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Slow Design, a paradigm shift in design philosophy
Abstract
This paper discusses the economic models which drive design, the role of the designers, the existing design paradigm and its legacy. New paradigms are sought in education and design practice. Design professionals were challenged over thirty years ago with a new paradigm called 'Design for Need'. Yet little has changed and, despite the development of a new models to consider the full gamut of human needs, many designers still favour solutions which celebrate their, often, egocentric visions rather sustainable solutions. Design hovers in an ideological vacuum and designers wear the mantle of stylists to the powerful. So it is opportune to examine a new design paradigm, 'slow design'. Slow design celebrates the culture of largo; slow design is beautiful; slow design is about well-being; slow design is sustainable; slow design is durable; slow design is pluralistic. Slow design offers fresh, innovative and creative opportunities for designers.
... Fast-paced designerly approaches are rooted in goals and evaluation criteria of economic success (Fuad-Luke, 2002) or of high productivity and return on participation (Jones, 2018). This pace emerges, amongst other reasons, due to a strong emphasis on material products and deliverables, due to a culture of timeboxed business agreements and due to a sense of time dictated by technological innovation cycles (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
... Fast-paced designerly approaches are rooted in goals and evaluation criteria of economic success (Fuad-Luke, 2002) or of high productivity and return on participation (Jones, 2018). This pace emerges, amongst other reasons, due to a strong emphasis on material products and deliverables, due to a culture of timeboxed business agreements and due to a sense of time dictated by technological innovation cycles (Fuad-Luke, 2002). In the context of systemic social innovation, Ryan's (2014) systemic design process also focuses on a high pace to create rapid transitions between creative ideas and tangible actions. ...
... These evolutionary approaches align with Fuad-Luke's (2002) slow design paradigm. Slow design explicitly removes time constraints imposed by economic growth, product lifecycles and technological acceleration (Fuad-Luke, 2002). It focuses on leveraging 'slowness' to balance human-centered, individual and cultural needs with the planet's needs-all with the aim of creating a sustainable present and future (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
Designerly approaches have long been appropriated for systems thinking and design. This appropriation brings with it tensions regarding the pace at which design is conducted. It is crucial to unveil and reflect on these tensions, particularly within a social innovation context. This is due to social innovation’s unique complexities regarding stakeholder networks, sociopolitical influences and change management. This position paper discusses how these tensions become apparent at the two ends of the pace spectrum of doing systemic design. It examines the translation of these pace tensions to tradeoffs; both at the principles level (e.g. stakeholder engagement, project scoping and long-term commitment) and at the practices level (e.g. network building, prototyping’s role and room for reframing). By doing so, this paper takes an initial, exploratory step towards explicating tensions regarding the pace of conducting systemic design for social innovation. It aims to spark critical discourse around such implicit and explicit pace tensions, with the intention to enable better resolution of these tensions in practice.
... Fast-paced designerly approaches are rooted in goals and evaluation criteria of economic success (Fuad-Luke, 2002) or of high productivity and return on participation . This pace emerges, amongst other reasons, due to a strong emphasis on material products and deliverables, due to a culture of timeboxed business agreements and due to a sense of time dictated by technological innovation cycles (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
... Fast-paced designerly approaches are rooted in goals and evaluation criteria of economic success (Fuad-Luke, 2002) or of high productivity and return on participation . This pace emerges, amongst other reasons, due to a strong emphasis on material products and deliverables, due to a culture of timeboxed business agreements and due to a sense of time dictated by technological innovation cycles (Fuad-Luke, 2002). In the context of systemic social innovation, systemic design process also focuses on a high pace to create rapid transitions between creative ideas and tangible actions. ...
... These evolutionary approaches align with Fuad-Luke's (2002) slow design paradigm. Slow design explicitly removes time constraints imposed by economic growth, product lifecycles and technological acceleration (Fuad-Luke, 2002). It focuses on leveraging 'slowness' to balance human-centered, individual and cultural needs with the planet's needs-all with the aim of creating a sustainable present and future (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
Editorial
The RSD10 symposium was held at the faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2nd-6th November 2021. After a successful (yet unforeseen) online version of the RSD 9 symposium, RSD10 was designed as a hybrid conference.
How can we facilitate the physical encounters that inspire our work, yet ensure a global easy access for joining the conference, while dealing well with the ongoing uncertainties of the global COVID pandemic at the same time? In hindsight, the theme of RSD10 could not have been a better fit with the conditions in which it had to be organized: “Playing with Tensions: Embracing new complexity, collaboration and contexts in systemic design”.
Playing with Tensions
Complex systems do not lend themselves for simplification. Systemic designers have no choice but to embrace complexity, and in doing so, embrace opposing concepts and the resulting paradoxes. It is at the interplay of these ideas that they find the most fruitful regions of exploration. The main conference theme explored design and systems thinking practices as mediators to deal fruitfully with tensions. Our human tendency is to relieve the tensions, and in design, to resolve the so-called “pain points.” But tensions reveal paradoxes, the sites of connection, breaks in scale, emergence of complexity. Can we embrace the tension and paradoxes as valuable social feedback in our path to just and sustainable futures?
The symposium took off with two days of well-attended workshops on campus and online. One could sense tensions through embodied experiences in one of the workshops, while reframing systemic paradoxes as fruitful design starting points in another. In the tradition of RSD, a Gigamap Exhibition was organized. The exhibition showcased mind-blowing visuals that reveal the tension between our own desire for order and structure and our desire to capture real-life dynamics and contradicting perspectives. Many of us enjoyed the high quality and diversity in the keynotes throughout the symposium. As chair of the SDA, Dr. Silvia Barbero opened in her keynote with a reflection on the start and impressive evolution of the Relating Systems thinking and Design symposia. Prof.Dr. Derk Loorbach showed us how transition research conceptualizes shifts in societal systems and gave us a glimpse into their efforts to foster desired ones. Prof.Dr. Elisa Giaccardi took us along a journey of technologically mediated agency. She advocated for a radical shift in design to deal with this complex web of relationships between things and humans. Indy Johar talked about the need to reimagine our relationship with the world as one based on fundamental interdependence. And finally, Prof.Dr. Klaus Krippendorf systematically unpacked the systemic consequences of design decisions. Together these keynote speakers provided important insights into the role of design in embracing systemic complexity, from the micro-scale of our material contexts to the macro-scale of globally connected societies. And of course, RSD10 would not be an RSD symposium if it did not offer a place to connect around practical case examples and discuss how knowledge could improve practice and how practice could inform and guide research.
Proceedings
RSD10 has been the first symposium in which contributors were asked to submit a full paper: either a short one that presented work-in-progress, or a long one presenting finished work. With the help of an excellent list of reviewers, this set-up allowed us to shape a symposium that offered stage for high-quality research, providing a platform for critical and fruitful conversations. Short papers were combined around a research approach or methodology, aiming for peer-learning on how to increase the rigour and relevance of our studies. Long papers were combined around commonalities in the phenomena under study, offering state-of-the-art research. The moderation of engaged and knowledgeable chairs and audience lifted the quality of our discussions.
