Monday

TASK 8 - Sustainable design

Sustainable design is usually used as a synonym of green and eco-friendly 
design or design for environment. It`s importance and overall public conscience are growing as people are becoming more and more aware about their impact on the environment.

Also for designers it has becomed an important consideration and it`s treated as “design discipline” on their approach for reducing packages, moving from print to digital communication methods, redesigning products or services. 

As a “discipline” it may include everything from designing small objects 
for everyday use to design for buildings, cities etc.
Sustainability in design came as a reaction to the overuse of natural resources, rapid growth of population, massive consumerism and environmental degradation.
It makes us look at everyday objects and try to redesign them in a better and more efficiently. It also makes us think more about the products “ life cycle” and how it can be produced and used efficiently and recycled in the end for new raw materials. 

Products "Life cycle" diagram. Source























I think that sustainable design is one of the answers to the most of 
our environmental problems. Using environmentally friendly materials for their products, 
is something all designers should aspire to. 




























The Kenno 
children’s chair

These cardboard series, designed by Heikki Ruoh for Showroom Finland, are light, eco-friendly and very beautiful indeed. The Kenno children’s chair is the result of experimentation with a new kind of recycled cardboard. The sturdy yet lightweight material can be re-recycled as paper; water-based adhesives are used to create its sandwich construction. 


other example

 

....................................................................................................................................................

DESIGN THINKING.
A particular style of creative thinking

Design thinking can be a particular approach to understand and solve problems.
There is not a method or a process which can define the design thinking. 
There are as many different design processes as there are designers multiplied by design problems. (wikipedia.org/wiki/design_thinking)

It is a term being used these days to define a way of thinking that 
produces transformative innovation.
For instance, the creation of alphabets, 
thousands of years ago is an example of design thinking.  
……………………………………….
- The term design thinking has becomed popular, becose it makes it easier for those outside the design industry to focus the idea of design as a way of thinking about solving problems, a way of creating strategies by experimenting them rather than thinking about design as an artifact (chair, car, building) or a fashion style (dress, pair of shoes). (Redhat, Burney, 2006)

Design thinking / Impact on business operation   

-Today, it`s increasingly difficult for companies/businesses to find ways 
to compete in the tough markets.
They are finding that their methods for generating innovation and values aren`t giving them advantages on competition as they used to.

-The success of companies who have build “Design thinking” cultures has began to be noticed. Inovation and technology is they are talking about. Companies are creating new strategies and restructuring their selves by making huge investments to take advantage of design thinking. (Apple, Starbucks, Nike, Toyota, VW).

The Fourth Order of design

-According to Professor Richard Buchanan,
The first order of design is communication with symbols and images.
The second order of design is is design of artifacts 
(engineering, architecture and mass production)
The third order of design is design of activities and processes 
and it is all about interactions and their experiences
The fourth order of design is design of the environment and the systems 
within which all the other orders of design exist

Understanding how these system work, what are the core ideas that hold them together…
that’s the fourth order of design problem.
Designers that lead and take higher positions, determining strategies and directions of thinking, dealing with complex questions of our social life are the fourth order designers.

…………………………………………………………………….. 

Design at this level concerns the environments how people archive their goals, systems and organisations in which they act or with which they interact.
For instance, -Apple- is a sample to illustrate the fourth order …the entire chain what they have made, including the store and business case.