Designing a Sustainable World

8/8/2019 Designing a Sustainable World

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ign,we find that the equivalent in our

I iives a better soif hall-cleaninq DeSian na achine already exista, or is on its way, and

niiting for us to e i r a c e it and chaige SU inab e WOrld!world. A S

. . The critica1issue-forpeople, o$ganizations,

and gowrnments alike-is knowing where, ; we want to be. The imaginary,an,alternative

cultural vision, is vital in shaping expecta-

ttions and driving transfomational change.

Shared visions act as forces of ipnovation,

and what designers can do-what we al1 can

do-is imagine some situation or condition

that does not yet exist but describe it in suf-

ficient detail that i t appears to be a desir-

able new version of the'real world.

John Thackara,In the Bubbler or better or for worse, the material

stuff that surrounds us shapes our lives.Pmducts have bmught what is arguably the

zenith of human comfort to thoqe who can

afford them. We're knee-deepinnseful things

such as refrigerators and qualib footwear,

y@we're also laden with the detritus of the

last generation of objehs.The &riphery of

our comfort zone is lined with waste.

The fact that al1stuff-every

ballpoint pen, every pairof flip-flops-was

made with intention is almost as astound- . ,

ing as the sheer number of things amund

the world. Some designer ensured that it

would take scarcely any thought to use our



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esign, we find tha t the equivalent in o ur

vn lives of a better qoif hall-cleaninq Oes inU a-~achine lready exists, or is on i ts way, and

S waiting for us to embrace it and change ~ u s t i i n a b ~ eorIdhe world. A S

The critica1 issue-forpeople, organizations,

and governments alike-is knowing where

we want to be. The imaginary, a n alternative

cultural vision, i s vital in shaping expecta-

tions an d driving transformational change.

Shared visions act a s forces of innovation,

an d what designers ca n do-what we al1 can

do-is imagine some situation or condition

that does no t yet exist but describe i t in suf-

ficient detail that it appears to be a desir-

able new version of th e real world.

John Thackara, In th e Bubble

< > . d i For better or for worse, th e material

stuff that surrounds us shapes our lives.

Products have brought what is arguably th e

zenith of human comfort to those who can

afford them. We're knee-deep in useful things

such as refrigerators and quality footwear,

yet we're also laden w'th th e detritus of the4last generation of objects. The periphery of

our comfort zone is lined with waste.

The fact that al1 stuff-every

ballpoint pen, every pair of flip-flops-was

made with intention is almost a s astound- -in g a s the sheer number of things around

the world. Come designer ensured that it

would take scarcely any thought to use our

TmnCglass,designed by Emma Woofenden and Tord

Baontle,1sglassware made from recycled wine and

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coffee percolator. While we weren't paying

attention, the designy also made sure that

it would look embarrabsinglyout-of-date assoon a s possible. Thishabit of designing for

obsolescence, using+centuries-ol$manu-

facturing technologieb, has created a huge

set of challenges.We could resolve them

by collectively renouncing al1bu t the mostbas ic of material comforts. Alternatively,

we could accept the status quo. But while

one approach seems retrograde, doomed

to failure, the other is simply unthinkable.

Perhaps our ticket to a better, more sustain-

able future is to do what human beings do

best, given the chance-design our way out

of the conundrum.

The inventor Edwin Land once re-ferred to creatiw acts such as design, as a

"sudden cessation of stupidity." The twenty-

first century has akeady see&a huge wave

of su ch moments, andwe have had theopportunityto make designed things more

susta inable. We're nof lacking in creative

acts, ideas, or stratedes: we have them i n

spades. Qurgreateribhallenge lies in h i t -ting al1of these together.

Product design isn't merely archi-

tecture fo r small t b b s : t's a field inwhich

a whole set of dynamic an d unpredictable

Qactorsmust be considered. We manufac-

&re consumer objeotsby th e thousands,

and we release them into the world like

flocks of birds. Today'b product designer

often has little control over where these

objects go, how they are actually used,

whether they get haclked, axed, or modi-

fied, and how they're diaposed of when they

ecological impact is detennined a t the

design stage, so in this seeming chads is a

vast, often untapped opportunity forlsmart-

er, more effective design.

One thing that product designers

have that architects lack is speed: th4ngs

can be cranked out in a fraction of tde timm

'it takes for a building to be dweloped,The

field of product design has also wolved

quickly. In 2000, the well-known science-

fiction author and renowned design vision-ary Bruce Cterling released his "Viridian .

festo appealed for "intensely glamorous en-

sheer gorgeousness, that would establish

a market in which buying unsustaintibleproducts would amount to fashion sdcide.

