Education Committee
Mr Zareh Sarabian (Directeur)
Mrs Kareen Andraos
Mr Kamal Aoun
Mr Imad Fakhry
Mr Cyril Kallab
Bachelor's Student Delegates
Mission Statement
Alba has been the first school in the Middle East, to approach design as a discipline in itself. The department was founded in 2012.
The specialization had started in 1999, as furniture design, to evolve into what is now a Design Department, offering a Bachelor in Product Design, in tune with the evolution of the market.
Our goal is to give young designers a know-how of classical manufacturing methods, both industrial or handmade, as well as the newest production techniques.
They must make theirs a global approach that will allow them to use either technique, one complementing the other. They will achieve this competence through transversal, interdisciplinary teachings: sociology, ergonomics, marketing, technology…
This major is built around 3 intrinsically linked learning axes:
- Teaching the proper methodology to create concepts
- Teaching technology as an active part in the creation process
- Using culture as an inescapable reference and source for the development of projects.
Faculty members are professionals in this field, with their own career paths and experiences. Moreover, local and international professionals are invited to lead workshops. Students are thus compelled to develop a flexibility that will allow them to fit into diverse sectors dealing with the creation and production of objects..
Learning Objectives
- Develop students’ technical knowledge and an open-mindedness that will impel them to always be on the lookout for new ideas and watching technologies with an ongoing curiosity.
- Have them organize their student life in a responsible and mature way, and make an ethical commitment to a design which is socially and ecologically sustainable .
- Explain the challenges brought on by a project and how to define the scope of their intervention and to be able to create a global experience around a product, a service, or a space.
- Determine the specific means and methods of design to implement the required project.
- Be able not only to solve, through design, technical and social challenges, but also put into perspective the requirements for learning and teaching.
- Be able to complete higher studies – at ALBA or abroad – or go straight into professional life by starting an independent career or by joining an enterprise.
Learning Outcomes
The student will:
- Be able to make oral presentations, expressing the concepts clearly, with explanatory sketches and models
- Handling concepts and mastering formal dimensions of objects and spaces
- Know how to gather relevant information
- Clearly express the chosen objectives for a project
- Be knowledgeable in computer aided design and rendering, 2D as well as 3D
- Know the human anatomy and ergonomics
- Having defined the needs and aspirations of the users, know how to establish the set of specifications
- Analyze the objects to determine their mechanics and functioning modes
- Apply the acquired technical knowledge to turn concepts into a functional product
- Develop concepts and specifications that enhance functions and perceived values in the common interest of the user and the manufacturer
- Be environmentally aware, knowing “what to create and how” in order to preserve the environment without increasing social injustice
- Understand the societal, environmental and commercial issues essential for innovation
- Be able to identify new usages and practices
- Know how to test and assess one’s projects through drawings, models and prototypes
- Understand local and regional markets, the technical know-how of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as their structure/fabric/networks
-
Design Projects Modalities
Assessments will take place in the studio according to a pre-established schedule.
Students must be present for the whole duration of the sittings.
Attendance will be taken twice, in the morning session and again in the afternoon.
Every student will keep a log of the sessions. It will be the road map to the project.
The design instructors form the jury to whom the students present their projects. Other persons may be invited as well.
Conditions for the Validation of Credits
N.B: Please refer to the section “Academic Rules and Regulations”
Final project: submittal steps and details
The final project for the bachelor degree extends over a 10-week period. The academic committee chooses the theme to develop at the beginning of the semester.
Rendering Elements
The student will be given the details of the elements to submit as well as the schedule of the different deadlines relative to this project.
Assessment
The final project of this cycle is submitted to a jury made up of instructors. This jury is headed by the delegate of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
A minimum grade of 10 out of 20 is required to confirm the credits assigned to the final project.
If the student fails, he/she will have to submit a new project at the next session.