Alireza,
a few thoughts on design for the future. It strikes me that there are several issues of "time" running through your brief. I've normally seen the brief done so that students design something "for the long term", something that can evolve, something that is "cherishable" (so people keep it) or something that has inherent qualities that make it age well (e.g. an old leather jacket, blue jeans). A before and after exercise is a good idea in that in may show the change in frame of reference for thinking about the short term versus the long term.
The Eternally Yours Foundation (now defunct) in the Netherlands did a lot of work on this. Jonathan Chapman has also looked at it in his book Emotionally Durable Design (earthscan). Stuart Walker examines it in slightly different terms (largely spiritual/inner growth, but not "religious") in his book Sustainable By Design (also earthscan). I think one of the most interesting books on the topic is still Stewart Brand's How Buildings Learn, although obviously it deals with architecture, the thinking is still useful.
I recently developed a design brief for my teaching guide (based on work from the Eternally Yours Foundation and Louise St. Pierre at Emily Carr College) called "eternal product/structure" and for that I've suggested a 100year timeline for products. I also use the example of the Rosetta Disk (from the Long Now Foundation) designed to last 2000 years, a design for a plutonium memorial, as well as designs for "everlasting" games and a study of what happens to fast-food buildings once the fast-food use is gone. (you can have a look at these http://www.designers-atlas.net/teachguide.html).
The parallel issue in my mind is speed. Stuart Walker deals with this a bit, and there is more work being done on "slow design." There's also a design brief on slow design in the teaching guide. In my own work (borrowing from Stewart Brand and some ecologists) I've characterized the issue of speed in terms of how nature uses size and time strategically to adjust to changes but still sustain conditions that support life. Brand's book The Clock of the Long Now (my edition Widenfeld and Nicolson) charts this out elegantly.
Best,
Ann
Ann Thorpe
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Dept of Design, Development, Environment & Materials
Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London
Wates House, 22 Gordon Street London WC1H 0QB, United Kingdom
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book: The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability (www.designers-atlas.net)
& blog: http://designactivism.net
Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 07:35:08 +0100
From: Alireza Ajdari <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Resources For Design Project Now and Future
Hello List
In the educational design program of Iran , we have a graduate design
course named Now and Future where students are expected to design an
artifact for current time and then redesign it for future , let's say
20 years later. The goal is to strenghten students' vision and
imagination power. I wondered if there are some resources for such an
argument . Immediately the Design of Future things by Donald Norman
comes into mind or some futuristic designers such as Syd Mead but I
wondered if there are more, as an example in Design Strategy and other
aspects.
Thanks
Alireza
Alireza Ajdari, Ph.D.
Lecturer in Industrial Design,
Department of Industrial Design,
University of Tehran,
Tel : 0098-21-66415867
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