In total, these proceedings cover 33 short papers and 19 long papers from all over the world. From India to the United States, and Australia to Italy. In the table of contents, each paper is represented under its RSD 10 symposium track as well as a list of authors ordered alphabetically. The RSD10 proceedings capture the great variety of high-quality papers yet is limited to only textual contributions. We invite any reader to visit the rsdsymposium.org website to browse through slide-decks, video recordings, drawing notes and the exhibition to get the full experience of RSD10 and witness how great minds and insights have been beautifully captured!
Word of thanks
Let us close off with a word of thanks to our dean and colleagues for supporting us in hosting this conference, the SDA for their trust and guidance, Dr. Peter Jones and Dr. Silvia Barbero for being part of the RSD10 scientific committee, but especially everyone who contributed to the content of the symposium: workshop moderators, presenters, and anyone who participated in the RSD 10 conversation. It is only in this complex web of (friction-full) relationships that we can further our knowledge on systemic design: thanks for being part of it!
Dr. JC Diehl, Dr. Nynke Tromp, and Dr. Mieke van der Bijl-Brouwer
Editors RSD10
... However, design has often been more reactive to the needs of economy, commerce and the marketplace 5 . Literature indicates that none of the economies -'industrial,' 'consumer' or 'knowledge' -are equally or equitably distributed; thereby creating a need for a new sustainable design paradigm to not only 'save the planet' but to 'save designers' and the professional reputation of design 6 . Time and again economy-driven designs have proven not to put the environment first. ...
... Time and again economy-driven designs have proven not to put the environment first. Despite design being a creative process, most of designers' energy has been applied to oiling the wheels of various economic models, consequently leading to the progressive commodification of time, as time is the basis for economy 6 . One of the most critical next steps for humanity will be the decoupling of design decisions from economics. ...
... Slow does not conform to shortening time spans allocated to life cycles of products in the marketplace; it does not celebrate smallest, biggest, and fastest; however, it does celebrate balancing anthropocentric needs with planetary needs, and the de-commodification of time. 'Slow' because the time constraints of economic growth and expediency are removed, and design goes beyond the fabrication of things for the marketplace, thus avoiding competition in an increasingly accelerated game of technological progress, brand positioning and commercial globalization 6 . ...
Exponential growth in multiple technologies including Bluetooth mesh, real-time data, Internet of Things (IoT), LiFi, etc. are forcing rapid transformation in the way lighting is being designed. This paper however, orientates lighting design towards a unique form of creative activism – that promotes a culture of largo without adhering to the time constraints of economic or technological growth, while delivering pluralistic values of wellbeing and sustainability for design – called ‘Slow design.’
... To date, most of the energy of designers has been applied to oiling the wheels of various economic models. (Fuad-Luke, 2002, p. 3) In the current paradigm, the design creates a sense of identity through consumption (Fuad-Luke, 2002). Borrowing from the framework of human needs of Max-Neef, Fuad-Luke would include satisfying the needs to be, to do and to interact besides to have within the slow design context. ...
... This discomfort is necessary; we are on the brink of action. At that moment, designers experience a lack of agency and power: they are not comfortable being pushed into the role of a "stylist" and "oiling the wheels of various economic models" (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
Fashion overconsumption is a problem of the global North, whereas the global South still suffers from underconsumption. Overconsumption is artificially established through demand creation and planned obsolescence to grow profits eternally. The reasons for the mindless consumption of fashion include an endemic sense of insecurity and a worldview that perpetually keeps fundamental human needs unsatisfied, such as a sense of belonging and esteem. A vicious cycle of consumerism is systemically maintained with fashion's strategies and the mechanisms of growth. Designers are one central part sustaining this system through creating myths and signals, more than material products, however aware or willing. The paradigmatic shift would rethink the designer's role valuing soft skills over 'star quality'. The worldview that allows this system to perpetuate is based on competition and individualism, having little regard for others and the interconnectivity of all living. Through concepts of mindfulness and radical compassion, an alternative mindset and ways of action can be achieved, the designer being in a suitable position between production and consumption to drive it. Already value-oriented designers telling a story in fashion products should ask themselves which stories are worth telling. This thesis investigates the topic with a literature review on fashion psychology, sociology, system, and economics. A Causal Layered Analysis and expert interviews with designers offer analytical and practical perspectives.
... Research and utilization of innovative eco-materials have become a hot topic during these years [31]. Sustainable fashion principles and design methodologies from either a practical or philosophical point of view are being paid more attention to and constantly practiced, such as "cradle to cradle" [32], functional design [33], "slow fashion" [34,35] zero waste, [36], handcrafting [37], etc. The recycling of used clothing, second-hand clothing exchange and other means are emerging and developing quickly [38]. ...
... The former is such as the Academy of Fine Arts of Tsinghua University in China, the London College of Fashion, and the ESMOD International Fashion Design Institute in Berlin have being constantly offering both theoretical and practical courses related to sustainable fashion [50]. Sustainable fashion principles and techniques such as zero-waste design, "cradle to cradle" (C2C) or regenerative design, and slow fashion are gaining global attention [32,[34][35][36]. Collaborative fashion consumption (CFC) modes have emerged recently, which circulate garments through gifting, swapping, sharing, or renting, try to provide consumers with various eco and easy access to fashion products and are subtly changing the public's attitudes and habits towards fashion consumption [74][75][76]. ...
In recent years, the entire fashion industry has been striving to develop in a more sustainable way. As the starting and crucial link of fashion product development, the process of design plays a decisive role in creating a healthier fashion supply chain. In this sense, the current work discusses from the design point of view the status quo and future direction of the development of fashion sustainability. The paper first describes the concept, the historical development, and the multi-angled significance of sustainable fashion design. Then, the current development of sustainable fashion design is studied by investigating the various ideas and approaches that are popular nowadays for the designing of eco-friendly and waste-free clothing. On this basis, the current work digs into the existing problems and finally points out the future prospects for the development of sustainable fashion design by putting forward some innovative and promising ideas and instructive “future-making” techniques.
... While on a political and policy-oriented level numerous theoretical frameworks for the approach of current complex and highly intertwined environmental and social problems exist, their transfer to actual living environments often fail or overlook basic, local requirements (see e.g., Fahy & Rau, 2013;Hirsch Hadorn et al., 2006). Especially in various areas of sustainable design (see e.g., Cipolla & Peruccio, 2008;Fuad-Luke, 2002;Fuad-Luke, 2009;Vezzoli, 2006;Vezzoli, Ceschin, & Kemp, 2008) and participatory design (see e.g., Björgvinsson, Ehn, & Hillgren, 2010;Buur & Matthews, 2008;DiSalvo, Louw, Holstius, Nourbakhsh, & Akin, 2012;Ehn, 2008) there have been numerous attempts to approach this gap between institutional guidelines and finding actual solutions on a local level. I argue that (sustainable) design may provide citizens with appropriate tools and methods to bridge the gap between theoretical models of sustainable ways of living and their actual practical application in urban living environments which are largely tied to everyday practices. ...
