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November 2008

The new 'Design for Development' masters course in the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture has got off to an excellent start with 10 students from around the world. An impressive list of visiting speakers and organizations await these students within the first two months including: John Thackera, ThinkPublic, Sophie Thomas, Design Council and Joshua Blackburn.

 

September 2008

Anne Chick with Sophie Thomas, Co-founder of Thomas Matthews and Sarah Johnson, Founder of ReDesign launched Greengaged (www.greengaged.com). Greengaged was a series of events and activities which examined the ecological imperatives, political and social drivers, and sustainable design strategies across disciplines from product design to graphics, service design to fashion. Hosted by the Design Council in Covent Garden, during the 2008 London Design Festival (15th - 23rd September). Greengaged attracted approximately 2,000 people with most events over subscribed.

 

Greengaged aims to galvanise designers to take up the sustainable challenge and will feature some of the most forward-thinking designers and innovators in their fields to engage the wider design industry in getting involved, becoming informed and sharing expertise and opinions.

 

October 2008

Anne Chick was invited to spoke at the 2008 International China Design Conference and Festival in Dalian, China. Anne talked to an audience of approximately 500 delegates on 'why sustainable design makes good business sense'. She spoke alongside many eminent Chinese designers involved in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

 

July 2008

Graduating Graphic Design students Hayley Owen, Laura Passmore and Chrisopher Syrett’s sustainable packaging design work has been profiled in a government report. The Progress Report on Sustainable Products and Materials (10 July 2008) mentions the students winning design solution for the Royal Society of Arts Design Directions 2007/08 Sustainable Packaging category. The 'accurate' intelligent packaging uses nanoskin technology to keep foods colder for up to ten times longer than conventional packaging, extending their shelf life and reducing both packaging and food waste. Food degradation is shown via a digital Time Temperature Indicator which makes it easier for consumers to understand the degradation process. An expanding blue bar means that the contents are safe to eat. When it hits the orange circle the package will turn completely orange, indicating that the food is not safe to eat.

 

These students are taught sustainable design by a number of the Sustainable Design Research Centre academics Anne Chick and Paul Micklethwaite.

 

View the students work on:
www.rsadesigndirections.org

 

The report sets out the Government’s story on sustainable products and materials. It is a progress report, and so describes what has been done and work which is already planned or suggested ways forward including our students designs. The reference to the students work can be viewed on page 16 of the Defra document:
www.defra.gov.uk

 

July 2008

Jakki Dehn’s CREATIVE RESOURCE exhibition is to be on display at The Building Centre, in London, from 16th July until 29th September 2008.

 

This exhibition is part of a lively debate about sustainable development. It draws on the experiences of designers, manufacturers and people with a broad awareness of sustainable issues to suggest several routes through the complex field of sustainable design by exploring the creative and economic potential of recycled materials.

 

Innovative design has played a large part in enhancing the perception of recycled materials. The products on display in this exhibition show that the creative potential of materials made from waste makes business sense. Visitors will see products from designers like Philippe Stark and Tom Dixon and handle over 200 new materials which come from many unexpected sources, including recycled coffee grounds, currency, mobile phones, swimming pool covers and airplane windscreens.

 

July 2008

Anne Chick has been asked to speak at an afternoon seminar entitled: 'Green R&D' Developing products for a low-carbon and sustainable future by the Research and Development Society.The seminar will take place at the Royal Society in London on Tuesday 15 July.

 

The meeting will focus on some of the aspects connected with developing new products that are environmentally friendly, an increasing imperative for R&D.

 

The other speakers are:

• Ahmed Hashmi, Technology Vice President of BP plc (chair)
• Dr Mike Pitts, Manager of the Sustainable Technologies Priority for Chemistry
• Innovation Knowledge Transfer Network
• Dr Robert Trezona, Head of R&D, The Carbon Trust

The presentations will be followed by a general panel discussion with the audience.

 

The Research and Development Society is a UK-based organisation formed to promote the better understanding of R&D in all its forms.

