BESIGN The Sustainable Design School

Mission Statement

The mission of BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is to allow the encounter of a new generation of creative, curious students who are concerned about our planet, with enterprises and industries that are looking for new talents in design and sustainable innovation.                

A strong and common conviction has guided our work in founding BESIGN The Sustainable Design School: the profound changes occurring on the world today require us to approach innovation in an entirely different, radical way. By sharing our reciprocal pedagogic and professional experiences, we are convicted that: design, as a means of thinking, plays an essential role in new, sustainable innovation for all. This way of “design thinking” puts the person at the centre of the design, with a global and creative approach dedicated to design scenarios. They allow us to rethink and discover new uses, to imagine original services, to create products and relevant business models in the current context of green growth. This methodology is broadened and enriched by overlapping with other fields of innovation: social sciences, engineering, architecture, marketing, management…and on an international level, due to human and cultural diversity worldwide.

International Role

BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is an international school with the idea of a broader design approach thanks to the fertility of a diversified ground of growth. In order to bring this idea out of the status of a concept, BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is applied to give proper and concrete means to the implementation of being an international school. Beyond the practical organisation of being international, BESIGN The Sustainable Design School by its firm involvement in Sustainable Development states to be focused on issues which concern all nations.

By the following means the international vision is implemented at BESIGN The Sustainable Design School:

–          Progressively we are developing a network of academic partner institutions. BESIGN The Sustainable Design School has signed so far MOU’s and Simple Exchange agreements with sixteen partner Universities: Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology (India), Ringling College of Art and Design (USA), Özyegin University Faculty of Architecture and Design (Turkey), Jiangnan University School of Design (China), FADU UBA (Argentina), Shizuoka University SUAK (Japan), KISD (Germany), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Universidad del Desarrollo (Chile), UPES (India), UCAL (Peru), Holon Institute of Technology (Israel), HKU (Netherlands), Tbilissi State Academy of Arts (Georgia), ISMAT (Portugal), .

–          There is on-going student and faculty exchange.

–          The teaching staff, coming from different and complementary fields, is international.

–          The teaching is fully in English. Our goal is to be flexible in terms of languages, in order to attract students from a large variety of nations. Project work, theses and deliverables are in English or English and French. We invest a lot of common sense and energy into making not-French speakers feel comfortable and to stimulate our French students and faculty to speak English or other foreign languages. 

–          BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is in process of developing other partner Universities, with the intention of finding partners in mind who share the same values. Sustainability is taught throughout the world with different methods and in various fields. BESIGN The Sustainable Design School wishes to contribute with its vision and expertise but also to get constantly inspired by the visions of its partners.

–          Many of our corporate partners are international companies, such as Hermès, BMW, Toyota, Renault and Amadeus.

–          Therefore, the project work of our students is often oriented towards areas out of France. Example: Bangladesh, Germany, India, Japan.

–          The economic environment at Nice is very attractive for international academic partners. The nearby Technology park of Sophia Antipolis is a worldwide landmark of science, invention, innovation and research with focus on the human being. It’s a meeting point of people from all kinds of horizon, who will generate innovation thanks to a highly diversified environment. BESIGN School is working with companies placed at Sophia Antipolis, such as Amadeus, Toyota, Schneider Electric or Visteon.

–          BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is partner with the European Innovation Academy held at Nice every year. During the event groups of students from international universities and with different study backgrounds (such as engineering, management, design) gather and work on innovative projects. http://inacademy.eu/france/ .

Our challenge is to be international and to confirm at the same time our French origin. We recognize that any nationality has its specific interpretations and point of views and “touch”, which are anchored in culture and education. Introducing English language into our daily school life doesn’t mean to wave our French heritage. The teaching at BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is nourished by both aspects.

National Role

BESIGN The Sustainable Design School is a founder member of the UCA (University of Côte d’Azur). The UCA is a community of 13 Universities and Institutions which have either scientific, cultural and/or artistic character. http://univ-cotedazur.fr/english.

Other institutional partners:

Metropole Nice Côte d’Azur

Dynamique Design Sud

Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nice

APCI – Agency for the Promotion of Industrial Creation

Eco-Design Observatory

AFD – French Association of Designers

IDDRI – Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations

National academic partners:

EDHEC Business School

SKEMA Business School

FDE – France Design Education (ex Cumulus France)

Ecolab Côte d’Azur, Openlab

Industrial partners:

Renault, Toyota, Visteon, Suez Environnement, Ernest Turc, Schneider Electric, Hermès, Air Liquide, BMW, Amadeus, Kairos, Nicolas Laisné & Associés, GrDF, Crédit Agricole-Santé….

Main Focus

BESIGN The Sustainable Design School’s inception was due to an understanding that the profession of Design has the potential to directly impact the future of our society and planet. The realization that design is about using creativity to generate and bring forth new possible futures means that we may act upon issues that far surpass the traditional domains of Design. Our vision and mission is to support design students that become agents of change for a sustainable society that holds the values of humanism and empathy foremost. We practice and develop openness and sensitivity together with awareness and responsibility.