future faces design sample- publication

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1399 Johnston Street,

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CURRENT ( 1923-1881 )

is published annually.

2013. All rights reserved.

www.current.ecuad.ca

Jonathan Aitken

Grant Gregson

Dr. Glen LowryCeleste Martin

Deborah Shackleton

Bonne Zabolotney

Deborah Shackleton

Bonne Zabolotney

Dr. Glen Lowry

Celeste Martin

Deborah Shackleton

Jean Chisholm

Samantha Matheson

Tara Westover

Celeste Martin

Daisy Aylott

Vivian Ziereisen

Megan White

Jean Chisholm

Chelsey Doyle

Johannes Schut

Leah Schwartekopp

Amanda WangenShiyao Yu

Fernanda Rivera

Vivian Ziereisen

Tevis Bateman

Winnie Wong

Vivian Ziereisen

Grant GregsonAnasa Visser

Jonathan Aitken

Kate Armstrong

Dr. Ron Burnett

Dr. Maria Lantin

Mari Nurminen

Ezio Manzini

Celeste Martin

Liz Sanders

Deborah Shackleton

Louise St. Pierre

Jean Chisholm

Vivian Ziereisen

Evans Li

Andreas Eiken & Kieran WallaceJean Chisholm

Beayue Louie

Sarah Wilson

Megan White

Grant Gregson

Hemlock Printers Ltd.

7050 Buller AvenueBurnaby, BC

V5J 4S4 Canada

+


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n this issue we eature articles written by internationally recognized

design researchers and educators, Liz anders o akeools and hio

tate University, zio anzini rom the Politecnico di ilano, and on

Burnett o mily Carr.

Liz anders illustrates how design is social now. he states: the conver-

sation is about design or experience, or service, and design or trans-

ormation. rough identiying and mapping the creative potential o

collective agency we transorm and in so doing lay the groundwork or

sustainable actions.

anzini helps us as design thinkers and makers to see how slow, local,

open and connected ( LC ) can become a scenario that li ts o the

page to become wisdom about sustainable and generative societies.

on Burnett asks us to look at design through the lens o the anthro-

pologist in a paper that addresses the concept o audiences in art and

design. e observes designers are now crossing the boundaries into

the ways in which people organize their lives ( design thinking, design

process ), and the many ways in which design thinking is applied to

businesses and to innovation.

Louise t. Pierre o mily Carr and ari urminen o Powertech Labs

reect on a 3-year collaboration between the universitys eco

studio series and Powertech, a subsidiary o BC ydro, wherein the out-

comes are as much about social innovation as they are about technical

and economic aims.

n Eat St. Case tudy: Designing nteractive Cookbooks, Celeste artin,

also o mily Carr, describes the evolution o an interactive ebook or a

broadcast television show that airs on the Food etwork. ocial learning

eatures prominently in the human-centred design approach.

We are also including interviews with the new mily Carr research direc-

tors ate rmstrong and onathan itken. rmstrong is the Director o

the ocial and nteractive edia Centre and itken is the Director o

the ealth Design Lab. rmstrong introduces us to Disruptive echnol-

ogies in Business and Design Culture as applied research that is reexive

in nature while itken describes social innovation and social learning in

the intersections between the design and healthcare sectors.

tudent praxis papers oer a range o project opportunities and

challenges that are LC relevant. e article by Beayue Louie examines

how participatory design strategies can serve as eective tools when

working with multiple design constraints. Louie articulates how milyCarr students were asked to collaborate with children with special

learning needs to create a textile-based product rom reclaimed abric

that endorsed sustainability among both the users and the designers; an

example o cosmopolitan localism.

ean Chisholms article ocuses on the importance o co-creation in the

developmental and end stages o project development or Bulletin, an

interactive digital space on Vancouvers local music scene. e resulting

project is a user-centred web space that enables interaction between

event planners, artists, and audience members.

s part o the Design or Democracy movement, arah Wilson writes

about collaboration between mily Carr aculty and students, and lec-

tions BC. e ocus o the paper is the process o creating an advertising

campaign to increase youth voter participation in the upcoming 2013

British Columbia provincial election

ustainer: Designing ustainable ystems is the embodiment o a

design partnership between ndreas iken and ieran Wallace. nother

local to global initiative in sustainability, the design team examines the

easibility o a to-go reusable ood container much like the systems at

play or carrying a bottle or water.

