Conference Agenda

This paper is relevant because of the current dire health situation of several critical human and non-human systems. In the paper we take a Nordic perspective, being critical of mainstream challenges currently facing many of our most existential systems. We suggest that design disciplines and their educations, together with others, urgently need radical change during the few years that remain until 2030. The paper argues that a holistic and systemic view is required that rather focuses on root problems, than the symptoms these root-problems cause. Based on a multidisciplinary selection of scientific literature, the paper shows how espoused systemic approaches often harm the health of both human- and non-human systems. In addition, the paper argues that these espoused systemic approaches tend to suggest ‘solutions’ that stand in the way of more realistic solutions emerging from supportive and social environments. One of the insights conveyed by the literature visited is how a reconnection of individuals in community- and practice-based activities promotes health and hopes that better futures can be achieved. The paper, therefore, suggests how design and its different educations, with others, can act in an interdisciplinary manner to become agents towards the kind of holistically and radical changes required to heal all broken systems we humans, together with so many others, inhabit today. In other words, as an output, we suggest what and how we designers should ‘design’ in our ‘workshops’ in 2030. And what tools, materials, methods, crafts, social processes and thoughts-to-think-with, we need to change to get there.

The demand for moving to more sustainable production has led to an increased need for industrial design students to understand the requirements and possibilities of circular economy practices. One of these practices is waste minimization or prevention through reuse or remanufacturing. This article presents the experience of using industrial waste to develop new materials. The experience aims to use creativity to have a positive impact on the industry, by providing circular economy solutions. The project is done within a third year Material Technologies course at an Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) program. The results summarized in this article are based on the experience of developing these new materials for 4 years, with a total of 180 students. In the scope of the challenge presented to the students, collaborating local industry would provide a material waste, facilitate guided visits to their production facilities and give feedback in the middle of the term and at the final presentation by the students. Students had to use the provided waste to develop a useful material out of it. The resulting material properties were analysed and characterized at the laboratory and relevant fields of application for the new material were identified. In a parallel course they were asked to develop one particular application of the new material in a specific application field, and to perform a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of the new product developed, to identify possibilities for improvement of both the product and the material, applying an iterative design approach. The LCA was also required to compare the environmental profile of their proposal with existing solutions with an equivalent functionality, to validate the expected environmental benefits of using these recycled materials in those specific applications.

During the years this challenge has been presented with the collaboration of four local industries: two manufacturers from the textile sector, one provider of components to the automotive sector and one service-provider of industrial apparel cleaning. The results have varied greatly, counting with 12-20 suggestions for new materials for each industrial waste used. Of these results, 3 proposals could be considered viable, environmentally beneficial and interesting enough for further development for each material application. However, during this period, only one project, from the textile industry, specifically from the industrial laundry sector, was later successfully continued in collaboration with the industrial partner. This seems to corroborate literature findings that indicate that the main barrier to repurposing industrial waste is the lack of demand for the newly developed material/product.

We present this experience since we consider that it has engaged students in the difficulties of repurposing industrial waste, it allows them to consider that the applications of said material developed are not always more sustainable than a competing primary material that they aim to replace. Finally, students learn interactively about the material properties their designs rely on. This experience might be useful to other IDE academics, regarding options for how to include waste recovery into their educational practices.

In recent years, sustainability has become a core constituent of contemporary undergraduate Product Design courses. However, many students continue to struggle to put theory into practice when undertaking design projects, due in no small part to their complex nature and conflicting priorities. Most often, considerations regarding sustainability are limited to the recyclability and re-usability of parts and materials, along with some attempts to reduce raw material and energy consumption. While their intentions may be admirable, such efforts are usually tempered by the degree to which these choices are deemed to adversely affect product function, form and ultimately cost. Furthermore, these attempts do little if anything to address the problems associated with human behaviour that are largely responsible for creating the majority of global pollution and waste.

