Reintroducing Materials for Sustainable Design: Design Process and Educational Practice

Description

Reintroducing Materials for Sustainable Design provides instrumental theory and practical guidance to bring materials back into a central role in the design process and education. To create designs that are sustainable and respond to current environmental, economic and cultural concerns, practitioners and educators require a clear framework for materials use in design and product manufacturing. While much has been written about sustainable design over the last two decades, outlining systems of sustainability and product criteria, to design for material circularity requires a detailed understanding of the physical matter that constitutes products. Designers must not just know of materials but know how to manipulate them and work with them creatively. This book responds to the gap by offering a way to acquire the material knowledge necessary to design physical objects for sustainability. It reinforces the key role and responsibility of designers and encourages designers to take back control over the ideation and manufacturing process. Finally, it discusses the educational practice involved and the potential implications for design education following implementation, addressing didactics, facilities and expertise. This guide is a must-read for designers, educators and researchers engaged in sustainable product design and materials. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Contents List of figures Introduction 1 Sustainability and making 1.1 Defining sustainability 1.2 The shifting baseline syndrome 1.3 Circular economy: a system for environmental sustainability 1.4 The role of the designer within a system for sustainability 1.5 Material knowledge in sustainable design 2 Materials in design education 2.1 The dispute about materials within design education 2.2 From drawing to ‘executed design’ 2.3 Handmade for mass production 2.4 From hands to head 2.5 The didactic challenge 3 The material dialogue in craft 3.1 The separation of mind and body 3.2 Cognition in craft: the bond between body and mind 3.3 Analogue versus digital 3.4 Matter versus form 3.5 Reinstating materials and making 4 Reintroducing materials into a contemporary design process 4.1 From craft to design 4.1.1 Analysis and synthesis 4.1.2 The representational and the non-representational 4.2 Framing 4.2.1 Material studies and exploration: the source 4.2.2 Material studies and exploration: tradition, history and culture 4.2.3 Material studies and exploration: the composition 4.3 Imagining 4.3.1 Creativity 4.3.2 Drawing 4.4 Material experimentation and prototyping 4.4.1 Material experimentation 4.4.2 Iterative prototyping 4.4.3 Epistemic artefacts 4.5 Conversations with designers 4.5.1 Interview with designer Jonas Edvard 4.5.2 Interview with the designers Maartje Dros and Eric Klarenbeek 5 Implications for design education 5.1 Prerequisites 5.1.1 Making skills 5.1.2 Experimental practice 5.1.3 Between art, technology and natural sciences 5.1.4 The physical facilities 5.2 Learning to design with materials 5.2.1 Different types of knowledge 5.2.2 Building contributory expertise 5.2.3 Transferring the meaning of a material dialogue through experience 5.3 From analogue to digital and back 5.3.1 Material knowledge in digital design 5.3.2 Educational context 5.3.3 Material dialogues with digital tools 5.3.4 The ‘Ba’ of material dialogue 6 Sustainable design: Knowing how 6.1 The dilemma of quantifying sustainable design 6.2 Co-creation and distributed knowledge 6.3 The responsibility of designers 6.4 The future of sustainable design Index