Current 04 is a tour o praxis-based, applied research as voiced by the

practitioners eatured in the issue. e publication is an exposition on

the current state o design research and in particular, those thoughts

and ideas around newly emerging spaces o design practice that are

resilient and which promote generativity.

Deborah Shackleton, Celeste Martin & Glen Lowry

Addendumur past issue, Current 03, received several international

design awards or both the print and iPad app publication rom the

University and College Designers ssociation ( UCD ), Creativity nter-

national wards, and dobe Design chievement wards.

EDITORS' NOTEWelcome to Current 04 and the theme o

ustainable & enerative ocieties; ocial earning & ocial Innovation


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CONTENTS

I ANThROpOlOgy & SySTEmS

04 Ron Burnett

nthropology & Design

07 Sarah Wilson

Designing the Youth Vote

II SuSTAINAbIlITy

10 Ezio Manzini

esilient ystems and ustainable Qualities

15 Louise St. PierrE & MARI NURMINEN

Patterning Dialogues: ow tructured teration upports Change

III CO-CREATION

20 Liz Sanders

ew paces, Places and aterials or Co-Designing ustainable Futures

24 Beayue Louie

Co-creating paces: e ag Project

IV INTERACTIVITy

28 Celeste Martin

Eat St. Case tudy: Designing nteractive Cookbooks

32 Je an Chis holm

Bulletin: n nteractive Project

36 Andreas Eiken & KIERAN Wallae

ustainer: e-imagining Food Packaging

V SOCIAbIlITy

40 Maria Lantin

oining esearch, rt & Design

41 Jonathan Aitk en

ealth Design ( interview)

44 Kate Armstron

Disruptive echnologies n Business & Design Culture ( interview )

46 Contriutors & Aknoledments


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ANThROpOlOgy&SySTEmS

ANThROpOlOgy & DESIgNb RON buRNETT

An increasingly common approach to graphic design research involves the application of user-centred

design ( UCD ) methods. Te focus of a UCD methodology is to understand and accommodate the needs

of users and audience members as a means for improving the designed artifact. [ 1 ]

Design practice is centred on audience( s ). t matters little whether the

audience is hypothetical, real or imagined, there is always someone

or whom designs are created. is is oten used as the undamental

distinction between design and art practices. e practice o creating

art on the other hand, is seen as personal and evolving out o processes

that dont have an overt goal in mind. Yet, there are audiences or art,perhaps best exemplied by the act that every major city in the world

has an identiable museum. nd, do artists try and understand their

audiences and cater to their needs? Lets leave that question open or

the time being.

e challenge o course is how do we understand audience, client and

user? r, in the digital design world, the agent, interactor or par-

ticipant? nother way o approaching audience is to create one, just

as pple did with the iPad and the iPod. otice that irrespective o

historical circumstances, projections or perceived needs, the term

audience remains abstract. is is because it is virtually impossible to

draw a straight line between or example, creating a logo and anticipat-

ing the response o groups o people to it or, developing a product

and knowing how clients or users will react to it. is is why designers

oten develop many alternative strategies to their designs and also work

iteratively on various prototypes; all with the goal o creating something

that will be closer to the perceived needs o the user.

n anthropology, eorts to understand both contemporary cultures and

ancient ones are circumscribed by the challenges o observation, analy-

sis and eldwork. Pr ior to the revolution in anthropological thought pro-

voked by eorge arcus and ichael Fischer [ 4 ] in the 1980s, there was

endless debate among anthropologists about the relationship between

observation and subjectivity. Put another way, to what extent does your

own cultural, class and ethnic background inuence what you see and

what you observe? t is clear that your own personal history, desires and

orientation will have a big impact on the conclusions that you draw

rom the observations you make. [ 5 ] e challenge thereore is to try


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understandin eretions. Our culture, class and ethnic background

make our research subjective, rather than objective. Designers must be aware o the

cultural lens they wear, and how it can impact their observations.

and articulate what you know and examine how that may inuence your

assumptions about other people. t means that eldwork is essential

only i you bring to it a sel-reexive awareness o the contingent nature

o the experiences you may have with complete strangers.

Designers are well aware o these obstacles and have developed many

dierent strategies to deal with them. ne o the most important

is testing designs with users and trying to learn about utility, reaction

and aesthetic response. But, how ar does the process o learning aboutresponse go? o what extent are designers able to test their assumptions

about their audiences? ese issues are even more complex i as is oten

the case, designers are now crossing the boundaries into the ways in

which people organize their lives ( design thinking, design process ), and

the many ways in which design thinking is applied to businesses and

to innovation.

Proessional design is now operating within an expanded and increasingly

complex eld. Some design proessionals take solving complex social

issues as their domain, oten but not always working in close collabora-

tion with specialists in public services rom healthcare to those working

with disadvantaged amilies to policing. Other designers and their ways

o working are welcomed into business schools to teach the next gener-ation o managers and leaders. Concepts and language that used to be

associated with designers now enter other specialist areas: policymakers

are told that public services should be more user-centered ( Parker and

Heapy 2006 ); businesses engage with customers by oering new meanings

or things ( Verganti 2009 ); the US Army is considering the role o design in

warare ( School o Advanced Military Studies n.d. ). Proessional design, in

particular design as practiced within the studio-based tradit ion o many

art schools, is taking a new place on the world stage.[ 3 ]

o much o the knowledge that we share in any given society is tacit. o

many o the assumptions we make about ourselves and about others are

unconscious. t is easy to say that designers should uncover their cultur-

al bias. [ 6 ] But, which methods are best suited to the task? anet urray

suggests bringing multiple stakeholders into the discussion o the design

process and elicit their dierent perspectives and needs. [ 3 ]

ere precisely is one o the key intersections o design and anthropology

both as disciplines and as practices. thnographers have always tried to

elicit responses rom their subjects. t became clear to many anthro-

pologists in the 1980s that the context, circumstances and pressure or

response oten overwhelmed not only the truth, but the capacity o

individuals to actually surace their insights and concerns. is was in

part the reason that arcus and Fischer began to talk about language

and representation. o say that a product is comortable or useul is to

use a particular language o description or analysis that may not reect

deeper or more complex concerns.

any products come and go in the marketplace and most are unsuc-

cessul. We are surrounded by an innite number o media, logos and

brands. ost are not successul. Focus groups, test audiences and sur-

veys are in constant use. Facebook gathers data on users, as does oogle.

e data gathering is now so large that designers are being asked to

develop visualizations o the inormation. ll o this activity is centred

on better understanding human behaviour. ll o it is intended to bring

some degree o coherence to the struggle to match human desires and

proclivities with images or products or artiacts. When design thinking

emerged more than a decade ago, it oered a response to the ebbs

and ows o a global, mediatized economy o signs and artiacts ; in this

context, proessional designers play increasingly important roles, lessas makers o orms and more as cultural intermediaries ( ulier 2008 ) or

as the glue in multidisciplinary teams ( elley and Van Patter 2005 ).

ey are interpreters o changes in culture who then create new kinds o

cultural orm. [ 3 ]

nthropologists have played the role o cultural intermediaries ever

since the discipline gained respectability in the 1920s. t was in the

1960s and 1970s that anthropologists began to seriously question not

only their practices in the eld, but also their assumptions about culture.

n some important respects the term culture is both too diuse and too

broad to mean much.

DESIgNERS plAy INCREASINgly

ImpORTANT ROlES, lESS ASmAKERS OF FORmS AND mORE AS

CulTuRAl INTERmEDIARIES.


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naiatin Assumtions. Designers need to recognize their own

assumptions and those o the audience to bring a sel-reexive awareness

to the design process.

6

ten, we read backwards rom human activities into cultural meanings

in order to explain behaviour. nd, we try to examine the symbolic

ramework behind those meanings. But, as much as cultures are systems,

the way people behave, act and respond to culture cannot be reduced

to their behaviour to the ways in which they act and respond to the

cultural and social demands o the day.

ere isnt space in this article to look at the powerul inuence o

behavioural thinking on design and designers. ore oten than not,what people do need not be tightly connected to what they say and

what they say may have little connection to what they do. imilarly,

designers tend to read their artiacts, as expressions o intention when

what they should be looking at are the dierences between their inten-

tions and what they have produced. ere are no perect points o sym-

metry here just as there are no simple strategies available to understand

human motivation and human choice. o amount o data collection

will narrow the complexity o human subjects, their motivations and

their conicted understanding o the cultures they inhabit.

began this short piece with a tease. Do artists try and understand

their audiences and cater to their needs? r do artists simply act on

their desires and create artiacts without reerence to the market or the

viewer? s this the dividing line between artists and designers? think

not. otwithstanding the ambiguities o the term audience, everyone

involved in creative practices is speaking to an other, to someone else

and they are hoping to be understood and appreciated. While design

is oten seen as more utilitarian, what could be more practical than

applying creative insights into the creation o objects that are ultimately

intended or some sort o consumption?

ere is a much more important reason to bring up this alse dichotomybetween the practical and the artistic. Designers, like anthropologists,

cannot operate under the illusion that they understand their audiences

any better than artists, who oten dont know whether they will have

an audience at all. t does not matter how many times designers create

and generate alternative strategies and scenarios or hypothetical users .

e connections between artiacts, subjects and creative practices are

thankully indirect and non-linear i not asymmetrical. e challenge

or designers is to accept, i not celebrate, complexity ( Figure 2 ). s

oger eesing, one o the great anthropologists o the 20th century said,

Feedback mechanisms in cultural systems may thus operate both neg-

atively ( toward sel-correction and equilibrium ) and positively ( toward

disequilibrium and directional change ). [ 2 ]

REFERENCES


[ 1 ] Fraher, . and artinson, B. Process and Pedagogy in Undergraduate raphic

Design ducation. Te Design Journal, 14, 4 ( 2011 ). 390412. [ 2 ] eesing, . eories o

Culture.Annual Review o Anthropology,3 ( 1974 ). 76. [ 3 ] imbell, L. ethinking Design

inking: Part . Design and Culture, 3, 3 ( 2011 ). 286287. [ ] arcus, . and Fischer, .

Writing Culture: Te Poetics and Politics o Ethnography. University o Caliornia Press,Los ngeles, 1986. eir work and the work o many others changed anthropology as a

discipline. am thinking o the work o dmund Carpenter, ames Cliord, ean Coma-

ro, Vincent Crapazano, ichel De Certeau, ohannes Fabian, Cliord eertz, eorge

arcus and ichael Fischer, Paul abinow and Ben-mi charstein. ee dmund

Carpenter, Tey Became What Tey Beheld ( ew York: D utton, 1970 ); ames C liord

( 1988 ); ean Co maro, Body o Power, Spirit o Resistance: Te Culture and History o a

South Arican People ( Chicago: University o Chicago Press, 1985 ); Vincent Crapazano,

uhami: Portrait o a Moroccan ( Chicago: University o Chicago Press, 1980 ); ichel

De Certeau, Te Practice o Everyday Lie ( Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press,

1984 ); ohannes Fabian, ime and the Other: How Anthropology Makes its Object ( ew

York: Columbia University Press, 1983 ); Cliord eertz, Te Interpretation o Cultures

( ew York: Basic Books, 1973 ); eorge arcus and ichael Fischer, Anthropology

as Cultural Critique: An Experimental Moment in the Human Sciences ( Chicago:

University o Chicago Press, 1986 ); Paul abinow, Reections on Fieldwork in Morocco

( Berkeley: University o Caliornia Press, 1977 ); and Ben-mi charstein, Te Dilemma

o Context ( ew York: ew York University Press, 1989 ). [ 5 ] n 1992, arcus gave the

