Oslo School of Architecture and Design

The Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO) is a specialized university and a leading international architecture and design school that provides education within architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism and design. AHOs fields of knowledge focus on design in all scales, objects, buildings, urban areas and landscaping. AHO is organized into four institutes, and has approx. 700 students and 145 employees.

The Institute of Design adopts a broad, holistic approach to design that emphasizes the relevance and importance of design within our contemporary society. It teaches and researches within the fields of industrial design, interaction design, service design, and systems oriented design, as well as themes that go across these disciplines, such as healthcare or maritime industry. Our perspective is that good design creates aesthetic and functional products, services, and experiences that delight and improve the lives of their users.

About the position

The Institute of Design wishes to strengthen its professional staff through this new position by building and further developing Service Design. We emphasise working closely with industry and the public sector to provide the highest level of professional competence through research both for our students and as a means of participating in professional development.

AHO was one of the first design schools in the Nordic countries to develop courses and research activities in Service Design and currently has a strong position both in Norway and internationally. Service Design is one of the main domains of teaching, research and collaboration with industry at the Institute of Design (IDE) at AHO. We currently run a 5-year programme leading to a Master’s of Design. Service Design is a part of the curriculum across this 5-year programme. Through the Doctoral School at AHO and the Centre for Design Research at IDE we also offer PhD level research education and support; this is often connected to large funded research projects both with the private and public sector.

We are currently looking for a highly motivated person to fill a position in Service Design. The applicant will need to meet high international standards at all levels with a clear foundation in Service Design suited to a higher education school specializing in design. We are interested in a practiced designer who has teaching experience up to Master’s level.

The Assistant Professor in Service Design will be involved in developing and teaching curriculum that covers all aspects of Service Design. The applicant should have broad experience in practice-led and studio-based teaching in design school, and is expected to cover a broad range of topics related to the field. This person will be responsible for coordinating Master and/or Foundation (BA level) courses, and contributing to Diploma supervision, as well as teach across the students’ design processes – including methods and tools, prototyping, mentoring of complex projects and collaboration with both private and public sector.

Responsibilities

• Become an active part of the Service Design team at The Institute of Design and take part in teaching, administration and other tasks related to Service Design and the Institute of Design as a whole.
• Planning, developing and teaching at Bachelor and Master’s level including supervision. This applies both to take responsibility for bachelor and/or master-semester courses as well as teach in them. Teaching takes place in the “studio” which combines practical exercises (often in collaboration with external organizations), as well as theory in service design, design thinking and design.

• Supervising and advising student’s in their final-semester Diploma projects.
• Development and implementation of courses at the executive level.
• Keeping up to date in the field and contributing to its development.

Qualification requirements

The applicant must have the following qualifications:

• A master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant field (e.g. service design, systems oriented design, interaction design, design management, visual communication, product design)
• Broad experience in the professional practice of service design
• Experience in developing and performing practice-led design teaching at bachelor and/or master level
• Interest for both theoretical and practical development of the field of service design.
• Candidates who speak Norwegian or another Nordic language, will be preferred, but this is not a requirement
• Excellent written and spoken English is required.
• Excellent visualisation and facilitation skills.

The candidate’s professional qualities should include:

• outstanding collaboration and communication skills
• innovative, proactive and solution-oriented perspectives and approaches
• being able to support and flourish in an ambitious atmosphere with periods with high work intensity
• good pedagogic skills and related experience

The position requires residency in the Oslo region.

We offer

• a stimulating and international professional research and teaching environment
• the salary for the position will be between pay level NOK 565 500- 646 700 per year, depending on the applicant’s qualifications
• a pension agreement with the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund, with 2% of the salary deducted for the social security fund
• standard terms applicable for the position.

Application

The application must contain:

• an application letter describing why the applicant believes he or she is qualified for the position
• copy of diplomas
• a portfolio showing the applicant’s contributions both from professional practice and pedagogy (maximum five projects from each)
• a CV
• copies of references
• two referees.

The application deadline is Februray 17th 2019.

It is a goal for all state-owned institutions to maintain a balanced mix of age, gender and cultural background, and accommodate for people with disabilities.

Contact details

For inquiries or questions, please contact:

• Chair Service Design, Ted Matthews (Ted.Matthews@aho.no)
• Head of Institute Professor Rachel Troye (rachel.troye@aho.no)

For more information about AHO, please visit our website: www.aho.no

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