A Design Challenge Like No Other

Posted on | September 25, 2008 |

Early on Monday morning, Greengaged’s penultimate day kicked off with an informative discussion about the future of design education. Speakers included Tracy Bhamra (Loughborough University), Ian Capewell (Practical Action), and Emma Dewberry (Open University).

First to speak was Emma Dewberry, Senior Lecturer in Design for Sustainability at the Open University. After a brief introduction to her work, Dewberry discussed the relevance of a quote from John Maynard Keynes (December 12, 1935);

“The ideas which are here expressed so laboriously are extremely simple and should be obvious. The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.”

Noting the Design Council’s 2005 report “Design and Sustainability – A Scoping Report”, Dewberry detailed how it evidenced the perceptions of, motivations to and barriers from sustainable design practice. The report, she explained, expressed that designers felt a sense of disempowerment in regard to the ecology. Discussing the drivers and barriers toward EcoDesign, Dewberry explained that previously clients have been most responsive to sustainability when legislation demands it or when they wanted to gain competitive advantage. The intangibility and accountability of EcoDesign has however held people back, she explained.

Discussing what EcoDesign looks like today, Dewberry showed examples from ‘The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products’ by Edwin Datshefski (2001) and ‘Redesign – Sustainability in New British design. A British Council Exhibition.’ (2001).

‘We’ (educators) are not really challenging what design can do and what the boundaries of ‘design’ actually are, or could be. We are still just producing more stuff”, Dewberry expressed. “A core shift in thinking, requires change from the entire design industry” she continued. The shift she explains needs to be from EcoDesign to Sustainable Innovation, i.e. from a focus on outcomes to a focus on process.

Discussing how we can embrace the design curricula, she stated “Design curricula is challenged within the emerging context of ecological limits and social equity.” Dewberry then presented a quotation from David Orr (1994) who explained, “This is a design challenge like no other. It is not about making greener widgets but how to make decent communities that fit their place with elegant frugality.”

In a final statement, Dewberry discussed the concept of hope and hopelessness, and how we must be aware of the value that designers have to inspire people to happily make different decisions. With that, Emma noted Stefan Sagmeister’s TED speech “Yes, design can make you happy” and his “Life Instructions” (pictured above).

Dewberry closed her discussion to introduce the new U101 1st level undergraduate course in Design Thinking, which you can find out more about at the blog DesignThinking.typepad.com.

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