The Department of Design of the Institute of Arts and Culture under the Second International Forum of University Cities has officially announced the creation of the Siberian Centre for Industrial Design and Prototyping. The Centre will develop business and design strategies taking into account regional specifics.
The Siberian Centre for Industrial Design and Prototyping will conduct research and development work for the region's industries, and is planned to become a trigger for the design community. New Siberian brands of the world level will be developed, and the Centre will become a resource and expert centre of the business and scientific community of the region.
- There is everything in Tomsk Region: unique knowledge, scientific schools, and young scientists who are ready and want to work. Here there is a colossal scientific potential, enterprises, and economy. There is just not a centre that will unite it. We will sell not semi-finished products, we will a finished good product with the brand “made in Siberia”, says Alexander Uvarov, Head of the Department of Design.
- We hope that in the next few years we will be able to reach the world level of research, scientific, and experimental development. The Centre should become a gathering point that will host the largest events in industrial design and also the management of the territories, and the formation of trends, - said Elena Shlienkova, a participant of the working group on the creation of the Centre.
At the events of the University Cities Forum, the Institute of Arts and Culture not only introduced the new centre but also held discussions with experts from other universities, producers, and museum and exhibition centres. As a result, several agreements were reached.
So, in 2018, a summer school is planned for the renovation of wooden architecture based on the University of Aalto (Finland). It will be the first step toward reviving traditional technologies of the Tomsk architectural and craft school.
Also, the Fashion Lab will be created based in TSU’s Department of Design in collaboration with DEPO 23 (the first producer centre for supporting Russian design), and the first collection will be presented next year at the International Fashion Week in China (Hainan, Guangzhou).