Posts Tagged ‘design’
Life Cycle Thinking: Key Issues and Indispensable Tools
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on March 12th, 2010
Source: Core 77
Image: paul swansen via flickr CC
From the article by Lloyd Hicks
You might guess that the carbon footprint from a carton of orange juice is largely due to packaging, transportation and disposal, but the findings from a recent PepsiCo study may surprise you. When the entire life cycle of orange juice was included, growing the oranges turned out to contribute the most to the carbon footprint—mainly due to the production and application of nitrogen based fertilizers. It’s important for designers to recognize the impact made in every phase of a product’s life cycle. In this case, shifting agricultural practices may result in the most significant emission reductions, but designers are far from powerless to make improvements. The same study states that packaging and distribution represented 37% of the carbon footprint. With that in mind, how could a designer accurately test new scenarios to create an orange juice distribution strategy that has fewer impacts on the environment? How would he or she know if a plastic bottle is better than a gable-top carton or not? How do concentrated juice products size up?
Tags: design, enabling technologies, LCA
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Living Climate Change Video Challenge
Posted in Visions by Kate Archdeacon on February 22nd, 2010
Source: Inhabitat
As designers, we believe that envisioning the future leads to new choices and opportunities. Living Climate Change, an online community hosted by IDEO, presents a conversation designed to move the dialogue about climate change toward inspiring, human-centered scenarios that create new possibilities for business and society.
The Living Climate Change Video Challenge invites you to show us your vision of a future shaped by climate change, as we move along the path toward reduced carbon emissions.
The Challenge
Create an original video that envisions how climate change will impact our lives over the next 20 to 30 years. Looking beyond the doom and gloom and the policy discussions that have dominated the debate, how would you envision a human-centered, sustainable future? Which behaviors will change? Which will be preserved?
Tags: climate change, design, ideo, innovation
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Tourism 2023 – creating a sustainable tourism industry
Posted in Research by Kate Archdeacon on February 15th, 2010
Source: Forum for the Future via Food Climate Research Network
The Tourism 2023 project sets out to help the UK outbound travel and tourism industry understand the challenges it faces and plan for a sustainable future.
Climate change, population growth, shortages of oil and other resources will have dramatic impacts on how, where, when – and even if – people travel, and will reshape the industry over time.
We explored how factors like these could lead to very different worlds in 2023, each holding very different futures for the industry. We worked with tourism experts to create four vivid scenarios, and then generate a vision of the sustainable future the industry wants for itself.
Major companies and organisations have now pledged to collaborate to create a commercially sustainable tourism industry by the year 2023 which benefits communities in tourist destinations and protects the environment.
ABTA, Advantage Travel Centres, British Airways, Carnival UK, Sunvil, The Co-operative Travel, The Travel Foundation, Thomas Cook and TUI Travel were the first to sign the Tourism 2023 Vision. The founding partners are inviting other organisations to sign up to this vision and take part in the next phase of work, which will help shape the future of tourism.
The scenarios, vision and a strategy to implement the commitments were launched at the ABTA Travel Convention in Barcelona on October 8th, 2009. More than 100 people with expertise in different facets of the industry – including business leaders, academics, legislators, campaigners and commentators – have been involved in creating them.
Download the report.
Tourism 2023 is coordinated by Forum for the Future and supported by Defra.
Tags: design, strategy, sustainability, travel
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Public, Private: Sustainable Precinct Development
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on February 8th, 2010
Source: The Ecologist
From “Forget eco-towns – real green house-building is already happening“, by Eifion Rees, 12th January, 2010:
Cambridge University’s expansion plans could change the face of sustainable building in the UK. In 2012, construction begins on the greenest development of its size and scope in the UK.
As far as trailblazing green building initiatives go, the development known as North West Cambridge (its official name as well as location) looks rather uninspiring at the moment, merely fields bounded by busy roads on the outskirts of an East Anglian university town. There aren’t many clues to suggest that, when construction begins here in 2012, it will change the face of sustainable building in the UK.
But that is what is scheduled to happen here with the creation of what will effectively be a new city quarter. The land is owned by Cambridge University, and the scheme is intended to accommodate the academic institution’s expansion over the next 25 years, when numbers of students and staff are expected to increase by 8,000. As a result 3,000 new homes will be built on this patch of the greenbelt, together with new faculty and research buildings, and a significant number of community facilities. This week, emulating universities in the US, Cambridge issued bonds for the first time with the aim of raising £400 million towards the cost of the £1 billion project.
From the North West Cambridge website:
The masterplanning proposals for the University of Cambridge’s North West Cambridge site are moving forward. To continue the success of this collaborative process we would like to obtain your views on the emerging masterplan. To this end, we have recently held a Public Exhibition as well as Public Workshops. These exhibitions and workshop form the next stage in the process of preparing the masterplan for the site – and provided an opportunity for stakeholders to contribute and comment on the proposals. The information that was on display includes:
* Introduction to the North West Cambridge project: The University’s need and vision – an introduction to what the project will offer local residents, students, faculty, staff and local businesses. This includes 3,000 new homes, 100,000 m2 of academic and commercial research space, accommodation for 2,000 students and local facilities and green spaces.
* Site: Context The site’s location and landscape features, and various site-specific opportunities that the masterplan should respond to.
The latest versions of the masterplan are available for public download, and are separated into four layers: Indicative Urban Structure, Indicative Landscape & Open Space, Indicative Land Use, and Indicative Access & Movement.