... As a practice embedded in consumer culture, however, it certainly does not slow down the cycle of new products and services, but rather speeds it up (Fry, 2009). Perceptions of design and sustainability vary, and a multitude of different strategies, which range from design for disassembly, design for recyclability and for re-use, etc. (subsumed as design for x) (Chapman, 2005, p. 7), to slow design (Fuad-Luke, 2002), social design (Dilnot, 1984;Manzini, 2007) and transformation design 46 (Jonas, Zerwas, & Von Anshelm, 2015), emerge. ...
When going deep into the area of sustainability and looking at the crosslinks that open up regarding the practice of design, a dark narrative appears whereby sustainable design is a failing practice, either aiming too high by trying to tackle global, inter- and intragenerational challenges, or aiming too low by focusing on, for example, material impacts of new products and services; this narrative appears to have an upper hand over one that is more positive and constructive that sees the strengths and potentials that design can bring to the challenges of sustainability. While the growth-oriented sustainable development discourse still dominates the way sustainable design is practiced, there are other streams with a more holistic view of sustainability. These streams are rooted in a post-growth / no-growth or strong sustainability discourse, which are slowly making their way into design practice through the guise of sufficiency, resilience and activism with a common theme of sharing knowledge, allowing citizens to be an active part of their community.
The dark narrative of sustainability in design as well as the call for designers to transform a practice of “un-sustainability” into one that allows “futuring”, leaves most of them shrugging their shoulders in light of how to implement the theoretical (utopian) requirements into their own practice. I argue for providing a different, more positive narrative, moving past the finger-pointing attitude towards reminding oneself what the practice of design in the context of sustainability can bring to the table.
Why there are new directions in sustainable design is largely because design has broadened beyond its product and service fixation towards a more process-oriented practice and an awareness of the impact designers have on this world. In these processes, designers are often taken outside the boundaries of growth-oriented economic progress towards social progress. They are continuously reminded that they cannot operate outside of a societal context and that their work has an impact on the Earth’s dynamic equilibrium (however small it might be).
Thus, the aim of my work is to re-frame sustainable design as a default configuration, stripping it from the unwieldy term of sustainability and extracting its core features of transformation, participation and future-focused thinking. Considering this core configuration, design is bound to be situated between anthropo- and eco-centricity, putting into question current user- and human-centric design approaches that tend to marginalize the everyday context and wider implications of the designed product or service.
Through an investigation that spanned the last five years, I have come to realize that sustainable design has nothing to do with a specific practice, but rather with a mindset which is, at its basis, tied to ethical considerations rooted in everyday life. It is moreover tied to broad, interdisciplinary knowledge that is needed to grasp the interconnected and global challenges that lie ahead. To make this point, in my work I am retracing the steps from the early roots of sustainable design within the sustainability movement towards its radical opening in different directions such as design activism, transformation design, design for social innovation and participatory design.
Furthermore, I propose a re-framing of the practice of sustainable design, (tentatively) linking it with a research-through-design approach and subsequently, through the design case, constructing a dynamic, interdisciplinary action repertoire for designers.
When framing this renewed idea of sustainable design, not only do the two dimensions of transformation and participation almost automatically appear in the current discourse, but also the notion of opening up contexts through design in a way that is directed towards possible (sustainable) futures becomes apparent. Several overarching perspectives resurface in the course of this work:
1 Opening – How can designers open access to contexts, tools, knowledge and technology through collaborative, interdisciplinary action?
2 Making – How can designers provide processes to involve stakeholders in critically assessing and making possible futures?
3 Transforming – How can designers transform contexts and situations from one state to a preferred one (and how can they facilitate the negotiation-processes tied to them with regards to social equity and intra-generational justice)?
The topic of transformation and future-focused thinking is currently engaging most of design, not exclusively sustainable design, and this thinking seems to provide an underlying idea that design may be able to provide at least part of the skill-set required to cater to this transformation. It is, however, not only the context and situations design claims to transform, but also user behavior and market incentives. In this research, transformation is viewed as a careful byline to a project which spans almost six years and is now coming to a close.
The design case for this research is the project Neighborhood Labs which has been run by an interdisciplinary group of design researchers, citizens and other stakeholders in a central, but isolated area in Berlin’s Mitte district. It incorporated the development of a research concept and experimentation process which builds on a participatory design methodology as well as a living lab approach. It was planned open-ended with the potential of stakeholders taking over after the official end of the research project.
In terms of sustainability, the subject and guiding theme of sharing and collaboration was the baseline of the design phases and iterations. While focusing at first on the sharing of concrete objects in a specific community of practice, there was a shift to sharing knowledge, as well as to the empowerment of citizens to impact local decision-making processes, a much fuzzier subject than the sharing of objects or services. The project was run in three intertwined phases:
– Sharing phase / Neighborhood lab: Setting up and running a living lab. Investigating the context and building the infrastructure. Approaching the neighborhood and designing tools for gathering insights about needs and issues within it while drawing active citizens towards the project. After this step, insights inform the research process and help focus the research question further. This phase produced several concepts and sketch prototypes in collaboration with the stakeholders of the Fischerinsel, Berlin.
– Infrastructure phase / Designing infrastructures & fostering change: Designing and testing participatory tools such as the Hybrid Letterbox, an analog-digital bridge device, in order to discuss and evaluate questions of social cohesion and communication within the neighborhood and to activate citizens for involvement in these issues.
– Transfer phase / Design transfer: opening up the context and pushing the methods and tools outside of its initial project and creating new instances thereof.
As I am reflecting on the process of a long-term project now behind me, such as working through trial-and-error phases, prototypical research-through-design attempts and the immersion in the Fischerinsel-context that the research group grew a part of, several key directions in the dealing with and conveying of sustainability challenges appear.
On a practical level, these directions materialize in the categories of investigative action, participatory tools and workshop formats, which are distilled from a broad range of interdisciplinary actions conducted over the course of the research, leading to an action repertoire for transformation which I propose as one of the outcomes of my work.
On a theoretical level, I argue for sustainable design by default, meaning sustainability as an inherent, embedded goal of any design process, integrating a research-through-design mindset in sustainable design or vice versa. In further steps, this entails restructuring the way we teach design and how design practice is informed throughout its process.
... The broader design community 5 has been aware for a considerable time that greater acceptance and commitment to sustainable products, patterns of behaviour and modes of thinking are needed to achieve the level and direction of change required for a sustainable future. (Fuad-Luke, 2006;Heiskanen & Pantzar, 1997;Manzini, 1992;Shove & Ward, 1997). In this paper I propose that a starting point for the required degree of change lies in re-valuing the role that a fundamentally more human-focused perspective has in the design (read sustainable design) task. ...
... Quite enough has been written that defines our current situation in terms of sustainability and designs role in leading us to this point (Fuad-Luke, 2006). And socio-technical discourse abounds with reasoning for why we are in the position that we are in (Wiebe E Bijker & Hughes, 1990;Haraway, 1991;Latour, 1994;Michael, 2000). ...
