Postgraduate

Space and Service Design

Mechelen

English

Let's meet online!
Let's meet in person
International Postgraduate in the design of services and service environments

Designing for change

  • Are you ready to use your design skills to create products, services and communication systems that have impact?
  • Many of today’s social, cultural and economic challenges can be solved with future-proof, inclusive services.
  • Use your own, personal vision to add sustainable value to public spaces and improve the accessibility and user experience of the clients of public services.
  • Learn and apply research-led, user-centred design methodologies to create solutions to real, socially oriented design challenges together with clients and users.
  • Make tangible differences as a proactive and socially aware agent of change in your community.

 

Space and Service Design Classroom

Choose your programme type

Space and Service Design

  • Build on your BA or MA in design (industrial, product, graphic, service etc.), architecture, UX-UI, management, social sciences, tourism,… with this fully accredited (60 ECTS) international postgraduate programme. 
  • Expand your professional network with weekly Master Classes from industry experts and challenge yourself through collaborations with design agencies on real-life design projects.
  • Transform your design career or business aspirations to new heights via this one-year programme in service design developed in collaboration with the Department of Interior Design & Architecture.

Practical information

  • Duration

    1 year (or 2 yrs part-time)

  • Admission requirements

    Admission requirements & additional conditions 

  • Where

    On campus

  • Tuition fee

    Tuition fees and finances. 

Programme

  • Goals and structure | A service designer is a professional who designs the experience of users and employees by improving interactions between the users and the organization, they purchase or use products or services from. A space and service designer does not only design the services but also the spaces, objects and communication system that make the service system really work. And that is exactly what you can learn with us!

  • First semester |Your first semester provides you with knowledge and skills in researching and designing services and experiences. The methodologies and tools presented support you in developing innovative design ideas and delivering relevant solutions to real-world design problems presented by our client-organisations.
    You collaborate in international, multidisciplinary design teams and take up individual designer roles (the designer-researcher, designer-sustainability coordinator, designer-manager, designer-entrepreneur, designer-social media guru,…). As part of the team, you will apply and share your previous knowledge and interact directly with our clients and users. The SSD Master Classes bring in professional experts from creative industries that will share their knowledge, approaches and experiences.
  • Second semester |The second semester offers the opportunity to focus on your own strengths by working on a challenging real-life project and take part in an (international) internship, taking a client project to production or contribute to a service design research project. You expand your professional network.
  • Major Project | In the major project you will demonstrate your research skills and your ability to define the tangible and intangible context and needs related to the project. Your end work will be the creation of a relevant user-centred space and service design solution that you effectively document and present.

Below you can find an overview of the courses ( under reservation of changes), with the number of credits per phase. Credits express how many hours you need on average to process the subject matter (incl. lessons). Count about 25 to 30 hours for 1 study credit. 

  • We have explained the most important courses in a blue tooltip.  
  • Would you like to know the detailed content of each subject? Check the programme guide.
Semester 1 2
Space & Service Design i 15
SSD Master Classes i 5
Future Proof Designer i 5
Design & Research i 5
Semester 1 2
Final project Space & Service Design i 15
Professional Experience i 10
Professional Development and Design Management Master Classes i 5

Download

Timetable

pg-ssd-me.pdf
.pdf
Download
This course does not start in February.

Eyecatchers

Making the future sustainable

Space & service designers focus on making the future sustainable and shape solutions that support the UN sustainable development goals. You work on emerging challenges such as sustainable food, health & wellbeing, circular economy, inclusion, …

Master classes by service design industry

Achilles Design, Archipelago, Bold Media, Gelotology, Inter Flanders, Knight Moves, Flanders DC, Peel, Switchrs, Quest Studio, Real Space Agency, Studio Dott, Voidwalker, iO, Namahn, Deepak Mehta, Createlli, LDV, RE-ST, Springbok, … 

Real needs, real-life projects

We involve real clients and users, organize co-creation workshops  and work on site to understand the context, needs and dreams. Some clients: De Lisdodde, Regional Landscape Riverland, Museum Dr. Guislain, Province of Antwerp. , ...

