Design Incubator: A Prototype for New Design Practice

Artist, craftsman, engineer, ethnographer, psychologist, entrepreneur, agent of change – is a designer one of these or a blend of all? What is a designer’s role in our current global and social landscape? The Design Incubation Centre was established to explore and probe these questions in depth within a rigorous and research-oriented context in the Division of Industrial Design at the National University of Singapore.

Established in 2006, DIC is Singapore's first dedicated industrial design research laboratory. DIC's unique team composition and broad-ranging capabilities have enabled it to work on diverse research projects and collaborative workshops with organisations in academia, government, NGOs and the design industry. Arranged by themes and consisting of documentary photographs, illustrated sketches, renderings and diagrams as well as articles and texts, this book presents an extensive archive of projects and workshops in product and research development, interspersed with insights and reflections from team members past-and-present.

This book serves as a handbook for designers who seek to incorporate unique, progressive methods and approaches into their personal or professional practices as well as a retrospective monograph on the Design Incubation Centre.