In the spirit of sustainable practices, this paper is printed double sided on 100% recycled paper.
... The broader design community 5 has been aware for a considerable time that greater acceptance and commitment to sustainable products, patterns of behaviour and modes of thinking are needed to achieve the level and direction of change required for a sustainable future. (Fuad-Luke, 2006;Heiskanen & Pantzar, 1997;Manzini, 1992;Shove & Ward, 1997). In this paper I propose that a starting point for the required degree of change lies in re-valuing the role that a fundamentally more human-focused perspective has in the design (read sustainable design) task. ...
... Quite enough has been written that defines our current situation in terms of sustainability and designs role in leading us to this point (Fuad-Luke, 2006). And socio-technical discourse abounds with reasoning for why we are in the position that we are in (Wiebe E Bijker & Hughes, 1990;Haraway, 1991;Latour, 1994;Michael, 2000). ...
Two things are necessary to recognise in a condition of everyday change. The first is to become aware of what it is about the everydayness that by contrast allows us to recognise that change has occurred. The second is the ability to determine what it is about the change that brings about a positive reaction to the perceived differential (the change).
This paper describes a new Taxonomy of Experience (ToE) useful for structuring and bringing to consciousness, aspects of everyday experiences which are commonly overlooked. It also presents a SEEing process for distilling and making visible the deepest (metaphysical) layers of meaning within these experiences. This metaphysical understanding is useful to designers as a primary change agent and for promoting stronger bonds to change. The design research methods (tools) presented in this paper are immediately useful in sustainable design activities such as design for longevity, design for social equity, universal design and many decisions affecting various stages of the product/service lifecycle.
... This process may include Co-design, Participatory design (Illich, 1973), MetaDesign (Wood, 2007), Social Design (Margolin & Margolin, 2002), User Centered Design (Norman, 1988), Universal Design or Design for All (Clarkson et al. (eds), 2003, and Preiser & Ostroff, 2001), Mass Collaboration (Rheingold, 2002, User Innovation (Leadbeater, 2008) and Slow Design (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
Achieving the goal of "Sustainable Development of Cities and Regions at a global level" is primarily the result of social relations, actions, priorities, and secondarily of technical planning. Therefore, the involvement of local communities in any relevant decision-making and policy-making is a prerequisite for the effectiveness and sustainability of any planning that moves in this direction. Participatory processes emerged mainly in the second half of the 20th century and adapted to a wide range of issues and policies. Historically, they appear in various forms, from social and market research to the formulation of spatial development policies and spatial planning. It is a 'bottom-up' logic of governance and is based on the thinking that it is a democratic right of those who influence and are influenced by a decision, to participate in the design process as well as the decision-making processes from the outset. Co-design processes that make visible particular infrastructures tend to build a sense of trust in terms of accountability and transparency. Trust can emerge through the design process, by '"making visible", what is not visible in itself'. In the context of this publication, we will analyze how and why it is beneficial to apply the co-design process in urban societies, to create sustainable communities, a meaningful understanding of problems that may affect citizens, using decision-support practices, and finally the strengthening of social cohesion. The desk research outcome is a process that will work as a system, which will suggest creative ways to engage communities, to enhance citizens' sense of ownership and social cohesion through active participation and decision-making in urban sustainable design. This model may be supported by a web-based platform that will offer a space for citizens and stakeholders to co-design in creating sustainable urban environments.
... Sustainable design influences the relationship between human society and the environment. Throughout history, design has reflected the values and culture of its society [10]. To supplement the existing definitions of the city as an entity, some environmental researchers have adopted the term "urban ecosystem" to identify the qualities of urban areas [11]. ...
The housing type of apartments, spread widely across South Korea, has penetrated deep into its domestic housing culture, thanks to their advantages in terms of convenience, resulting from the mass production of industrial capitalism, which prioritizes functionality and efficiency. However, capitalist social structures have been undergoing transformation in the 21st century. Under a new paradigm emphasizing creativity over functionality and efficiency, the characteristics of everyday life are also changing. We started with the question of apartment spaces, which featured there are only basic minimum functions with simple combinations of similar rooms, without being able to capture the current changed lifestyle. Therefore, this study focuses on newly emerging lifestyles resulting from this transition of social structures and the characteristics of residential spaces at present, centering on the “function of housing”. Based on these considerations, we aimed to establish the essential function of housing that is prioritized by this era. To this end, we first looked at the changes in the functions of housing before and after modern times. We found that the functions of housing that were complex in traditional society have been differentiated and that houses have changed into a more private space along with the post-modern advent of urban public areas. However, the recent shift in social structure has led to the emergence of new lifestyles, which has also called for new functions of housing. Therefore, in this study, through the analysis of recent lifestyle magazines and architectural magazines, we compared the general public’s and architectural experts’ perspectives on the changed functions of housing and the characteristics of the required residential space. Accordingly, this research analyzed articles containing interviews with residents in lifestyle magazines and articles of architects and critics in architectural magazines. In addition to our previous literatures on changes in “characteristics of residents” and “relationship between individual and family”, this study will ignite discussions on contemporary urban housing from diverse and multi-layered levels as an attempt to achieve sustainable housing where residents’ everyday lives and their residential spaces match.
... Neste último, considera-se o projeto de design, desde as fases iniciais de geração de ideias, focando na otimização de fluxos de massa e energia no sistema, de forma a atender as demandas mercadológicas com a mínima geração de resíduos e danos à natureza (Souza, 2007). Outros vão mais além, destacando a importância de se reduzir a velocidade do fluxo de produção-consumo-descarte dos bens, e propondo, na linha do movimento "slow" o que se chamou de "slow design" (Fuad-Luke, 2002); ou ainda o "design de culturas regenerativas", que promovam novos estilos de vida e estratégias de negócios que revitalizem e harmonizem os ecossistemas naturais, os sistemas sociais e econômicos, por meio da visão sistêmica, de projetos colaborativos e de ferramentas inovadoras (Wahl, 2020). ...
Hoje confrontamos questões relacionadas ao design e o meio ambiente em razão da necessidade de se reduzir as agressões à natureza, em especial na produção de lixo não reciclável. No campo da joalheria, as questões são profundas quando se aborda a extração de minerais. E, no viés da produção, o designer de joias é responsável em alguma instância? A forma de projetar a joia e o seu ciclo de vida podem modificar o resultado do impacto ecológico? Este artigo procura elucidar alguns aspectos desta reflexão trazendo para o presente as ideias de Papanek (1971, 1995), um dos pioneiros na abordagem deste assunto, com contrapontos de Crocker (2016) e Cardoso (2016).
... In the world of design, this movement manifested itself as Slow Design, introduced by Alastair Fuad-Luke in 2002. It is a new paradigm whose presence is motivated by the current design situation, which is too oriented toward economic gain and tends to lead people to develop consumptive behavior [8]. Slow Design focuses on a holistic approach to design that considers factors such as material, social, and the generated impact resulting from design. ...
