Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design

Ecology to Design courses

In the E2D courses, makers and designers explore the key ecological challenges, learn the methods and principles required to address them, and develop the skills needed to realise their own creative projects. The course helps students build their green competences (GreenComp) through a comprehensive, systems-based approach. The modules build on related sustainability activities, reinforcing participants’ sense of agency and ecological responsibility.

E2D 1 – Foundation course

The course introduces current ecological and environmental challenges, along with the core sustainability theories and practices needed to address them. As a foundation course, it gives students a clear understanding of the most pressing sustainability issues of the 21st century. Through expert talks, discussions, case studies, and creative individual and group activities, it helps students develop critical thinking and understand the underlying relationships between these issues in the first semester of the BA programme.

The course is structured in a sequence of blocks, each building on the previous one, covering key ecological challenges including climate change, biodiversity loss, resource depletion, overconsumption, environmental pollution, and the psychological barriers to sustainable action.

E2D 2 – Eco-design course

The course introduces the main design approaches in use today, explains the logic behind them across scales from products and service systems to urban and regional contexts, and integrates them into design assignments.

Students then proceed to rework an existing product, service, or system in short workshops, applying the approaches and methods they have learned.

This is followed by a more substantial design project, with students redesigning a product or service with a high ecological footprint. From the second semester of the first year of the BA programme, the course is open to all programmes, with a focus on research, development, and innovation.