CONFERENCES
E&PDE 2026 - 28th International Conference on Engineering & Product Design Education
The Conference will bring together representatives from education and industry interested in sharing new perspectives on design education.
Knowledge Base Repository
In addition to research papers, the Design Society is developing several valuable resources for those interested in the study of design. These include a repository of PhD theses, a library of case studies and transcripts of design activities, and an archive of our newsletters. Please note that these resources are accessible exclusively to Design Society members.
BREAKING BARRIERS, BUILDING BRIDGES: FOSTERING TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING BY USING FACILITATIVE INTERVENTIONS
de Koeijer, Bjorn; Mulder-Nijkamp, Maaike
Type:
Year:
2026
Editor:
Buck, Lyndon; Brisco. Ross; Bohemia, Erik
Author:
Series:
E&PDE
Institution:
University of Twente, The Netherlands
Page(s):
552 - 557
DOI number:
ISBN:
978-1-912254-24-8
ISSN:
3005-4753
Abstract:
Society faces grand challenges such as climate change, energy scarcity, and sustainability. These wicked, highly complex problems are deeply intertwined between disciplines, making boundary-crossing collaboration essential. Packaging is an area strongly linked to sustainability, yet current development processes often operate in silos, failing to address the intrinsic complexity of circular and sustainable packaging. To stimulate cross-boundary collaboration in this field, the learning community ‘Packalicious’ was launched in 2020 by the University of Twente in collaboration with the Netherlands Institute for Sustainable Packaging (KIDV) and several Dutch universities. Packalicious has since evolved into a symbiotic, transdisciplinary ecosystem of learning, connecting over 12 educational institutions, 27 industry partners, and governmental stakeholders to address intricate packaging challenges. Across three years of multidisciplinary Packalicious sessions, several recurring challenges emerged: communication issues caused by disciplinary jargon, varying impact horizons of stakeholders, and the intangibility of the subject, which can hinder concrete decision-making. While collaborative tools and group dynamics exercises have been widely applied, these often risk ‘beating around the bush’—emphasising sustainability concerns without progressing toward concrete actions. During the scale-up of the learning community, the critical value of facilitative interventions—such as tangible boundary objects and dedicated connectors—became apparent as a means to enhance transdisciplinary learning. This paper highlights the potential of such tangible entities to supplement abstract collaborative tools and accelerate cross-boundary collaboration. We argue that tangible objects, artifacts, and designerly learning approaches can anchor discussions, foster shared understanding, and support the development of intrinsically sustainable product-packaging combinations.
Keywords:
