Alastair fuad luke biography of donald

About this book

Design activists, who comprise a diverse range of designers, teachers and other actors, are setting new ambitions for design. They seek to fundamentally challenge how, where and when design can catalyse positive impacts to address sustainability. They are also challenging who can utilize the power of the design process.

This book provides a rigorous exploration of design activism that will revitalise the design debate and provide a solid platform for students, teachers, design professionals and other practitioners interested in transformative (design) activism. It provides a comprehensive study of contemporary and emergent design activism, collating, synthesizing and analysing design activist approaches, processes, methods, tools and inspirational examples/outcomes from around the world.Inspired by past design activists and set against the context of global-local tensions, expressions of design activism are mapped. The nature of contemporary design activism is explored, from individual/collective action to the infrastructure that supports it generating powerful participatory design approaches, a diverse toolbox and inspirational outcomes. This is design as a political and social act, design to enable adaptive societal capacity for co-futuring.

This title reveals the power of design and designers to effect positive social and environmental change. This is new from Alastair Fuad-Luke, sustainable design guru and author of "The Eco-Design Handbook". It presents a rigorous exploration of design activism, with examples, methods and tools from around the world. It offers an attractive, full-colour addition to the successful Earthscan sustainable design book list.

Contents

Past Inspiration: a Short History of Design in Activist Mode; Global-Local Tensions: Drivers for Design Activism in an Unsustainable World; Contemporary Expressions: Design Activism Goes Beyond Form and

I recall a quote from John Thackara that pointedly articulates one of contemporary design's biggest opportunities (and challenges). He said, in essence: "Whatever you decide to do, don't do it alone.... We're all designers now." The idea of collaboration is nothing new, but truly productive collaborative design for sustainability's sake is easier said than done. British designer and thinker Alastair Fuad-Luke believes "co-designing," designing together, makes good sense not just for design's sake, but as a generative process with the potential to improve markets, economies, societies, and our environments. Fuad-Luke is the author of multiple books on the subject of sustainable design and design activism, and leads workshops on co-designing to teach a process in which each participant is both teacher and student.

As a design framework, co-design "means designing together," says Fuad-Luke, relying on multiple stakeholders and Life Cycle Thinking. A 3-part loop diagram shows the continuity between Experiencing, Problematizing, and Solutioning in a non-linear design process that requires each co-designer to participate at every level. Experiencing, for example, requires that co-designers work as anthropologists, observing how design is experienced, what the human factors surrounding design can inform, etc. The process is cyclical, rather than a 3-step process, based up on collective intelligence, and giving a voice to each stakeholder.

I personally see the value in a co-designing approach, as it re-emphasizes the social element of design, reminding us that sustainable design is not just about what something is made from, but how social factors informed a real solution, and how social impact can be a tangible result of great design. Fuad-Luke's process also asks us as designers to question who designers are in the first place: are our clients co-designers? (yes!) Are our end users and investors co-designers? (yes!) A co-design approach means c

No its not the guy in the picture!

Recently design thinking has gained momentum in the business world through mentions in the Harvard Business Review and Forbes publications. Design thinking has been described as anything from “a unified framework for innovation“ to the “essential tool for simplifying and humanizing.”

Being in the news though, doesn’t make design thinking big. Unlike the radical outcomes it promises, design thinking, as an approach, has been slowly evolving since the 1960’s. Over the past fifty plus years, design thinking (or design really; let’s be honest) has appropriated many of the best tools and techniques from creative fields, social and computer sciences.

What sets design thinking apart?

Design thinking has an amalgamation of approaches, this is still quite unique — which is why sometimes — design thinking is applied as more of an umbrella term that catches multi-disciplinary, human-centered projects that involve research and rapid ideation. Most recently it has begun to monitor and measure itself in a quantified way, a trick its learnt from the business and economics sectors.

History and the people involved

1960–1980

Over this twenty year span design was able to re-define not only what it was; but what it could be applied to. This relatively short but very dense period saw the birth of two vastly different approaches to design across the globe.

60’s Scandinavia = Cooperative design

At the same time as an absolute counter to Fuller, Scandinavian cooperative design was also getting off the ground. Unlike the teams of experts assembling in America to fix the world, the Scandinavians invited everyone to become involved in discussions on design.

Instead of being closed off and selective, here designers played the role of facilitators or guides, with everyone from experts to workers and inhabitants co-designing products and services they would want to u