1、中文 5000 字 The Design Response to a Wash of Green: Whole Systems and Life Cycle Thinking Simon Lockrey What a great idea: a green product to make a difference, make one happy, and assist in performing the menial tasks that litter an otherwise hectic day. Or is it? Consumer decision-making is beginnin
2、g to follow a distinctly green trend, which is fantastic in principle but often contrived in reality. What does this mean for the designer who imagines, designs and creates these goods that cater for growing consumer demand in sustainability? There lies the contradiction between designing for the co
3、nsumption obsessed market and designing to the core principles of sustainability, where environmental, economic and social aspects are somewhat detached from a consumer driven market. According to Ezio Manzini, design theorist from the famed Politecnico di Milano, we have a crisis of the commons (co
4、mmon areas, goods, etc), a lack of contemplative time (a time poor existence, longer hours at work, etc), and most relevant to designers, a proliferation of remedial goods (Manzini 2003). The latter sees products solving every perceived problem imaginable. Whether it is a toothbrush that oscillates
5、the plaque off in half the time, or a breakfast bar filling the five-minute bus ride, we have become increasingly, unconsciously used to products feeding our increasing wants, without a thought as to how that consumption impacts the environment. Last century, the raw materials consumed by one person
6、 in the US increased five fold (Matos and Wagner 1998). This looks more ominous when combined with the fact that only around 15-20 % of the world is highly developed to a US or western style of consumption (UN, 2009). One approach is for design to lower the users consumption, without degrading the c
7、onsumers experience. The question is whether the new breed of eco products adds to the crisis, or makes a real difference. They may be adding to the crisis if the design method follows the rules of thumb for that infiltrated the design community in last two decades. The reality is that these techniq
8、ues do have potential to make a difference, but are often ineffective. Take design for disassembly. A designer in an appliance company designs a product for disassembly although there is no effective product stewardship scheme to collect the parts from reclaimed models. The design driven benefit is
9、not delivered, rendering the methodology a waste of time. It is also well and good to reduce the weight of components and thus the embodied energy of the same appliance, however if the bulk of the impacts are generated during use from electricity (like an electric kettle), then the strategy most likely has negligible benefit in reducing
