Mapúa conducts faculty exchange program with Swedish university

MANILA, Philippines - Mapúa Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture, Industrial Design and the Built Environment (ARIDBE) recently entered into a faculty exchange program with Luleå University of Technology (LTU), a world-class university in the city of Luleå, Sweden.

The collaboration between Mapúa and LTU was made possible through a Swedish exchange program called the Linnaeus-Palme, which aims to promote and strengthen long-term cooperation among universities in Sweden and in developing countries.

ARIBDE dean Gloria Teodoro said the program is a great opportunity for Mapúa’s industrial design students and faculty members to learn more about designs from a different perspective.

As part of the program, LTU professors Bengt Holmquist and Dr. Ã…sa Wilkberg-Nilsson travelled to the Philippines last August to visit the Institute where they shared design strategies with the industrial design furniture class of Noel Em Sadicon. 

Holmquist and Nilsson asked the class to propose a design project that would showcase Philippine culture and lifestyle, revolving around familiar products. The students were instructed to adopt the Hear-Create-Design or HCD design strategy, in which they would have to conduct interviews and gather opinions about design problems, test the design solutions before their target groups, and come up with final design solutions.

The final design projects were the following: “Deep Well Manual Pump” by Danine Viola and Mark Ian Grecalda; “Pedicab” by Ira Vargas, Allan Alvarez and Christian Indefenso; “Gym Locker” by Vahid Gharacheh; “Bus LED Light” by Marciano Santos; “Shoe Merchandising Module” by Jean Margret Malan and Miguel Castillo; and “Karaoke Machine” redesigned by Edmerlyn Cubos, Norielle Ace Serrano and Maria Cielo Rogero.

Dean Teodoro said the two schools are looking forward to the next phase of the program, the student exchange, wherein two to three industrial design students will be selected to study in Sweden for six months and vice versa.