills to critical self-direction, how to unlearn and challenge systemic assumptions, and how to create a multitude of learning environments.

This book is for anyone who cares about design education. Whether you are a design school manager, an academic, a teacher or student of design, we trust you will enjoy the extraordinary journey of The Design Village. And like with every journey in life, you will learn on the way, invariably, by surrendering to the experience, stop at moments, turn inwards and move on.

Author

Mridu Sahai Patnaik is one of India’s most compelling voices at the intersection of design, architecture, and society. Over two decades, her work in pedagogy, practice, and cultural curation has forged a perspective that design must serve the greater good. As co-founder of The Design Village (TDV), recognized by the Don Norman Design Awards for pioneering humanity-centered design education, Mridu has led the institute since its inception. She is also a Partner at Studio Archohm, one of India’s leading multidisciplinary architecture practices. A TEDx speaker and author, she has curated the India Pavilion at the London Design Biennale, brought the What Design Can Do Festival to Delhi, and produced landmark exhibitions like Practice of Pedagogy. For Mridu, design is not a profession but a promise—to dreamdo, not dream alone.

Paul Hekkert is a prominent researcher, lecturer, and strategist in the field of design, with a career spanning over 30 years at the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at Delft University of Technology. He served as a full professor of Form Theory and was head of the Industrial Design department, where he also chaired the Design Aesthetics group. Paul is considered an authority on the impact of design and published extensively in major international journals. He is co-author of influential works such as "Product Experience" (2008), "Vision in Design: A Guidebook for Innovators" (BIS, 2011), and “Designing for Society: Products and services for a better world” (2019). Paul is also the founding member of The Design Village where the Vision in Design Methodology was used to design the school. Over the past ten years, Paul was captain of science of the Dutch Creative Industries sector. He serves on the International Advisory Council of the Design Research Society and is currently a visiting professor at the Department of Design - Politecnico di Milano.