Overview

Cities are becoming increasingly complex as they integrate emerging technologies, evolving social needs, and interconnected systems. Strategic Design and Urban Systems explores how designers can address these challenges by moving beyond individual products to create meaningful interventions across products, services, organizations, and cities. Through human-centered research, systems thinking, strategic design, and artificial intelligence (AI), students investigate how design can contribute to more resilient, inclusive, and regenerative urban futures. Working in multidisciplinary teams, students collaborate with industry and community partners on real-world challenges related to neighborhoods, mobility, healthy aging, workplaces, and urban innovation. Throughout the semester, students conduct field research, analyze complex systems, generate future scenarios, prototype design concepts, and evaluate their ideas through iterative testing. By integrating evidence-based research with strategic thinking, the course prepares students to develop impactful design solutions that respond to today's challenges while anticipating tomorrow's opportunities.
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Learning objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

1. Conduct human-centered and systems research to investigate complex urban and societal challenges using qualitative, quantitative, and design research methods.

2. Analyze socio-technical systems by identifying stakeholders, relationships, opportunities, and leverage points across products, services, organizations, and cities.

3. Develop strategic design concepts that integrate human needs, systems thinking, emerging technologies, and long-term societal impact.

4. Prototype and evaluate design interventions through iterative testing, co-creation, and evidence-based refinement.

5. Apply artificial intelligence as a creative design partner to support research, ideation, visualization, and strategic decision-making while maintaining critical and ethical judgment.

6. Communicate design research and strategic proposals through compelling narratives, visual storytelling, presentations, and professional documentation.

7. Collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams and external partners to address real-world challenges and develop implementable design strategies.
    

Weekly schedule

• W1 [ link ] Begin the Journey: Introducing strategic design and urban system

• W2 [ link ] Frame the Challenge: Defining questions and reviewing prior knowledge

• W3 [ link ] Immerse Yourself: Exploring the context through observation and ethnography

• W4 [ link ] Hear People’s Stories: Conducting user and expert interviews

• W5 [ link ] Reveal Hidden Opportunities: Discovering needs and creating research toolkits

• W6 [ link ] Imagine What Could Be: Generating concepts from research insights

• W7 [ link ] Make Sense of Complexity: Synthesizing findings into strategic directions

• W8 [ link ] Give Form to Ideas: Designing prototypes and boundary objects

• W9 [ link ] Test, Learn, Repeat: Validating concepts through user feedback

• W10 [ link ] Shape Future Services: Developing strategies for implementation and impact

• W11 [ link ] Design with Others: Facilitating collaborative co-creation

• W12 [ link ] Scale to Systems: Expanding from individual solutions to urban transformation​

• W13 [ link ] Partner with AI: Leveraging artificial intelligence in the design process

• W14 [ link ] Refine the Story: Preparing compelling presentations and final deliverables

• W15 [ link ] Launch the Future: Sharing integrated design solutions

 

Studio themes

• Community: Reimagining Senior Center Services 

• City: The City of Longevity—AI and Urban Futures 

• Product: Experience Design and Space Innovation

• Transportation: Personal Intelligent Automation

 

Framework, readings, and learning materials
This studio is organized around a weekly theme rather than a single textbook. Core readings are assigned each week and feature recent scholarship from leading design journals, including Design Science, Design Studies, and The Design Journal. The course is informed by Vink and Koskela-Huotari’s (2021) conceptualization of social structures as service design materials, encouraging students to investigate the often-invisible dimensions of strategic design and urban systems, including policy, culture, governance, and social infrastructure. The studio also adopts the Community of Practice learning model (Lave & Wenger, 1991), emphasizing collaborative learning through engagement with peers, instructors, and industry partners.

Acknowledgment

The instructor gratefully acknowledges the contributions of all course collaborators and invited speakers, whose expertise, guidance, and support have been instrumental in making this course possible.