... The beginning of a new design paradigm initiated by the Deutscher Werkbund and Bauhaus (1919Bauhaus ( -1933 movements have brought the industry's awareness of the importance of the artistic value of the product in line with technological advances applied to the product as a new method to improve the marketing success of the products (Luke, 2002). Since the Bauhaus era until 1970s (Bayley, 1985), the paradigm of 'good product' began to focus on the quality of formal / visual product forms with existing technology constraints. ...
Innovation plays an important role in product design development that would respond to the user’s needs. However, users’ perspective on innovation is influenced by the values that grow in a society. The changes in society values have influenced the users’ perspective towards the innovation of the car. This situation leads to gaps between how designers think about the innovation and what the users’ needs of the car innovation design are. Thus, this study intends to compare the differences between the designers and users’ perspective on the innovation of the Indonesian car industry.
The results show that the designers and users tend to perceive car innovation as being part of the incremental innovation category. The innovation gaps were found in the attributes of the orientation of innovation and the product’s platform. However, the slight difference indicates that users tend to look at the design innovation as a differentiator and a novelty marker for cars they would purchase.
... Hence, there is a need for approaches to support designers in addressing both the user's demands and their expertise in the solution finding. As new concepts for training and further education for industrial design are needed with the emerging changes in design paradigm [6], here a co-creation workshop was chosen as teaching format for user-focused design. Reviewing literature (e.g. ...
Most design and engineering students aim "to create something that is having an effect on... people's lives" and, consequently, put much effort in learning and practicing how to design and innovate properly. Only hardly surprising, technological feasibility is one of the main drivers of new product development activities. Alas, this conflicts with the fact that people only love products that meet their needs. As there is a gap between user-driven and design-or technology-driven requirement analysis, it is essential to educate students not only in designing the products rightly but also in designing the right products. Recently, co-design activities are emphasised as promising to connect industrial designers with target audiences who differ largely from their own experiences and expectations. To develop successful products for these target groups, the experience gaps between users and designers need to be bridged within the design process. If the aim is to create something that affects people's lives, it is required to focus on the people. This paper analyses the learning experience of industrial design students during a co-creation experience with elderly people and derives essential competences in which user-centred designers should be educated and trained.
... In the context of the slow movement, and the many sub-categories thereof, 'Slow' can be understood as a doctrine where the notion of wellbeing is central, comprising a broad set of beliefs that intersect between individual, socio-cultural, and environmental wellbeing (Fuad-Luke, 2002). In his polemic 2004 article, Fuad-Luke positions slow design as an "anthropocentric" paradigm that challenges the "technocentric" role of design for consumerism, and advocates instead for a focus on the ecological harmony and the wellbeing needs of humans. ...
... Those approaches focus on the material and resource input for designed products and services in order to advocate a sustainable design. Early approaches such as the Life-Cycle-Assessment (LCA), which refers especially to the environmental impact of a product during its life span (see UNEP, 2011) and has evolved since the early 1970s, or Cradle-to-Cradle (Braungart & McDonough, 2002) and a surge of approaches started in the early years of the new millennium such as Slow Design (Fuad-Luke, 2002) and Product-Service Systems (Manzini & Vezzoli, 2002) aim to translate constraints of a sustainable future into design principles. There has been a large debate on the shortcomings of those concepts and their precedence within the design profession. ...
When looking at design as a transition-inducing, future-oriented practice, shortcomings in design education become evident. In this paper we will provide a loose overview of how we dealt with the complexity of requirements towards sustainable design by a seminar format which allows students to use methods of user inclusion for immediate adaption to their own project. Three distinct phases of the seminar-observation-intervention-reflection-are used for analysis of the context as well as for ideation. We exemplify the learning process as well as the experiences and findings within the seminar by showing student works and their applied participatory methods. We argue for a cautious integration in and experimentation with participatory methods in design education and point out the difficulties and shortcomings of traditional participatory methods in design education. Furthermore we argue for a circular design process model to replace the still prevalent linear process model.
... In Weather Wash the leitmotif was explored through making a, what would most likely be, less efficient and reliable washing machine and tumble dryer. In this way, the Weather Wash experiment clearly challenges the progress discourse of modernity, essentially re-narrating prioritizations of time, in lines with the principles of slow design [63]. The Weather Wash is also a machine of low complexity. ...
The artificial world is part of an on-going negotiation of meaning, manifesting in social practice. From a sustainability perspective it is thus important to critically examine what norms are imprinted into the artificial, as well as to imagine, materialize and suggest artefacts that could afford more sustainable stories and practices to form. The project Sensing Energy is an attempt to explore how design could contribute to a re-imagination of everyday life and society, as well as what imaginaries (artefacts and related stories) could come out of such an endeavour. A critical and speculative design programme comprising the three leitmotifs Natureculture, Micro-sizing modernity, and Focal things and practices, provided a frame and foundation for a series of design experiments. The resulting artefacts were presented at two different workshops in which participants were asked to form stories that integrated one or more of the design experiments into their everyday life. Based on the material from the workshops we can conclude that the design experiments worked well as parts of or catalysts for new stories of the everyday.
... Those seeking new design systems represent the point of departure for sustainable change management, often oriented to seek a blend between art and luxury and to the requirement to respond to the demand for ethical products and behaviour by the consumers (Pavione and Pezzetti, 2015). For example, in recent years, the realm of innovative design developed 'slow design', which emphasizes the centrality of the creative process rather than the product (Fuad-Luke, 2002). ...
In the present competitive global environment, many drivers should motivate the growing attention paid to sustainable consumption in the luxury industry. From the demand side, in Western mature markets wealthy consumers show a growing awareness of environmental and social issues and, therefore, seek new forms of luxury which show respect for both natural resources and human beings, yet standing by traditional factors such as quality, rarity, creativity, originality and craftsmanship of goods. On the firm’s side, sustainable consumption offers luxury firms a particularly suitable platform to enrich the value-set of products as brands identity and brand image. Starting from a review of the literature on the concept of sustainable consumption, the paper provides an analysis of the main drivers that are leading to the emergence of “sustainable luxury”. The aim of the paper is to investigate the opportunity for the development of this new competitive paradigm within the Chinese luxury market, by analyzing the distinct feature of Chinese high-end demand. The paper also taking into account the growing role played by the Chinese central government in creating the conditions for sustainable consumption or “circular economy”.
... Slow fashion is a more diffuse and less defined concept than cradle to cradle or functional design. It has its roots in the slow food movement, but there is also a slow design theory (Fuad-Luke, 2002, 2004/2005) behind it. Slow fashion is an objection to fast fashion. ...
