At the IED Madrid students experience a constant reinterpretation of design. We believe that their language, way of thinking, constructing and communicating is a tool for social, cultural and economic transformation which in turn allows them to become into agents of change.

Design makes it possible to create spaces for interaction of knowledge and language which drive the building of new ways of life which respond to the demands of a more global and non-conformist society. In order to achieve this goal, one must not lose track of the professional of the future, since, as a school, we are required to alter the pillars of current education foundations with new formulas in which design is turned into the necessary bridge that unites concept and reality.

This new dimension of the discipline entails a step away from the traditional aesthetical interpretation, searching to produce functionality. The Masters of Design and Innovation platform, from an eminently practical setting, allows us to draw nearer to this reality in a more natural way: students discover new points of view through their research, their encounters with professionals and trips to key areas, cities and spaces, where design and innovation come together openly in the day-to-day life of other cultures and points of view.

It is vital that students take advantage of this opportunity in order to discover the design process, and to integrate it as another tool, while enjoying a coexistence and collaborative work model which will accompany them in their professional future.

Zygmunt Bauman, in one of his recent essays, We, the Global Bystanders, spoke about a unique syndrome which could characterise the cultural behaviour of many of us. The swift and deep transformations that have taken place over the last few decades, the uncertainty of change, the intensity of events, have turned us into “global bystanders”. We watch swift events and situations taking place which must be thought about in terms of articulation in order to understand their direction and consequences.

In this horizon we can draw a strongly articulated planet revolving around the flows of communication and information, a Smart Planet which drives and enables a new cartography to be travelled by future explores. It is a system of maps which defines the journey of new relationships between information and knowledge, articulating the times and spaces of a virtual world.

All of these processes and changes have transformed lifestyles, with the emergence of a series of New Lifestyles which, as Paul Virilio points out, draw the line for the homologation of cultural forms, social relationships, forms of work organisation and ultimately, a new era. It is a question of building a map of ideas and projects that reveals the future and helps us interpret it.

Any reflection regarding the matter of the project and its formative processes must be examined in light of these scenarios, which define the future of current societies.