Rolf A. Faste (1943–2003) was an American designer who made major contributions to the fields of human-centered design and

design education Design education is the teaching of theory and application in the design of products, services and environments, and focusses on the development of both particular and general skills for designing. It is primarily orientated to preparing students fo ...

. He is best known for his contributions to design thinking which he advanced as a 'whole person' approach to problem solving centered on the perception of needs. He was professor of industrial design at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

from 1971 to 1983, and professor of mechanical engineering and director of the

Stanford Joint Program in Design The Joint Program in Design (officially Stanford Graduate Program in Product Design, colloquially Stanford Design Program) was a graduate program jointly offered by the Mechanical Engineering Department and the Art Department at Stanford Universit ...

from 1984 to 2003.

Early life and education

Faste was born in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, the eldest child of Andreas Faste, a naval architect noted for his work on the MV Coho ferry, and Edith Morch Faste, an artist. Interested from a young age with the intersection between art and engineering, he earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1965, a master's degree in engineering design from

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in 1971, and a second bachelor's degree in architecture from

in 1977. Faste's graduate thesis work at Tufts on engineering creativity was advised by William J. J. Gordon, the originator of Synectics, and demonstrated a correlation between an individual's creative ability when working on science and engineering problems and their capacity to visualize solution concepts.

Career

Faste was a professor of design at

from 1971 to 1984, where he taught classes on rapid visualization, prototyping, materials, computer-aided design, aesthetics and the creative process. He was active in the field of accessible design in the early 1970s, and as research associate on the ANSI A117 project he co-authored the national standards for accessibility to buildings. During this time he also served as an

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

consultant to the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India. At

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

Faste was noted for his contributions to engineering education and

design research Design research was originally constituted as primarily research into the process of design, developing from work in design methods, but the concept has been expanded to include research embedded within the process of design, including work concer ...

, developing courses to strengthen students' visual and creative skills such as ''Aesthetics of Machinery'', ''Ambidextrous Thinking'' and ''Expression of Function''. He was interested in exploring the way that the body and mind influence technical creativity, understanding needs and cultural meaning in the creation of products, and incorporating functional, aesthetic and humanistic concerns in design. He was a recipient of the Raymond J. Perrin Award for Teaching and Course Development, and held five patents and one patent pending for his innovations.

Foundation

In 2009, Faste's sons founded the Rolf A. Faste Foundation for Design Creativity, a non-profit center for creativity research. The foundation is dedicated to furthering Rolf's vision of design as a way of being in the world for the betterment of human society and mind.

Legacy

The Faste Laboratory, a centre for innovation in the area of functional products at

Luleå University of Technology Luleå University of Technology is a Public Research University in Norrbotten County, Sweden. The university has four campuses located in the Arctic Region in the cities of Luleå, Kiruna, Skellefteå, and Piteå. With more than 19,000 students a ...

, Sweden, was named in his memory.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Faste, Rolf 1943 births 2003 deaths American industrial designers Syracuse University faculty Stanford University Department of Mechanical Engineering faculty Design educators Tufts University School of Engineering alumni Syracuse University School of Architecture alumni