The design process paradox : traditional design processes vs. eco-design processes

The Brundtland Report (WCED, 1987) best known for its popularisation of the concept of sustainable development, also made recommendations for a new approach to design and production, setting out terms for: ‘a production system that respects... the ecological base’ and ‘a technological system that searches continuously for new solutions’. The industrial production, consumption and waste treatment of products today causes a large amount of various environmental burdens. The development and design of new products with reduced environmental impact is one of the new challenges towards a more sustainable society and is therefore an important task in the near future.

Research by Design is up and running

This paper explores the context of and developments in Research by Design (RbD) as currently developing in Schools of Architecture. It starts from noticing that the design studio is the core of the bachelor and master curriculum. Extending this position to PhD research implies the search for research where the design process is the main method of researching and creating knowledge and understanding. These developments connect to similar developments in the arts. Mode 1 and mode 2 knowledge, reflection and other knowledge processes are the base for developing knowledge for the field of architecture when practice and designing are the main method of research. The paper concludes with observing many PhD and research projects building on design activities and practice are currently under way and are supported by academia. They produce a specific type of knowledge and understanding, usually opening up problems and exploring boundaries.

''Rainbow Designer'' : for global and multicultural design

What do the designers tend to achieve? To relate themselves to the reality by producing visual registers of emotions and thoughts, or by projecting and producing objects that are functional, adapting technologies to daily needs. That requires that a designer be a keen observer of his physical surroundings and have a fine sensibility to cultures, enabling him to disassemble the latent forms of the reality and cultural symbolisms in order to perceive the order underlying them and the principles of their composition and unity. Only then could he reproduce the nature and respond to cultural callings. In this process of understanding the surrounding reality of nature and cultures, a designer always moves, generally without being aware of it, between two processes: identity search and self-identification.