Provosts lecture at ice University where he worked. e reected on the tumultuous

changes in anthropological thought. ere is an extract rom that speech. e core

o this crisis had to do with both language and authority in the conduct o thosedisciplines that produce current knowledge about society and culture. First, there

was the bedrock sense that the concepts developed in various disciplines to describe,

assimilate and domesticate reality were no longer adequate. e language o culture,

class, sets o binary distinctions such as modern vs. traditional, individual vs. society

etc. while these might have been critiqued piecemeal at dierent times in the past

in various disciplines now seemed en masse to no longer capture the magnitude or

quality o changes occurring in the contemporary world. ere was a sense, dierently

expressed in dierent disciplines, o the need or a major overhaul o ways o thinking

and writing, and ultimately o questions asked. is was ar rom a cosmetic or partial

sel-critique and it has led to a variety o productive and not so productive debates

about dierent models o work and dierent objects o study in elds ranging rom

economics, to history, law, architecture, art, and philosophy. [ 6 ] s anet urray has

done in her recent book, Inventing the Medium: Principles o Interaction Design as a

Cultural Practice, Press, Cambridge. 2012.


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ccording to omas Darwin, [ o ]ur capabilities are tested by the act that many ( i not most ) o

the situations we encounter as communities present us with wicked problems. e most salient

eature o wicked problems rom the standpoint o design is that they dey our typical approach

to problem solving. [ 3 ] e issue o increasing youth voter participation can denitely be con-

sidered a wicked problem. ere are many acets within the issue that needed to be addressed.

ttitudes and ideas around voting have changed with every generation; a eeling o civic duty

motivates previous generations, while political issues and ease o voting motivate todays youth

voters. ur group was given one major constraint: because lections BC is a non-partisan agency

we were not able to use social, political or environmental issues as a platorm or our campaign.

CROSS DISCIplINARy COllAbORATION

e oundation o mily Carr s Design or Democracy course is based on collaboration. e class

consists o students majoring in interaction design, communication design, industrial design, andcritical studies. n her text ZB: Design and the Fedx project, aggie Breslin speaks to the val-

ue o collaboration in design: Design research and the idea o connecting with users has become

an acknowledged, i underused, value. [ ] ow the key to great products is widely thought to be

collaboration among a diverse set o disciplines, which can include visual designers, programmers,

industrial designers, architects, engineers, anthropologists, researchers, and sometimes even users

themselves. [ 2 ] Collaboration between disciplines is a valuable part o the design process . e

Design or Democracy course has been a valuable experience or students as it demonstrates the

benets o industry collaboration.

WhERE DO WE START?

s a class, we reected the age range we were targeting, and we consisted o both voters and

non-voters. n essence, we were designing or ourselves. s a class, we rst broke the problem

down by media platorms: print, web, social media, video, and guerrilla marketing. We discussedour individual strengths within each o the areas and divided ourselves into groups, with each

group being assigned one o the platorms based on their experience. Youth voter participation is

a large issue; we had broken up into groups based on our strengths, but now what?

.P. anjan describes the creative process by saying that [ t ]he process o design is the path o

human intentions being pursued by the designer or user o design through the stages o explo-

ration, composition, judgment and action. e stages are iterative and the designer revisits the

previous stages to develop conviction and build support or the next move orward. [ 4 ] s a

class, we struggled with how to begin tackling such a large problem. ost people who take part in

creative processes know that addressing such a large issue is never linear. roughout this process,

we jumped back and orth to previous and later solutions.

AbSTRACT

e ocus o this paper is the process o

creating an advertisement campaign to

increase youth voter participation in the

upcoming 2013 ritish olumbia provincial

election under the leadership o Proessor

hris ethrington. e voter campaign is

created through a partnership betweenlections and mily arr University o

rt + esign. rough collaboration with

students in dierent design disciplines we

broke the problem down into 4 dierent

avenues to successully address the physical

and psychological obstacles to youth

participation. In this paper we consider

youth voters as those between the ages o

1826. e goal o this project is to create

a multi-platorm design and social media

advertisement campaign.

KEyWORDS

election, ritish olumbia, democracy,

design, advertisement, campaign, youth

DESIgNINg ThE yOuTh VOTE

b SARAh WIlSON


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FIGURE 1. Kieran Wallace and Megan Whites VoteBCbranding strategy aims to

motivate youth voters by addressing common attitudes and deterrents.

