As a PhD Design Researcher looking closely at this very matter of Sustainable Design (from both a practitioner and academic perspective) , I wanted to engage and perhaps I will learn something and or inspire some new tangents....
Thank you Ursula for highlighting the fact that Sustainable Design has been around decades. I wholeheartedly agree that the concept is not new - my understanding it is that the issue is the siloed approach to Design and research and that it needs to evolve into a transdisciplinary field away from the concept of "expert" and silos that rarely talk to each other.
According to the research I have made, many researchers and designer researchers before have paved the way yet the various stakeholders in Industry haven't been been interested (a type of Akrasia) to confront the harsh realities of its effects and perhaps this (previously) impacted funding for Design research into sustainability?
It seems to be a general issue in the "real world" not to listen to experience and feedback loops.
I was a practitioner in the 1990's and one of the first eco fashion brands in the 90's - earth 33. At that time the discourse was "waste hierarchy" and the focus on reduce, reuse and recycle, hence I was developing and working with post-consumer denim waste (alongside Dr John Parkinson) and I know academics such as Emma Dewberry and Vicky Lofthouse were already working in the research field of Eco Design at that time. Goldsmiths University started their first Eco Design HE course in the late 1990's
I have been mapping out the trajectory of Sustainable Design and I found George Nelson (1945), an interdisciplinary designer, and progressive thinker was already reorienting the entire concern with capitalist destruction (built in obsolescence) around the dynamic of producer and product. I would welcome any other ideas that go back this far.
Other landmark/key people -
1968 and Buckminster Fuller's "Operating Manual For Spaceship" Earth began exploring systems thinking and looking at the concept of "regeneration". The participatory design movement in the 1970's began to encompass some of the ideas and principles.
1973 - Stafford Beer - Designing Freedom
1985 - Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change, Victor Papanek
1993 - Club of Budapest (Ervin Laszlo)
And of course the contemporaries thereafter.
I would welcome any other ideas to add to the map I am developing which I can make available in the future,
Warm regards,
Britta Boyer
PhD Doctoral Candidate
Institute of Design Innovation
Loughborough University, London
www.brittaboyer.com <http://www.brittaboyer.com>
On 05/03/2020, 09:15, "PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related research in on behalf of Terence Love" <[log in to unmask] on behalf of [log in to unmask]> wrote:
Dear Paul,
The term eco-design goes back a while further.
I owned the business name Eco-Design around 25 years ago. It was around the
time that ecodesign was a strong area of study in design research by the
ECO2-IRN group organised by Tim MacAloone and Tracy Bhamra (now on council
of DRS).
25-30 years ago was a time when many sustainable design battles were
successfully fought (and many won) in the areas that Don is talking about.
For example, it resulted in vehicle manufacturing standards for materials
identification and the avoidance of mixed plastics use that compromised
recycling, and the establishment of design for fast disassembly for
recycling and reuse. These and many other sustainable design standards and
practices have been in place for decades. In the graphic design area it
included the avoidance of problem inks. The larger challenge was improving
product design for small consumer products.
Currently, it appears the best 'recycling' approach is to keep the waste in
a single stream (no more recycling bins!). Instead, use robot and automated
waste separation. Small plants are currently available for around $1m.
Best,
Terry
-----Original Message-----
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Paul Russell
Sent: Thursday, 5 March 2020 4:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 4 Mar 2020 (#2020-59)
Dear Ursula,
Discussion of Sustainable Design being holistic and covering social and
human well-being (as well as environmental) is not "many decades old" to my
knowledge. If you can give some sources for that older than 10-12 years ago,
other than perhaps Papanek who never used the term, that can support that
claim then please share. Sustainability in general has been discussed in
those terms for longer, sure. Literature specifically relating to design
that is explicit in discussing human wellbeing etc. is more recent than
that, obviously.
What I am proposing goes above and beyond any literature on the more
holistic Sustainable Design definitions currently available. I haven't fully
explained it in my email to be succinct and because I'll be presenting it
later.
I find your suggestion to "just Google it" to be rather insulting also. I
don't know why you would assume anyone on the list is so ignorant of the
literature in our field that they would need to "Google it" to educate
themselves.
Regards,
Paul Russell
________________________________
From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
research in <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of econcept.org
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, 5 March 2020, 13:14
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: PHD-DESIGN Digest - 4 Mar 2020 (#2020-59)
Dear Colleagues,
interesting discussion around design for the world instead of design for the
user.
I like to point out that there is a design definition for already many
decades that does what you are searching for:
"I have recently started thinking about what will replace the HCD approach,
which itself replaced UCD well over 10 years ago now, and I came to the
title of 'Humanity-Centred Design'. It happens to be used in a couple of
places already if you google it, but is not properly defined by any of them
so I have tried to do that."
And that is Sustainable Desing or Design for Sustainability.
And there are many many people worldwide discussing and working on it. just
google it:)
best regards
Ursula
> Am 05.03.2020 um 01:00 schrieb PHD-DESIGN automatic digest system
<[log in to unmask]>:
>
> I have recently started thinking about what will replace the HCD approach,
which itself replaced UCD well over 10 years ago now, and I came to the
title of 'Humanity-Centred Design'. It happens to be used in a couple of
places already if you google it, but is not properly defined by any of them
so I have tried to do that.
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