A Need for Focus on Sustainability

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Sustainability, one issue that design world has to focus on “Fancy cutting down those beautiful trees we saw this afternoon to make pulp for those bloody newspapers and calling it civilization.”– Winston Churchill. (Definition) The economy and technology of late decades has grown with leaps and bounds. Mobile phone, Internet reduce the space and time between human beings. The globe is getting smaller, the way of people thinking is changing which means the whole society is experiencing a profound evolution. However, in this information explosion age, human society has to face unprecedented crisis- The gradual depletion of global natural resources and the sharply deteriorated of human’s living environment. People begin to have a strong feeling of losing control of these crisis. Therefore, sustainable development is being highly regarded. As a designer, how could we make our design work meet this era? How could we design people-oriented? The final solution lies in how designer treats sustainability in design work. Designers are encouraged to use sustainable thinking in their design work. This concept of putting sustainability in design context called Design For Sustainability (DFS), it could be traced back to the wave of “green design” in 1980s-1990s. Sustainable design does not only mean “Green Design”, “Eco-design”, “Low Carbon Design” or “Environmental Design”, it also has its own features and methods. Specifically, referred to Ezio Manzini, the sustainable design is different from the “product-only” design. Through integrating products and services, it build a sustainable solution to meet the specific needs of consumers. On the other hand, it is a strategic design activity that aim to reduce resources wasting, envi... ... middle of paper ... ... Carlo Vezzoli (2008). Design for Environmental Sustainability, Springer-Verlag London Limited. Diehl, JC (2006), Design for Sustainability: A Practical Approach for Developing Economies, Delft University of Technology. Haanaes, K. (2013). Making Sustainability Profitable. Revealed from http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/designing-sustainability-challenges-green-materials. Holm, Ivar (2006). How attitudes, orientations, and underlying assumptions shape the built environment. Oslo School of Architecture and Design. LENS (2007), Learning Network on Sustainability Working Hypothesis. Revealed from www.lens.polimi.it. Shedroff, J (2009), Design is the problem: the future of design must be sustainable, Rosenfeld Media, Brooklyn, New York. Visser, W (2009), The top 50 sustainability books. Greenleaf Publishing.

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