For the past eleven years Ian has been researching and teaching in Product Design at The Glasgow School of Art, where he is specifically concerned with future developments in Ecological and Sustainable design. He travels and teaches extensively throughout the departments International exchange network and has recently been the External Examiner for Les Ateliers in Paris and Goldsmiths Eco Design Course in London.
He is currently Visiting Professor at HDK, Design School, Göteborg, Sweden.
He also lectures on the masters’ programme at the Centre for Human Ecology at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, the Business and Design Lab, Göteborg University and the Product Design Engineering course at Chalmers University, Göteborg.
Prior to being an Educationalist he was in Consultancy developing products for companies in the UK, America, France and Australia, including BT, Plessey, Corning Medical and Heatrae Sadia.
His research interests concern the understanding of our emerging ecological aware society, its changing needs and the resulting impact on designing and design education, through which are developed new creative methodologies to design more ethically, ecologically and sustainably.
He is the o2 representative for Scotland and founder member of o2 Nordic (o2 being the global network for sustainable design).
He was the researcher for Glasgow in The European Commission 6th Framework Programme project concerning creative communities. The research project, EMUDE, looked at Emerging user Demands for Sustainable Solutions in a societal and community led framework. Other schools involved were: KISD Köln, Politecnico di Milano Milan, UIAH Helsinki, Estonian Academy of Arts Tallin, Les Ateliers Paris, Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design Prague and the Academy of Fine Arts Krakow.
See – http://www.dis.polimi.it/emude/book1/
Recent conference papers and workshops include: EAD Barcelona, ERA 05 Copenhagen, Ethics 2006 Nantes and Semaine Folle, Reims 2006, Elisava, Barcelona 2007 and Changing the Change, Turin, 2008.
He is a member of the Meta Design Colloquium at Goldsmiths, London.
See - http://attainable-utopias.org/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MetadesignColloquiumOverview
He was invited by IDSA to be a speaker for the Eco Design Section at ICSID 2007 World Congress in San Francisco, Intersecting Paths to Sustainable Consumption and the session on design education hosted by Naomi Gornick.
Recently he has been invited to be a founding member of the new Cumulus working group on Sustainable Design Education, which held its inaugural meeting in Kyoto in the spring of 2008.
In 2005, 2006 and 2007 he initiated social design projects in Glasgow dealing with waste in the community, a Green-mapping exercise and guide to charity shops in Glasgow and social entrepreneurial projects in Drumchapel concerning wood recycling and sustainable product development.
Other current and upcoming projects include:
SEEK. A United Nations Environmental Programme project joining leading design schools together world wide to share experience in and of social and entrepreneurial design projects within a sustainable context.
Cranhill (Glasgow Regeneration). Working with the local community, the health board and local councillors to improve social conditions. Cranhill in Glasgow has, currently the worst health record in Europe.
Full Tilt. Working with the Drumchapel Wood Recycling Group to develop a retail outlet and eco events space in the centre of Glasgow.
Transforming the Future. An explorative project to redefine the role of designing
in our emerging ecologically aware society, to be enacted jointly by: Transition Town Totnes, The Glasgow School of Art, HDK School of Design, Göteborg and Plymouth University
The development of a world master programme at HDK Design School Göteborg, Sweden.
Contact Details:
Department of Product Design
Masters Programme
The Glasgow School of Art
0044 (0)141 353 4716 or
0044 (0)790 0630 275
HDK, Göteborg
0046 (0)734 038 301
I.grout@gsa.ac.uk or Ian.grout@hdk.gu.se