8

n important part o the process was a meeting with representatives

rom lections BC or a project brieng. We hoped the meeting would

help us to identiy a clear direction or starting our process. n the

meeting, lections BC expressed three main issues that they needed

to address with the campaign: registration ( getting voters to register

beore going to the polls ), the exibility o voting ( explaining the conve-

nience and ease o voting ), and eligibility ( inorming recent immigrants

and youth o their right to vote. )

ter our meeting with lections BC, we started collectively brainstorm-

ing the three issues that were mentioned in the meeting. We discussed

the type o approach we elt would be most eective at reaching those

who ell within the age range o 1825. We did not want to build on theattitude you dont vote and you should, which we elt would be too

negative. We elt the attitude o you want to vote? Let us show you

how would be more eective with the youth demographic. We initially

considered the use o humor in order to break rom the serious nature

o materials that had been eective with older generations. rough

researching other youth campaigns, we discovered that our age group o

1825 does not respond well to the use o guilt to motivate action. e

best way to reach youth is though humor.

CO-CREATION

n his article, Design and Democracy, ui Bonsiepe speaks to they way

design should interpret the need o social groups. [ 1 ] n the last ew

years, there has been a movement within the design community toconnect the designer with the user though co-creation. We created a

co-creation kit to gain insight into youth attitudes towards the voting

process. e user created a collage o the obstacles in his everyday lie

that might impede him rom taking part in the voting process. e

co-creation session yielded valuable insight into the attitudes toward

and the importance o voting within the everyday lie o youth. We live

in a ast paced world heavily reliant on technology; 1825 year olds do

almost everything online. rough the co-creation kit, we learned that

convenience plays a huge role in whether or not youth voters make it

out to the polls. Consequently, we narrowed the project scope to ocus

only on location and ease o voting.

ITERATIONS

During our meeting with lections BC, they brought to our attention an

interesting piece o inormation: in BC, when voting in a provincial elec-

tion, voters are able to cast their vote at any polling station in BC. is

was a jumping o point or our development o the idea o ocusing on

the convenience o location. umerous iterations were created around

the concept o location. ne iteration was a bus poster mapping out

the 99 bus route in correlation with the locations o polling stations

( shown by green dots ). deally, on election day someone riding thebus would be able to check the polling station closest to the stop they

need to get o at. nother iteration ocused on placing an image o a

voting booth in public spaces around Vancouver with the tag line its

that easy. e strategy was to place the booths in busy public spaces to

communicate the idea that polling stations are closer than you think.

bRANDINg

ter viewing all the iterations, we came together as a class and decided

that our scope was too limited; the idea o location did not successul-

ly address all o the issues put orth by lections BC. e main question

we wanted to address was why vote? We collectively went back to

brainstorming. We rst had to gure out the questions we needed to

ask to get the answers we wanted. We identied common attitudesabout voting held by non-voters. e attitudes are as ollows:

Voting doesnt aect me; have no eect

Voting takes too much time; m busy

dont know enough about the political parties

dont know i am eligible; how would register?

o be successul in motivating youth to vote, we needed to address

these our attitudes. ne student came up with the slogan VoteBC

( with BC considered an abbreviation o because as well as British

Columbia ). We used the slogan VoteBC and narrowed down the our

attitudes into 23 word subsections ( see Figure 1 ):

Vote Because ts mportant

Vote Because ts asy

Vote Because You now tu

Vote Because You Can

AS A ClASS , WE REFlECTED ThE

AgE RANgE WE WERE TARgET INg,

AND WE CONSISTED OF bOTh

VOTERS AND NO N-VOTERS.

IN ESSENCE , WE WERE DES IgN INg

FOR OuRSE lVES.



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FIGURE 2. Sarah Wilsons awareness campaign uses the lost/ound poster

typology to show the consequences o not exercising the right to vote. Tese

posters are unbranded and emulate personal yers in the city landscape to inspire

curiosity and urther viewer engagement.