In this study, we present a theoretical model, which draws together the elements of sustainability and fashion design. The data have been gathered from various sources, mainly academic literature, and a qualitative analysis has been carried out by following the principles of the grounded theory method: the data is analyzed by identifying and categorizing relevant concepts by using a constant comparative method, i.e. examining the internal consistency of each category. The aim of the model is to serve fashion designers, who wish to take sustainability into consideration. The analysis and the model answer the question of which principles and practices should be considered in sustainable fashion design. However, under further development, an integrated model helps to simultaneously see a number of facts and viewpoints that affect fashion production. The core category of the model is "considered take and return". It is based on design philosophies that are linked to other categories: material sourcing; fabric treatment; production methods; saving resources; societal implications; information transparency; and attachment and appreciation.
... Similarly, six principles of slow design have been put forward by Strauss and Fuad-Luke (2008). These have evolved from the pioneering work of Fuad-Luke (2002) onwards, and they also come relatively close to the kind of principles, which underpinned our own research and development work. ...
This paper builds on previous joint enquiry by the authors. Two previous papers examine the effective design of knowledge spaces for work. We start from the different contexts of knowledge management and management learning (on a spectrum from didacticist to constructivist) and adopt the position that in general we consider work to be 'situated learning' (Lave and Wenger 1991). We then use this starting point to develop specific themes of knowledge classification and knowledge spaces. The paper examines how an experimental attempt to adopt the constructivist/situated approach led to the evolution of the exhibition whose central exhibit was a garden shed. The results of the experiment are analysed and then compared with the emerging body of evidence from our work and research into the reasons why intranets fail. The relationship between physical, virtual and psychological spaces which foster learning and knowledge transfer is, in our conclusion, a fertile area for further research.
... The term green design, originally used in the 1980s, evolved to ecological design or eco-design in the 1990s and is now commonly referred to as sustainable design (SD) (Fuad-Luke 2002;Madge 1997). Madge (1997) argues that there is little distinction in these definitions except that the terms reflect attitudinal and perceptual changes toward sustainability over time as designers have incorporated ascending levels of complexity in their processes. ...
The apparel industry is complicit in the current ecological crisis. Since the Industrial Revolution, the industry's impact has grown unceasingly and there are now social, environmental, and economic consequences that must be addressed. Though the fashion industry has begun its move toward sustainable strategies, opportunities remain. Design and product development processes represent a key inception point for a multitude of impacts. Thus, it is imperative to identify the points on which those processes may be enhanced or revolutionized by approaches used in other industries leading innovation for sustainability. In this article, the authors commence an exploration of these other industries in search of a new dominant social paradigm, a more sustainable pattern of practice, for the apparel industry as well as education. The findings indicate that costing strategies, collaboration and cooperation in the supply chain, and tools for decision making represent the primary components of the transition to a sustainable paradigm. Additionally, the authors argue that industry proclivities such as economies of scale, implacable competition, and the use of the concept of fashion must now be scrutinized and reconciled to better support quality of life.
... So far, the experience of most PSS programmes shows an ambiguous regard for social and humanistic dimensions in spite of numerous recommendations to include the social context of consumption when designing the programmes [20,55,56]. This failure has limited the success of PSS in transforming consumption patterns. ...
Rethinking the role consumption plays in individual well-being and societal development is key for addressing pressing environmental problems. We perceive the need to envision consumption as a social activity, which requires the active engagement of consumers in order to better enhance their quality of life. The paper focuses on the framework of Product Service Systems, one particular programme for more sustainable consumption. After reviewing the potential benefits and limitations of this programme, we explore the opportunities to learn from participatory and community-based strategies like LETS.
... More often designers and engineers are utilised operationally to respond to product briefs developed by those outside the discipline of engineering and product design. This is partly due to the way in which others view the scope of these activities but is additionally associated with an inability of the design and engineering community to explicitly draw out their strengths and utilise them more strategically (Fuad-Luke 2002). ...
It has been argued in recent years that Western economies need to increase their resource productivity by 90% over the next 50 years. This is a radical aim. This paper draws on design for sustainability (DfS) thinking to scope interventions that encourage greater levels of resource productivity through reconfiguring concepts of growth and well-being within organisational strategies, structures, systems, processes and outputs. Based on research from a UK EPSRC funded project Design Dialogues (2005-2008), this paper links together sustainable design and innovation literatures and dialogue-based primary research that together inform the development of an approach to innovation for sustainability. The emphasis on sustainable innovation is to understand what is designed (the outputs of business) and why (the inputs: the values, beliefs, visions and objectives) within a context of ecological limits. The foundations of this approach are introduced here in order to demonstrate the potential to provoke a new way of thinking about longer-term organisational innovation through making explicit the intrinsic connections between natural and human capitals. This paper explores the need to think differently in order to create sustainability and presents the outcome of this research: a methodology for innovation for sustainability.
Overconsumption is artificially established through demand creation and planned obsolescence to grow profits eternally. The reasons for the mindless consumption of fashion include an endemic sense of insecurity and a worldview that perpetually keeps fundamental human needs unsatisfied, such as a sense of belonging and esteem. A vicious cycle of consumerism is systemically maintained with fashion’s strategies and growth mechanisms. Designers are one central part sustaining this system through creating myths and signals, more than material products, however aware or willing. A paradigmatic shift would rethink the designer’s role, valuing soft skills over ‘star quality’. The worldview that allows this system to perpetuate is based on competition and individualism, having little regard for others and the interconnectivity of all living. Through mindfulness and radical compassion, an alternative mindset and ways of action can be achieved, the designer being in a suitable position between production and consumption to drive it. Already value-oriented designers telling a story in fashion products should ask themselves which stories are worth telling. This paper investigates the topic with a literature review on the psychology, sociology, system, and economics of fashion. The use of the method of Causal Layered Analysis offers analytical perspectives to preferable fashion futures and a foundation for a paradigm shift.
This study aims to culture (i.e., to cultivate and propagate) well-being via lighting installations that employ slow design, which promotes well-being by encouraging actions at the right time and right speed, helping users understand and reflect on their actions. The study involves three key ideas: first, establish the critical role of slow design in culturing well-being by deriving a framework for designing meaningful lighting installations; second, connect this framework to the physical characteristics of lighting installations by examining how meaningful interactions with these characteristics culture well-being; third, investigate how lighting installations culture well-being via the application of this framework. Lighting installations designed as part of the International Association of Lighting Designers' Light Workshops Series are qualitatively examined as case studies. The findings indicate that slow design indeed has the potential to culture well-being by strengthening the psychological attachment with lighting installations when applied with consideration.
Fashion designers can have a key role to play in making fashion more sustainable, as they are able to influence and contribute to all dimensions of fashion impact (economic, environmental, social, and cultural), both positive and negative. Fashion design education should be seen as a chance to make aspiring designers aware of the challenges and potential of design for sustainability and equip them with the knowledge and skills necessary to implement sustainable fashion approaches. Starting from this premise, the approach to various sustainability themes was examined in the particular national context of post-secondary schools offering fashion majors in Poland, one which so far has not been researched in any depth. The authors conducted interviews and analysed the publications, documents, web pages, and Facebook profiles of such schools. Their activities were examined and classified in respect of the main dimensions of comprehensive fashion education: art, craftsmanship, and business. The analysis provides a picture of the current situation and a review of the specific features of sustainable fashion education in both the global and Polish contexts. Contemporary fashion education requires multidimensional adjustments to curricula, reflecting the complex nature of sustainability problems. This is a global challenge, which in the Polish case is additionally exacerbated by insufficient and uncoordinated public support, problems related to the institutional context of private and public schools, and the low level of sustainability awareness among consumers.
