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Changing the Change

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Changing the Change

Designs, Visions, Proposals, Tools
Torino, Italy
July 2008



Changing the Change coordinator Ezio Manzini is a pioneering voice for design for sustainability and this conference (attended by nearly 300 participants from 27 countries) could prove to be significant. Despite the fact that the event could not entirely practice what it preached, there were a many ideas and discussions that were real gems - and the publications now avaliable on-line are a gold-mine. The emerging themes of local design, design activism, and social innovation for sustainability were developed eloquently.

Unfortunately, I missed Manzini's opening remarks but they have been reviewed well here. Jorge Frascara was excellent. Frascara asked us to start the change not with where we are - but with where we need to be. He described the importance of building a new vocabulary for design based on ecological knowledge. He asked designers to develop new methods for 'local' design - which may seem humble to some, but he also challenged designers as quality generators, vision makers, and possible future creators. This vision of basic design for local action coexisting with an ambitious vision of designers as future scenario creators is complementary within this discussion on transformation. Papers from this conference have been published on-line and are also to be published in book form by Allemandi Conference Press.

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Teach-In Proposal - launch

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Teach-in
Proposals distributed at Changing the Change and New Views 2 conferences. For more information see here. To support this initiative email us.

 
EcoLabs

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Ali Hodgson wins Award
 

EcoLabs collaborator Ali Hodgson was awarded the Design for our Future Selves award this week from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for her board game and associated book called: 'Endgame'.

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Design & Ecological Literacy: Part of the Solution

Ecological Literacy
Part of the Solution

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Buckminster Fuller
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Designer Accord

Someone has finally done it!
A code for designers ...

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Designers & the Transition Movement

Design & Transition
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We have no alternative but to learn to live within the natural imperatives the ecosystem. How can design participate in this change? The primary tool in this transition is systems thinking, a conceptual process necessary for reconfiguration of systems that are presently entirely unsustainable. Design has the potential to communicate systems thinking and help embed new cognitive facilities into public consciousness. Design must embrace its ability to facilitate change by developing a vision of itself as a facilitator of transition using new methods, tools, and approaches. A new design paradigm is taking shape defined by both the democratization and the dematerialization of design processes. Thanks to the work of researchers in fields studying the interface between ecological systems and human culture we now have tools to catalyze systemic transformation. This paper will examine the ideas that will inform this transition in the design industry. Informed by design science, ecological literacy, footprinting tools and the transformation design model - design is now posed for a radical change. What this paper will bring that is new is an examination of the Transition movement as a model for social innovation.

The Transition movement is a community design initiative that facilitates re-localization for mitigation and adaptation to post-peak oil and climate change. The Transition phenomenon started in South West England in 2005 and has already gone viral. There are now (May 2008) 61 towns, cities or areas that have Transition initiatives active (with another 700+ in the process of adopting the method). A Transition Town is a space that has initiated a community design process mapping ‘energy descent’; a timetabled strategy for weaning the locality off fossil fuels. The Transition process creates agency and encourages practical action. The movement is a result of communities concerned with the lack of systemic plans comprehensive enough to respond to what they perceive as the threats ahead. Here communities organize to meet environmental challenges directly when government, business, and institutions fail to respond adequately to the challenges of climate change and peak oil. The movement as described in this paper is the vision of permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins, now completing a PhD at Plymouth University while nurturing the growing Transition Network, and his local group; Transition Town Totnes.

The Transition movement can also be seen as design activism - led by non-designers. The professional design community would be clever to take notice. This paper will map out a proposal for change, first by examining concepts, tools, and processes within design that address ecological problems. Part Two will focus on the Transition movement as a model that brings insights from nature - via permaculture, into community design processes. In Part Three, I will synthesize all this information into a proposal for transition in the design industry.

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