Over the last half century, design education has diversified and developed considerably, in part in the arts academies, and increasingly in universities and vocational technical education. The TU Delft design program was founded in 1969, and has since grown quickly into a large, university-based, technology-aligned set of programs presently housing 2000 students and 100 academic staff. In the 50 years the Delft program changed due to: (1) changes in societal demand (from products, via services, to the systemic level of societal challenges), (2) the maturing of design as an academic discipline between science and engineering, and (3) international developments of the educational system (e.g., the Bologna agreement). In this paper we describe the development of this program within the broader disciplinary context of TU Delft, and how it brought together engineering, social sciences, and business studies in project-based education. We draw lessons from a unique position, made possible by this large scale and positioning next to engineering sciences. This position supported a large pool of in-house expertise; it fostered an intertwining of education, research, and practices in the industrial and wider societal context. And it also posed challenges of making design education work at a large scale.

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Currently society undergoes disruptive changes so that the pressure on the designer in terms of MORE/BETTER/FASTER seems to be much higher than the centuries before. This contribution aims to initiate a discussion on how to gain a better understanding of what kind of design methodology should be offered to the designer to make him answer to these challenges. Especially the statement is made that there are so many empirical results about design behaviour which are not used - but would be useful to be implemented in design methodology - instead, we always start from the scratch again.@en

The world is ageing rapidly. Between 2000 and 2050, the number of people aged ≥65 will double as a proportion of the global population, from 7% to 16%, respectively. By 2050, for the first time in human history, there will be more older people than children (aged 0–14 years) in the population. More distinctive is the tremendous increase in the oldest old aged ≥85. This challenges society to adapt, in order to maximise the health and functional capacity of older people as well as their social participation and security.

Ageing is a multidimensional process of change in the physical, mental and social domain, leading to functional decline.

Design thinking has embraced ageing as a topic where it can add to public health interventions. Applications of design and technology can contribute to ‘autonomous ageing’, for example, independent living and life style support, and can compensate for functional deficits associated with ageing. The focus is on supporting and reinforcing the reduced physical, mental, social and functional capacities of older people by applying groundbreaking, innovative design inclusive engineering methods, always starting with a human-centered integrated approach.

Examples of design for geriatric giants include design for falls prevention, dementia care and integrated care.

The establishment of collaborative networks between clinicians and designers, academia and industry is required to advance design for autonomous ageing.
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