Leas than a decade later, Cterling's vibion is

coming to fruition.

Demand for t ruly ecofriendlpprod- .

ucta is now growing so fast designe* can't

keep up. Well into th e 1990s,ecologic'ally re-

sponsible furniture amounted to little more

than globs of recycled plastic melted into

the shape of chaira and sofas; todaythere's

a good chance that a sleek, top-of-theiline

office chair might be the most ecolo~ically

reaponsible choice.

Most of the green products on the

shelf today are mere half-steps, metaphori-

cal referencee to sustainability. A salar

cell-phone charger ehould be more than



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make decisions to b* to demand, to repair,

an ecosensitive sheen. It should be made, or to opt out.

aaed,an d retired with biological clwemess Design guru>ohnThackara writes:

and tic lightest of impacts. Tiny, hesitant "We've built a technology-focused society

impnvements are a terrific way of perpetu- that is remarkable on means, but hazy

ating brolken system, but many of the com- about ends. It's no lopger clear to which

question al1this stuff-tech-is a n an-

swer, or what value it adds ta our lives." If

we atep back from the aurfeit of stuff, we

can see the systems for change orbiting

We must bring about a full-scale around us, but onlyi$e get involwd will

they be able to mainbain their momentum.

We decide whether t y share things with au r

neighbors or hoard them in the attic. We're

' Shce,themid-1990s, crafly ecodesign has the ones who ca n altgr our clothing, custom-

ize our furniture, an& hoose to uae things

and clean.We now know how to turn un- for years longer than is expected. Rather

than waiting fo r gre$nproducts to appea?-

stamped, sanetioned:and ready-we can

demand them, or cre4te' them ourselvetl. o 0

,.hediaassembledand made anew. We can I

RESOURCES +

In theBsrbble by John Thackara(MITPress, 200s)

aide their punriew, thereby failing to play John Thackarahas been tracing the cuttingedge ofdesign and sustainabilitylong enough tTsee howour cultivated%bsessionswith technology actuallyoperateon a grand scal Rather than microscopes,he contends,weneed 'fnacroscopes" to see the

able to come up with great solutions for the patterns and irnplications of al1our smalldesigncomplex challenges that humana create, ye t decisions.Design e.Josts,'afterall, to serve human

ends, and someof Thacjtqa9smost compellingand critica1ideas focusQn heconcept of design-

ing less for technology more for people.y4i1 ,

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1 -' . Opposite,le& These 100pment recyclable Dalsouple

- . rubber floorihg tiles arepm$ttcedin a system that recycles. almost aii of the waste gene&ted duringmanufacturea

Opposite, right:Thesehayand resin garden chairsde-

signedby JurgenBqr orDmog Deeign canbe composted at

the endof their lifespan.

Left:This DavidHertz-deaigqed coffeetable ismadeusing

' Cyndecrete,a compositema$ fromnaturalmineral6 andrecycledmateniala.

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WWW.WORLOCHANGING.COMI5TUFF ,

"Although many ptople perceive design

to be al1 abo ut appearances,design is no t just

about the way things look. Design is also aboutthe way things are used; how they are cornmuni-

cated to the world; and the way they are pro-

duced. The dance of the big ah d the small entails' a new kind of design. It imdves a relationship

between subject an d objeot in d a commitrnent tothink about the c o n s e q u e ~ c ~f design actions be Iike? Whfit would you eat, what clothes r

before we take them, in a st i te of mind-design would you wear? If you went out today, w o d d

mindfulness-that values p l p , ime, an d cul- you know ho w to buy-much less create-sus-

tural-difference." ! tainable products?' I

Eternally Youn:Time n De& by Ed van Hinte(o10 Publishers, 200s) a

Durability an d endurance create interestingenough chalienges to have preoccupied rhe polluting methods?"Eternally Yours Foundation for eight years. Their Datschefski is a real enthvsiast for .

work is characterized by radically i v v a t i v e en- sustainable alternatives-as well as a passionategineering, as well as the sortlof delicious Du tch-product design that edges into conceptual art.