Undergraduate Product Design students at Bournemouth University have recently undertaken live projects in conjunction with an established product design consultancy. The design brief set by the industrial partner has encouraged students to reappraise the entire nature of consumption, placing a particular emphasis on alternative modes of acquisition within circular economies. One of the aims being to challenge students to identify opportunities to innovate beyond the traditional boundaries associated with design and manufacturing. A particular obstacle this presents students with is: how to tackle conventional modes of thinking that support economic and societal barriers to change? Something which in many cases requires students to reflect critically on their own paradigms and preconceptions.

This paper addresses some of the difficulties educators encounter when attempting to encourage undergraduate design students to adopt more effective sustainable design practices. It discusses the experiences of those involved in delivering the aforementioned live project and reviews its effectiveness and limitations as a means of embedding sustainability in student projects more successfully. It concludes with recommendations based on the observations of the various stakeholders and subsequent reflections on their experiences both throughout and beyond the project.

Although handicrafts are recognized nationally and internationally as part of the identity and popular culture of Mexico, artisan producers, due to their condition of economic, educational, and geographical penury, are in unfavorable conditions to participate and unable to sell their products in attractive markets or negotiate important contracts, since they are normally carried out in spheres inaccessible to them.

According to the Diagnosis of the capacity of artisans in poverty to generate sustainable income, Victoria Novelo points out that most of rural artisans are indigenous and live in conditions of poverty [1]. Many artisans are forced to sell their crafts at very low prices in the streets of the country's tourist cities, suffering discrimination from potential customers who have the economic capacity to buy their products, giving little value to their work because usually handicrafts design does not satisfy their functional or aesthetic needs, haggling over the price.

Tecnologico de Monterrey is the private educational institution ranked number 1 in Mexico [2]. Therefore, we can be agents of change and promote healthy and productive relationships, through practical design workshops, taught by artisans to our students.

This article describes a proposal to motivate inclusion and cultural co-habitation, with a teaching-learning model developed in the Design and Crafts course, which is part of the concentration in Art, Object and Fashion of the 2017 program of the bachelor’s degree in industrial design at the Tecnologico de Monterrey that was taught for the first time at Campus Querétaro in the semester of August December 2022. The course promotes that artisans teach the basics of artisan techniques to future designers, to letting them know the origin and tradition that artisan work represents and appreciating the cultural heritage and manual dexterity that it represents, generating a relationship of respect and empathy, which could trigger healthy and fair future working relationships for artisans and future designers.

[1] Diagnóstico de la capacidad de los artesanos en pobreza para generar ingresos sostenibles. Available: https://www.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/32043/Diagnostico_FONART_3_.pdf

[Accessed on 2022, November 10] (Year Created 2009).

[2] QS World University Rankings 2023: Top Global Universities.

Available: https://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2023

[Accessed on 2022, November 10] (Year Created 2022).

A typical approach when designing for social service functioning in European and Norwegian contexts is to emphasize on what does not function. That is, one does not ask for reasons for conforming or agreeable behavior to exist, rather it is the divergent behavior that is studied (Luhmann, Wiik, & Bakken, 2013. p140). A consequence of such a perspective may produce research design and developing projects that seek to understand and describe phenomena like alienation, vulnerability, and feelings of malfunctioning. That is, such studies aim to describe relations rather than differences (Luhmann, Wiik, & Bakken, 2013.p.13). Differences can be understood as relations, difference in Luhmann's understanding however, explains how relational descriptions are always logical and causal and thus lack the descriptions of the paradoxes that produce the agreeable functioning. Design based on causality may lead to the implementations of specific plans, while designing that builds on understanding societal functioning as something that can emerge out of what seems paradoxical may lead to the design of a direction for a system. In this article we will discuss how design processes that seek to implement a plan may differ from the processes that aim to initiate a direction (Mead. 1974), in the context of public services. We will describe these dimensions by the existing descriptions and exemplify their differences in functioning by the notions of maintenance and value of care (Johar. 2021). These dimensions will further be discussed in relation to how the functioning they create influence democracy by the behavior they produce.