 

Go international

Fostering international and intercultural collaboration is vital for a society-oriented design course. Besides welcoming Belgian students, we welcome international students with their specific design knowledge and specific cultural background that creates a dynamic international class-setting.

Student learning is facilitated through a range of workshops, seminars, lectures and tutorials by both national and international professionals and experts which allows for the exchange with other service design schools and networks.

Over the past decade the ID&A unit has collaborated with various professional, national and international design firms looking for talented interns. Continuing this tradition, in the second semester, postgraduate students work within a professional design context through an (international) internship or service project.

Studenten klaar voor vertrek in Centraal Station

Personal coaching

Throughout the design process, student teams are coached by a team of design professionals, lecturers and researchers. They collaborate with stakeholders, users and experts from the project field through desk research and first-person participatory, co-creation or feedback research sessions.
Postgraduate students are further supported by ID&A services such as Whats’on (the Design Learning Centre and Fab-Lab) and the ID&A Workshop Facilities (wood/metal/plastic workshop) and by Thomas More’ s Admissions and International support service.

Got questions?

Nansi Van Geetsom

For all your questions about the Postgraduate in Space & Service Design.
nansi.vangeetsom@thomasmore.be +32 15 36 92 40
Unit Manager

Guy Foulon

For all your questions about the ID&A department.

guy.foulon@thomasmore.be +32 15 36 92 40
Admissions

Admissions Officer

For all your questions about Admissions & Application.
Available by phone 9am - 3pm

admissions@thomasmore.be +32 15 36 92 50
zigzag

Excited? Apply now!

Apply

Also interesting

Postgraduate

African Business Studies

A first-in-class curriculum in African Business.

Mechelen

Options for this course:

  • Full Programme

  • Day

Postgraduate

International Teacher

Learn what it takes to apply your teaching skills in an international context.

Mechelen

Options for this course:

  • Full Programme

  • Evening/Weekend

#postgraduaatspaceandservicedesign

Useful links

Professional bonus

Postgraduate programmes aim to build upon the skills and knowledge acquired in a bachelor's or a master's degree programme. A postgraduate largely  focuses on developing your professional skills in a way that can be immediately useful in a work environment, while simultaneously helping you develop your professional network. A postgraduate programme is a specialisation for students who already have a degree in design or architecture (bachelor's and master's).

Why do a postgraduate? A postgraduate from Thomas More will give your CV and portfolio added value on the labour market, transforming you into a future-proof designer!

Add value to the labour market

The postgraduate programme is a specialisation course which aims at widening or deepening existing design competences with service design knowledge and skills in a cross-disciplinary educational setting. Professional experts share their insights about service design and design methodologies and approaches in our SSD Master Classes.

Our partners in education also offer internships, site visits, guest lectures and workshops in design agencies and service organizations. With this you are not only focussing on developing professional skills but also on expanding your personal network. The acquired knowledge can be used immediately in a working environment.

Real-life clients

Designing for change, design with impact

Our postgraduates offer clients research-driven solutions: spaces, objects, communication and services that effectively change people’s day-to-day life. Our future-proof designers can play a significant role in tackling contemporary social, cultural and economic challenges through evidence-based and human-centred design. For the Mama Sabina Health Care Centre in Bwera Uganda, students converted an existing school building into inviting and vital spaces and service experiences. Supported by Ekisande, Medics Without Vacation, the TM nursery department and Aquafin, feasible and desirable solutions were designed. The project is executed

Check it out
zigzag

After Graduation

Additional studies

Once you have completed your postgraduate, there is the opportunity to extend this to a Master’s of Design in Service & Experience Design.
Space and Service Design graduates can enrol in a short-track master's programme in English at our partner university Jiangnan University in China.