El artículo propone, a través de una lectura fenomenológica de la tejuela de alerce, nuevas posibilidades de comprensión y relación entre la vida humana y lo otro-que-humano. La crisis socioambiental y epistémica en la que estamos inmersos, impulsa una reflexión sobre la vida. Esta reflexión requiere ampliar la mirada para reinterpretar las materialidades y los vínculos que construyen la vida sobre el planeta. La tejuela de alerce, narrada en sus múltiples interacciones e interpretada a partir de sus propios lenguajes (materiales, temporales y territoriales) nos conduce –asombrosamente– a una amplitud del pensar, del sentir y del conocer el territorio y la vida que se enmaraña en él.
El mundo globalizado se caracteriza hoy por tener un ritmo vertiginoso que ha invadido, casi sin resistencia, todos los órdenes de la vida. Se aceleran las capacidades y habilidades productivas, y con eso se pierde dimensión del tiempo. El análisis actual acerca del diseño industrial y cómo el diseñador se acomoda en este mundo en transición tiene dos aristas. Por un lado, el análisis de los desafíos globales que enfrenta, y cómo el rol del diseñador se redefine y reubica en ese nuevo escenario. Y por el otro, qué pasa con la producción de objetos de ese cambio. En este contexto el diseño industrial tiene mucho para decir. La reflexión está puesta puntualmente sobre el vínculo entre los retos adaptativos que enfrenta el diseño industrial en la Argentina y su relación con los principios slow design y las identidades regionales mediante un cambio metodológico y proyectual en el diseño.
This research examines transformative learning theory's impact for fashion education. Through a study of current learning and teaching practices employed by educators within the field of fashion education for sustainability, this research finds that transformative teaching strategies can contribute to the effectiveness of students understanding of sustainable fashion. Additionally, this research illustrates how promoting the use of these learning and teaching methods will support opportunities for students to grow through critical reflection and collaboration, with an emphasis on participation and collective inquiry; strategies supported through a mutual and dynamic learning environment.
The fashion and textile industries provide work to one in six people globally (Morgan, 2015). Considering the fashion industry's global influence, this field has become a popular career choice for many young graduates (Jenkyn-Jones, 2011). According to Jenkyn-Jones fashion design is one of the most oversubscribed fields in higher education (2011, p. 6). In light of this growth in popularity, fashion institutions are left to manage student preconceptions of the fashion industry; at times these are uninitiated ideas propagated by fashion media and brands who promote the notion of the celebrity fashion designer, working in isolation, relatively free of social responsibility (Jenkyn-Jones, 2015; Edelkoort, 2014).
In contrast to these widely promoted ideas of how the fashion industry operates, a fashion education aims to develop the skills required of a student in order to gain employment in the industry, both present and future, and in doing so, highlight the diverse functions and applications of fashion design practices. In addition to these skills, a fashion education is also an ideal environment to engage with specific learning and teaching strategies that will help facilitate student discussion and learning of issues associated with the influential choices fashion designers make, and how these choices impact our local and global communities.
Through this research, it has become evident that neither education theory (transformative learning theory) nor design theory (studio practice) has given adequate consideration to the advancement of appropriate learning and teaching methods to enable fashion to respond to the social and environmental challenges of the future. Literature on fashion education for sustainability is abundant, as is research exploring the application of transformative learning theory in disciplines outside of fashion. What is yet to be addressed through current literature are the distinct needs, as well as issues, arguing for the advancement and development of learning and teaching practice specific to fashion design education. This research contributes to a greater understanding of contemporary education practice within fashion design through an analysis of discipline-specific application of transformative learning theory to fashion pedagogy.
An analysis of current literature indicates that transformative learning theory appears to be the main driver for change when delivering content regarding sustainability at a tertiary level within similar design disciplines such as architectural education. Data gathered from multiple methods for this research reveals a correlation between best teaching practice for education for sustainability and transformative teaching strategies.
The literature review is organised into four areas of inquiry: sustainability, fashion design and the nature of change; the evolving forms of fashion design education; the fashion educator and the future; and transformative learning theory in higher education. Additionally a review of a select number of international fashion programmes offering fashion education for sustainability has been included. The research from this last section feeds into the development of a comparative study, from which key subsequent findings evolved. The aim of the comparative study was to identify existing trends in international pedagogical innovation and to establish a connection between these trends and transformative learning teaching practice in a tertiary fashion education setting.
A number of different approaches have been taken to complete this research, these include: a literature review, a range of semi-structured interviews and online surveys, a comparative study of fashion design teaching methods, as well as the development of strategies for transformative fashion teaching practice. In addition to identifying and analysing best-practice teaching for fashion sustainability, the findings of this research are geared towards equipping students and educators alike with the tools to critically reflect upon, and work towards, ethical and responsive possibilities for transformation in their own fashion teaching and learning practices.
The results from the semi-structured interviews and online surveys, combined with written reflection based on observation and literature research, formed the foundation for the comparative study of four leading international undergraduate fashion design courses. The key educators interviewed regarding their involvement in delivering these courses, are globally renowned for their contributions to sustainable fashion theory and practice, and thus are in a position to provide valuable insight from which comparative findings have been established. A key discovery from this process identified that the learning and teaching methods employed by these educators reflected an approach to teaching that correlates with the application of transformative learning theory. In addition, several students who participated in these courses took part in an anonymous online survey, from which an understanding of how these courses compared, in regard to student experience, was attained.
The comparative study within this research demonstrated how integrating transformative learning theory and its associated teaching strategies with more common and traditional practices of fashion education, developed an environment that enabled student designers to critically reflect on sustainable methods for fashion design practice. This research seeks to ground this theoretical and practical ambition in the realities of fashion education practices and the systems of tertiary higher education institutions, while unpacking the possibilities that lie in the adaption of the theory to fashion teaching practice, in preparation for a transformation of current realities.
Num universo cada vez maior de produtos e serviços à disposição dos utilizadores, torna-se premente refletir sobre a nossa experiência com os objetos e de que forma o designer pode desenvolver produtos mais duráveis. A habitual abordagem à criação de produtos com maior durabilidade baseada apenas em questões de ordem prática e técnica na qual os aspetos relacionados com as experiências e sensações no uso não são profundamente considerados, tem-se revelado manifestamente insuficiente. Este livro procura olhar para o design numa abordagem assente no utilizador e nas suas emoções encontrando caminhos para criar produtos capazes de irem ao encontro desses desejos e que simultaneamente sejam menos efémeros.
