Gustavo Cossio

Gustavo’s first experience on design research was during his monograph while concluding his Bachelor degree, when he undertook participatory methodology for a visual identity and signage design project in 2006. Then he worked as a graphic designer in a design studio and later in a retail company. During that period he joined a research project focused on design history on a regional level, considering this knowledge gap in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, in which he kept on contributing as a volunteer for ten years in parallel with other works, until he started his PhD studies. His master’s dissertation concerned exhibition design with an emphasis on design exhibitions and museums, with three case studies including the Brazilian Design Biennial. Afterwards he started to teach in the undergraduate courses of Design and Interior Design of Feevale University [Universidade Feevale] where he supervised monographs on social design and was responsible for the Social Design and Sustainable Design units, respectively, both integrated with the ‘Social Design: valorizing territories and individuals’ [Design Social: valorizando territórios e indivíduos] extension project that he coordinated for three years non-stop. This was a community-based project partnered with craft associations and public schools that enabled undergraduate students to develop graphic, product and environmental design projects with participatory methodology engaged with real demand. During 2013-2015 the project accounted for a total of 600 participants being mostly children and teenagers of vulnerable communities in the cities of Novo Hamburgo and São Leopoldo, Brazil, as well as involving a total of 100 undergraduate design students. From 2014-2016 he also coordinated a research and development project entitled ‘Assistive technology artifact for the bath of children with disabilities or reduced mobility’ which was funded by the state’s Science and Innovation Technology Development Secretary, and generated a patent request for Feevale University. Later he worked for two years as a temporary professor at the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina [Instituto Federal de Santa Catarina] – IFSC – Palhoça Bilíngue campus, a bilingual Portuguese/Brazilian Sign Language technical school, the first of its kind in the country. He taught design and photography subjects for deaf and hearing people in high school and higher education and coordinated the ‘Retake of Palhocense Memory’ [Resgate da Memória Palhocense] extension project for two years. This project integrated photography classes with heritage education in partnership with a local cultural institution and focused on telling the history of the city of Palhoça through photography production and a total of ten itinerant exhibitions in different sights from 2016-2018, all consisting of student and community work. By the end the photography collection was donated for a permanent exhibition at the local cultural institution. Next, he started his PhD studies in which he conducts a research focused on social design history and education in Brazil. During his first year as a PhD student he and a colleague partnered with ‘Maré Museum’ [Museu da Maré] a community-based cultural institution in a vulnerable area of Rio de Janeiro, in which participatory design was applied with the team in order to engage with the institution’s needs, resulting in its communicational and promotional material. Then he obtained a doctoral scholarship by the brazilian government for an internship period, supervised by Prof. Dr. Rita Almendra at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon – FA/ULisboa (2021-2022).