They celebrate the objects we want to keep in ou r

possession, an d they wrestleawith the paradoxesof longevity: long-lasting thiiigs canmean less things must be cyclic, solar, an d safe; that anconsumpti~n-os the preservation of mistakes. object's total beauty must not be underrninecfby

This book is the result: a luxurious, hidden impacts-are a refreshing rerninder t v tdistinctive little publicatian bound in embossed products need not be complicated to be effeccive.

, gold foil, with an exquisite tjinding that exudes Casting a wide ne t in his e s t i m a t i o n ~care an d preciousness. You'll want to keep over objects as well as buildings an d food- . .

which is exactly the pbidt. Datschefski contends that almost al1 environ-

mental destruction is related in some way to ''

rcoDesi$n: n> e Souvcebook by Alastair Fuad-

Luke (Chronicle Books, zbo8)Although as of yet there is no such +ing as a- truly sustainable product on .the market, Alastair

Fuad-Luke's ecoDesign (7h.dEco-DesignHand-

book: A Com plete Sourcebook for the Home and cally toward the future.. ., Ofice in its second edition) js a pragmatic look

a t the current approaches, including everything

from multifunctional furniture to innovativematerials, solar gizmos, an d ~energy-efficient

refrigerators. His is the on e ynd only source-

book to catalog the various attempts a t makingsustainable products-as we¶1as the materials,organizations, an d designers responsible for

the prototypes. Heavy on pictures an d light oneory, ecoDesign celebrates any an every ap-

proach to austainable produkt desigg, ven if theresults ar e marginal. ThoUgh it cleariy iííustrates w p e t , which comes inup toeighty-onedifferent cola

- ho w much farther we have ty go, &e sourcebook endlessdesign combinations.



> . .PICKING GREEN MATERIAL5 87

8 ,

IAl1 good intentions,becomenull

an d void when thinga cease to work, so

objects such a s electronilcs need to be

stable enough to functiofi-to say nothing

of surviving a n onslaug4t of hungry

insects. Crushed sunfloqer shells can make

great coffee tables, bu t they make really

terrible solar panels. Withdut plastics,

we'd have neither pacempkers no r drip

is a mat ter of what we do with th e material8

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nitrogenous or overfertiiized soil, theymightbeable to offer an intkr&ting solution to some of

Europe's agricultura1problems.

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of electroluminescent vines embed-

m' in&allations. Sachiko KodarnaTakeno created their Prohrrde, Flow

energy absofiers, used o pmted car

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ing shape as viewers move kq un d them. Thom

Faulders lined a listening r+n;l with NASRsmemory foam, a material 1Snpi neglected because itfailed to withstand e x t r a 6 qnperatures in spacethvty years ago. Down he ri onearth, our feet

leave deep, clear footprints icfo ss Faulders7s oom.And what a bou t natiiraf daylight, es-

sential to the happine ss of building occupan ts?

Besides skylights and lightitubes, a roof can be

lined with translucent Aer gel. The lightest sub-

Pstance-on earth, it works as a cham pion inkulator,while 6itering daylight. There are even ways to

bring natural light into t h i unlit .rooms of older

or much larger buildings, by cham eling real sun -light from roo ftop collecto S into d ark interior

fspaces many s tories below! We can sit in a pa tch

of sun in a basement ro o q aSid watch a s the'light

shífts with the cloud coved ,.

five times lighte r than pu rj gluminum. Working

on the same principie, Axetf'?hallemer's inf lat-

able Airtecture structu res :eplace matte r with air.Airtecture supports whole rooflines and bearsa building's load with air pressure, fabric, and

various engineer&g heroici.

A reminder that tliere's far more inven-tion ou t there than we can even begin o keep trackof, Transmaterialis a guidejto the posib le. oo

,

Design and Environment: GlobalGuide tobDesigtzing Gmener Goods,by Helen Lewis, John

aGertsaki, et al. ( ~ r e e n l e a k

001)

Designbg for sustainabiliq means building

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bridges between disciplines abd praentingsolutionsin languages that,areforeignto most

designets. So theie is a critica/ space for bwkson sustainable design that fillF a t reaim: an-notated, n~mbered,ross-linMed, and brinmiingwith frameworks.Design4 nvironrnent is,somewhatparadoxically, aiddeplypractica1aca-demicbook, argeted at the-$sinesspeople andmanagerswho make som ny of the decisions

7bour our.material culture, ,

"Designers are at the significantpoint of conjunction between technologicaland cultliral worlds. They ar4 therefore in aprivileged position to captiud andact on signalsfor changk." T

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Designing a Sustainable World

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