Sustainability is the keyword among the researchers, irrespective of their research area. Textile and fashion sector is being well known among the researchers for its higher polluting nature. Many research studies were focused on the sustainable manufacturing process in different aspects. However, many researchers pointed that the steps that are taken for improving the sustainable aspects of clothing still have a huge gap in commercial implementation. With respect to clothing and fashion industries, several steps like organic and natural raw material usage, sustainable manufacturing steps, eco- or green processing, etc. were adopted to reduce the environmental impact of the clothing. But, the prevailing fast fashion concept and more frequent trend change in the market act as a barrier in implementing those concepts.
p>El proyecto presenta el proceso de diseño de una estrategia gráfica con el objetivo de promover la orientación del diseño emocional con visión humanista y como actividad socialmente responsable, tomando como referencia los productos y las empresas de chocolate de Ecuador. El marco conceptual analiza la historia del diseño emocional, las estrategias de fomento de la responsabilidad social corporativa y las experiencias de los pequeños y grandes productores de chocolate. La metodología tiene un enfoque hermenéutico, de investigación cualitativa, centrada en la descripción y análisis de los saberes y sentires mediante la realización de entrevistas a personas conocedoras de la temática y la aplicación de fichas con estímulos visuales. Con ellas se motivó a los estudiantes a exteriorizar sus emociones como aspectos observables que avalan los objetivos de desarrollo sostenible con criterio humanista para ser transferidos a las diferentes marcas que seleccionarán las personas en los procesos de comercialización. Los resultados muestran la importancia del impacto que producen las emociones positivas y negativas como respuesta al compromiso social, pues determinan la necesidad de concientizar y empoderar a las Pymes sobre los productos del cacao como alimentos sanos y saludables, relacionados con el mejoramiento de procesos de sostenibilidad, responsabilidad corporativa y enfoque humanista en las empresas.</p
In the 2014 Reith lectures, Dr Atul Gawande, propositioned that we are now in ‘the
the century of the system’ as the challenges facing society necessitate an understanding of
entire interconnected systems in contrast to the overarching approach of the 20th
the century which examined the world at a more micro level.
This has resonated across fields from medicine to aviation but it has yet to be fully implemented in fashion design education. Fashion design pedagogy is based upon dominant paradigms established during the Industrial Revolution where the emphasis is placed on giving form to
products for consumers based upon the logic of growth in a world of finite limits (Daly
1992; Jackson 2009). The field of design has not been taught in the context of its
ecological impact on our planet and many of the practices in the field have been
implemented through unsustainable design principles. This paper will focus on making
recommendations for improving fashion design educational practice within the scope of
the research practice that could potentially benefit educational practice within a global
context. It will do this by discussing the findings from two recent case studies of
curricula delivered in New Zealand and China which implement a systems-based
approach to fashion education incorporating theories of ecological design (Van der Ryn
S, Cowan S (1996) and emergent design practices such as meta design, transition
design, and design activism.
The role of the fashion designer has historically been limited within the confines of the
system of consumer culture, as the designer exists to provide products/garments to his
or her market/clients based primarily on principles of aesthetics. While this has
undeniably been a lucrative model for the emerging global fashion industry it has often
not recognised or taken responsibility for its effects on the planet and society. This
paradigm has led to a contemporary unsustainable situation where the global fashion
industry is the second most polluting industry next to oil. It is clear that the status quo
and the future validity of the field of fashion and its associated education need to be
contested. Fashion education needs to prepare its designers to address as Alastair
Fuad Luke (2009. p.xxi) describes as a ‘multitude of truths, economic, political, social,
ecological, ethical technical, symbolic, philosophical, and cultural’. Fashion design
education can be a powerful tool for enabling and empowering future designers to
critique their role as secondary players within a larger system, to be part of the solution
rather than perpetuating problems of the past (Manzini, E. 2008, p.4).
The case study “Fashion Activism: Space Between China and NZ’ has been developed to encourage designers to explore the breadth of issues where fashion may have influence. These educational papers critique and question the boundaries of fashion and embolden students to operate as part of a system which recognises the richness and complexity of the fashion ecosystem from a systemic rather than a solely analytical approach.
This paper asks can a systemic approach to fashion education activate our future
designers capacity to engage with the sustainability imperative to support higher levels
of synergy in collaborative practice? If educators, researchers and practitioners ask
different questions of the field will it enable future designers to become empowered to
respond to these insights and enact positive change?
In the high tech computer industry, products themselves evolve at a tremendous rate. Anything more than about 3 years old is probably in need of an ‘upgrade’, and the mindset of the industry is ever forward-looking in search of the next big thing. In this book we have looked back over 10 years to some audio-enabled camera products from HP, and traced their obsolescence and subsequent re-emergence as smartphone and tablet apps by other companies. We have also seen the development of new scientific understandings about the role of sound and pictures in communication and memory, through numerous research projects and prototypes. This has been a story of what it means from inside the industry to try to research and develop the next big thing. In stark contrast to the speed with which products come and go, ideas and values appear remarkably stable. Furthermore, the process of realizing new values through technology is remarkably long, interconnected with other innovations, and distributed across the globe. Individual products have a history and provenance that usually stretches back many years, into the corporate research labs of other companies or university groups, and previous products in an evolutionary tree. This history is illuminating as an insight into how innovation actually works and what can be done to manage it better.
This paper explores an approach to digital product design [1] through two prototype products, an augmented bedside table and a portable loud speaker. We discuss our design motivations, user case studies and common themes of simplicity, playfulness and ludic engagement [2].
Technology increasingly mediates communication between people, particularly when they live at a distance. For couples in long-distance relationships, these technologies are a primary means of exchanging not only information but also emotions. This one-year project explores the communication needs of couples living at a distance to design an intimate and emotional means of interaction specifically for this context. A user-centered design process revealed opportunities for interactions that show time and effort or those that connect people through a shared sense of place. These observed needs were used to develop concepts which where validated by representative users.
Sustainable development forces companies towards eco-design. It often appears to be a constraint which does not encourage a calling into question of the product or service. It is also necessary to surpass this procedure by integrating the notion of creativity while keeping the coherence of the social and environmental aspects through an eco-innovation initiative. This chapter first presents the “eco-innovation” concept and a review of some eco-innovation tools, in order to identify their characteristics, and then, the paper describes a newly developed tool, “ecoASIT”, which is an eco-innovation tool based on a “closed world” notion and which implies that responsible innovation does not have to introduce new elements in the world of the problem.
What would a PKI look like if it were designed for implementability and deployability rather than strict adherence to a particular theoretical or mathematical model? This paper presents and examines the results of a series of interviews in which a cross-section of experienced programmers, system administrators, and technical project managers with many years of practical, real-world experience were asked which technologies they would use to solve some of the major problems that occur in PKI implementation. The results of the interviews and various significant issues identified by them are presented and discussed. Finally, a PKI technology blueprint based on recommendations made by respondents is presented. The resulting design is noteworthy in that it is almost completely unlike the one proposed in X.509 and related standards, which would indicate that at least some of the deployment difficulties being encountered with X.509-style PKIs are due to their suboptimal choice of technology.