Integrated Pedagogy Model for Training the XXIst Century Designer

The New Degree in Design at the University of Navarra was launched in September 2016, and has recently completed the cycle of its first-generation students. The shaping process of this degree was intended to be flexible to forge the profile of a versatile and creative designer, a process that would lead to a new and innovative configuration of teaching methodologies based on the integration of contents and competences through projects.This article intends to explain how this Education Model works and which are its main principles, understood as the practical result of a permanent and ongoing research about ways of training designers for the needs of contemporary society. In fact, the scope of the text is to emphasize how this teaching methodology intends to help the students acquire the necessary skill set to face the hybrid challenges that the XXIst Century requests, challenges immersed in a world marked by an overwhelming technological development.In that sense, the entire system could be condensed into the intention of configuring mindsets of future designers in such a way that they are, at the same time, integrative and critical. That is, the development of integrative thinking is built through the aforementioned confluence of materials and knowledge in each project. And critical thinking is forged through numerous cultural subjects and through work on analysis of case studies and examples. From the combination of both faculties, the ability to integrate and the ability of critical thinking, the students will acquire the creative attitude that today’s society demands.Keywords: Teaching Methodology, Design Training, Creativity, Design Education, Integrative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Technology