Focus module Design Anthropology 2026: Water edition

Water is everywhere, yet it often remains invisible in everyday life. At the same time, it shapes our cities, landscapes, rituals, memories, and futures. It can be threatening and calming, healing and destructive, ordinary and sacred. Across cultures, water carries deep symbolic meaning: it is associated with purity and cleansing, with transformation, forgiveness, and rebirth. Water is full of paradox, and precisely for that reason, it offers a rich subject for research and design. 
 
This research-oriented focus module invites you to explore the many ways people relate to water. You will investigate water as a social, cultural, ecological, and political force. Guided by anthropologists and design researchers, you will learn how to conduct ethnographic research and develop a project rooted in observation, lived experience, and material exploration. 
 
A unique aspect of this module is its collaboration with Water Authority De Dommel (Waterschap De Dommel), the regional organisation responsible for wastewater treatment and water management within the River De Dommel catchment area. As an external partner, the water authority will share real-world expertise and provide valuable insights into pressing challenges such as water quality, flooding, and drought in the region.

Through excursions and expert-led sessions, you will gain access to perspectives, sites, and knowledge that are rarely included in a traditional design curriculum. The module culminates in a final presentation of your project outcomes to the water authority, offering a unique opportunity to explore and articulate your role as a designer within real-world practice and its broader societal context. 

Fieldwork 
You will step outside the studio and into the field. You will learn how to observe, interview, document, and interpret the world around you, building practical skills in ethnographic and auto-ethnographic research. Supported by tutors with backgrounds in anthropology and human geography, you will learn how to turn encounters and conversations into meaningful design research. 
 
Working with data  
You will work with a wide range of materials, from field notes and interviews to open datasets, and spatial information. Depending on your project, you may use tools such as GPS tracking and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), combining qualitative and quantitative approaches in ways that strengthen your research. You may also work with physical materials, such as clay or other media, to explore and represent your findings in creative and intuitive ways. 
 
Presenting your research 
You will learn how to communicate your process and findings to different audiences, from fellow students and tutors to practitioners in the field, such as water experts and policymakers at Waterschap De Dommel. Alongside your final project, you will develop a visual document and strengthen your ability to write clearly about your work. 

The semester is built around three parallel tracks: 
 
1. Skill-building 
You will take part in hands-on sessions in fieldwork methods, ethnographic techniques, GIS, and data visualisation, led by tutors with active research practices in these areas. You will learn how to conduct ethnographic research, apply auto-ethnography, and carry out qualitative interviews. 
 
The course also includes regional field research in collaboration with Waterschap De Dommel. This gives you the opportunity to engage directly with professionals and gain first-hand insight into local water management. For example, you will visit the municipal wastewater treatment plant, where wastewater from a large part of the region, including Design Academy Eindhoven, is treated before flowing into the River De Dommel. 
 
2. Theory 
Guest lectures and reading materials will deepen your understanding of anthropology, participatory design, and data visualization. You will encounter perspectives on the cultural or ritual dimensions of water, as well as contemporary design approaches to water-related challenges. Masterclasses by design researchers will introduce you to ways of working with mapping, data, and spatial storytelling. 
 
3. Project 
Alongside this, you will develop your own research and design project through regular individual and group tutorials. In the first half of the semester, skills, explorative fieldwork and theory will provide a strong foundation. From midterm onwards, the focus will shift increasingly towards your own project

Starting from your own fascination with water, you will develop a project throughout the semester. The outcome is open in form: it might become an atlas, a textile piece, a conversation tool, a performance, a publication, or something not easily categorised. What matters is that your project is grounded in research, shaped through a design process, and made tangible in a meaningful way.