Tags: community, design, Urban Design and Built Form
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Contest: Redesigning the Farmers’ Market
Posted in Movements by Kate Archdeacon on August 13th, 2009
Sponsored by GOOD, The Architect’s Newspaper, The Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, and The Los Angeles Good Food Network.
How can better design ensure that food grown by local farmers is delivered and distributed to urban residents?
Demand for “good food”—defined as healthy, green, fair, and affordable—is rising. Whether it’s from a rural family-run farm, community-supported agriculture group, or a backyard plot, locally grown food is increasingly viewed as a solution for many economic, environmental, and health concerns.
Yet significant barriers exist in bringing that food to urban tables. Even if a steady supply of good food is available, it can’t be delivered without better distribution networks that efficiently move it to multiple outlets and consumers.
What we need is a massive shift in our food delivery systems that will provide a variety of opportunities for farmers to sell directly and effectively to urban residents, helping us redefine the path from farm to fork. It’s time to rethink our local farmers’ markets.
We want designers, architects, farmers, chefs, vendors, and farmers’ market shoppers to think about how good design can improve upon the modern farmers’ market experience.
Deadline: September 1.
Visit the competition page.
Tags: competition, design, farmers' markets, new systems/services
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Reduce bottle waste: Water fountains in Manly
Posted in Models by Kate Archdeacon on July 27th, 2009
Source: InDesign Live
The Bottled Water Alliance, with Do Something! and filtered water supplier Culligan Water, aims to reduce the waste created by the bottled water industry by bringing fresh filtered water to the streets.
The program involves installing fountains and taps to provide water to the residents and visitors to Manly, Sydney. This in turn should encourage people to buy less bottled water – the plastic from which generally ends up in landfill or as litter after a single use.
Tags: behaviour shift, design, Water
No Comments » |
Email This Post
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge
Posted in Models by Devin Maeztri on June 16th, 2009
The Buckminster Fuller Challenge is an annual award of $100,000 prize to support the development and implementation of a strategy that has significant potential to solve humanity’s most pressing problems.
What they look from the entries are:
- Comprehensive – addressing the interaction of key issues responsible for present conditions; aims to solve multiple problems without creating new ones
- Anticipatory – factoring in critical future trends and needs as well as potential long term impacts of implementation
- Ecologically responsible – reflecting nature’s underlying principles while enhancing the Earth’s life-support systems
- Feasible – relying on current technology and existing resources
- Verifiable – able to withstand rigorous empirical testing
- Replicable – able to scale and adapt to a broad range of condition
See the 2009 Buckminster Fuller Challenge Award winner.
Tags: design, mobility, sustainability, urban design
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Harvesting the wind – integrating existing energy structures with new
Posted in Models by fedwards on June 3rd, 2009
This article, Harvesting the wind, was originally published by Suzanne LaBarre on 13 May 209 on the Metropolis website. It demonstrates an innovative model to integrate existing powerlines with wind energy. An alternative version of distributed systems perhaps? The full article can be found here.
Harvesting the wind
From the window of a TGV hurtling through France, the countryside flattens to a smudge—electrical towers rise and recede in clusters, and tall, lanky wind turbines seem to whip off pirouettes like a young Moira Shearer. Most passengers turn their heads, nodding off on a neighbor or burying their noses in Le Monde, but for a triÂumvirate of young designers, the sight is a view of the future. The passing turbines and pylons augur a new way to harness renewable energy in a country that relies almost entirely on nuclear power. “When we’re riding on the train, we al-ways see pylons, and some turbines too,†NicÂola Delon says. “We say, ‘Both are here. Can’t we mix them together?’â€
Tags: design, energy, energy systems, innovation, integration, sustainable energy, wind
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Applications for fellowships at TEDGlobal 2009 have now opened!
Posted in Events by fedwards on March 19th, 2009
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. TED is excited to begin the search for the inaugural class of TEDGlobal Fellows to participate in the TEDGlobal Conference in Oxford, U.K. Following the successful Fellows program launch in Long Beach, CA, they are looking for the next eclectic group of 25 innovators from around the world.
TED Fellows may apply or be nominated by another individual. Please follow this link to apply. To nominate a candidate, email fellows@ ted.com. The program will accept applications for fellowships from March 6, 2009 through April 3, 2009.
For more information the TED Fellows program visit http://www.ted.com/fellows.
Tags: design, entertainment, Fellows program, technology, TED
No Comments » |
Email This Post
Lessons of the Square Watermelon
Posted in Models by fedwards on February 23rd, 2009
Find an extract (and some pictures) from an article, Lessons of the Square Watermelon by Peter Drucker on the Lean Thinking Network.
Japanese grocery stores had a problem. They are much smaller than their US counterparts and therefore don’t have room to waste. Watermelons, big and round, wasted a lot of space. Most people would simply tell the grocery stores that watermelons grow round and there is nothing that can be done about it. That is how the vast majority of people would respond. But some Japanese farmers took a different approach. If the supermarkets wanted a square watermelon, they asked themselves, “How can we provide one?” It wasn’t long before they invented the square watermelon.
The solution to the problem of round watermelons wasn’t nearly as difficult to solve for those who didn’t assume the problem was impossible to begin with and simply asked how it could be done. It turns out that all you need to do is place them into a square box when they are growing and the watermelon will take on the shape of the box.
To read the full article visit the Lean Thinking Network.
Tags: design, Food, Japan, Models
3 Comments » |
Email This Post