 

July 2008

The DTI funded two year project Increasing the Sustainability of Contract and Office Furniture Manufacture and Supply is drawing to a close. Dr Paul Micklethwaite is one of the key consortium partners alongside the British Furniture Manufacturers' Association (lead), Green-Works, Morph Design and Brighton University.

The project aims to developing best practice regarding a range of issues along the furniture supply chain, in order to move towards more sustainable production.

 

The research project outputs will include:

 

Product service systems

Reconsideration of the way in which furniture manufacturers sell their product offers the potential to decouple producers’ business success from the amount of products sold.

 

Environmental design for furniture

Consideration of environmental issues during the design of the product is integral to achieving material reduction, choosing environmentally sound raw materials, enabling the reuse of components and facilitating cost effective remanufacture.

 

Material evaluation

The characteristics of end of life furniture will determine the suitability and availability of material for remanufacture.

 

Remanufacturing

This option offers an attractive route for material which is surplus to reuse requirements.

 

Sustainable consumption

The project will enable UK furniture manufacturers to participate in the creation of an environmental impact evaluation tool which can be adapted by their designers.

June 2008

The British Standards Institute held a one-day conference on sustainable design standards at the Design Council's HQ on 10th June. Anne Chick was one of its speakers and facilitators. The event invited a business and design industry audience to share views on the future of sustainable design.

 

April 2008

SDRC is awarded an Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Award. It funds a PhD studentship entitled 'The design of community buildings and landscapes as sustainability learning spaces that encourage sustainable behaviour'. The collaboration is between the SDRC and the Environment Trust for Richmond upon Thames. The award is worth £80k over 3 years.

 

The main emphasis of the project is sustainability and there are two key threads which will be explored. The first is the investigation of sustainable building and landscape design in the context of the River Centre and how to ensure that the building is an exemplar of sustainable design. The second is an investigation into how to design the building and landscape to be an educational tool demonstrating sustainability in the wider context to the local community and to visitors.

 

March 2008

A two-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by the TSB has been awarded to Dr Pretlove (Lead Supervisor) and Clive Chapman, Director and founder of Clive Chapman Architects, in Twickenham, (Company Partner). The project aim is to gain in-house expertise in sustainable and environmental design and to develop and establish a specialist sustainability service. The award is worth £110k.

 

March 2008

David Kester, Chief Executive of the Design Council gave an animated talk at the Faculty's Knight Park campus on Monday 31st March. This event was part of the Royal Borough of Kingston's 'Festival of Ideas' initiative. The event was chaired by Dr. Simon Ofield, Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture. Kester's presentation was entitled What Good is Design? He started by explored past perception of good design. His talk led onto discussing the future roles and responsibilities of design and designers. He concluded by focusing in on how the sustainability agendas were impacting design and making the Design Council, designers and others ponder and re-evaluate how we might answer to his presentation title - what is good design?

 

February 2008

Kingston University Product & Furniture student Nirmal Menon is one of three winners of the Design for Substance competition. His 'Paraffin Loop' design tackles the issues of fire quickly spreading due to the unstable stoves widely used in the township. A special loop in the paraffin supply prevents the fuel from leaking and spilling. Nirmal's design could potentially extend to being a cost-effective new and safer stove.

 

The Design for Substance competition challenges students to consider how to use design to improve the lives or situations of people with little or no money, rather than for aesthetically-pleasing, high-value objects. It requires undergraduates to look at the reality of life in a specified disadvantaged community and to design a product which could benefit the lives of those people.

 

Fifteen finalists were chosen and received a critique of their designs by Luke Pearson, co-founder of Pearson Lloyd. This allowed the finalists to develop their designs before the national final. The talented designers were selected by an esteemed judging panel, including Luke Pearson, Theo Schilderman of Practical Action, Lynda Relph-Knight editor of Design Week, Jody Chapman designer and trustee of the Audi Design Foundation and Emma Buckley of UNICEF.

 

In September 2007, all three winners went on an all-expenses paid trip to South Africa, where they will hold trial and focus groups with Mdantsane residents.

The Audi Design Foundation is committed to assisting the winners progress their designs further. For further information about the Design for substance
see www.audidesignfoundation.org