FINDINgS

s a class , we divided into our avenues to create mock ups o mate-

rials that t into the categories o ts mportant, ts asy, You

now tu and You Can. Figure 2 shows a nal mock up o a poster

campaign based on lost and ound yers posted around Vancouver and

addressing the category ts mportant. e poster is meant to slip

into the everyday lie o commuters on the streets o Vancouver, while

remaining non-intrusive. We wanted the poster to side step the eeling

o being sold a product or service, and encourage a eeling o awareness

and discovery. e posters are anonymous and unbranded; we want

the viewer to question who is behind the posters and take down the

website link to nd more inormation. dvertisements are most eec-tive when the viewer eels that they had some part in the discovery o

more inormation.

e poster states: the ollowing people have lost the right to vote, then

proceeds to list a number o occupations and amily relations, such as

brother or sister. ter reading the list, the viewer discovers that the list

covers absolutely everyone. e main goal o the poster is to make the

viewer contemplate the consequences o the loss o the right to vote.

e development o the youth voter participation campaign is still

ongoing. s a class, we consolidated all o our rendered mock ups into

a design tool kit to submit to lections BC. ur ndings will be passed

on to axi, a Vancouver advertising rm in charge o the lections BC

account. e course, Design or Democracy, was an experiment and

a view into real industry practices. is course really challenged us as

a group to implement the creative process that we have been taught

so extensively at mily Carr. s a class , we experienced working with

people with diering opinions and collaborating with dierent design

majors. ur dierences led us to create a large array o iterations and

ideas that collectively ormed a number o strong creative directions.

ACKNOWlEDgmENTS

ank you to lections BC or reaching out to mily Carr University o rt+ Design and giving us the opportunity to work with them on this project.

ank you to Chris ethrington or encouraging our class through the

creative process.

REFERENCES

[ 1 ] Bonsiepe, . Design and Democracy. Design Issues, 22 ( 2 ). 2734. [ 2 ] Breslin, .

ZB: Design and the Fedx project. Design Issues, 24 ( 1 ). 4154. [ 3 ] Darwin, . From

the town hall into the studio: Design, democracy, and community resilience. Te

Journal o Design Strategies , 4 ( 1 ). 2933. [ ] anjan, .P. and-head-heart: ethics in

design. Te rellis, 2 ( 5 ).


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RESIlIENT SySTEmS

& SuSTAINAblE QuAlITIESSmAll, lOCAl, OpEN, CONNECTED: AN EmERgINg SCENARIO

b EZIO mANZINI


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RESIlIENT SySTEmS

But how do we design a resilient socio-technical system? Lets look to

natural systems; their tolerance o breakdowns and their adaptation

capacity ( that is, their capability o sustaining over time ) may give us

direction. [ 6, 13 ] s a matter o act, it is easy to observe that lasting nat-

ural systems result rom a multiplicity o largely independent systems

and are based on a variety o living strategies. n short, they are diverse

and complex. ese diversities and complexities are the basis o their

resilience that is, o their adaptability to changes in their contexts.

iven that, it should be reasonable to conceive and realize something

similar or man-made systems. e socio-technical systems that, inte-

grated with natural ones, constitute our living environment should be

made o a variety o interconnected, but ( largely ) sel-standing elements.

is mesh o distributed systems, similarly to natural ones, would be

intrinsically capable o adapting and lasting through time because even

i one o its components breaks, given its multiplicity and diversity, the

whole system doesnt collapse. [ 9 ]

ow ar are we rom this complex, and thereore resilient, man-made

environment? n my view, this question has no single and simple answer;

contemporary society demonstrates a contradictory dynamism thatorces us, on this point as on many others, to describe what is happen-

ing as a double trend: the mainstream, unsustainable trend, enduring

rom the last century, and a new, emerging trend. n our case, we have

the clash between the big dinosaurs o the XX Century, and the new,

interconnected small creatures o the emerging new world.

Considering this metaphor, we can see that the mainstream processes

o modernization, held over rom the last century, are moving in the

wrong direction, trying to kill ( what remains o ) traditional agricul-

ture and cratsmanship and pushing toward global agro-industrial and

industrial production. n other words, we can see powerul interests

at work promoting large plants, hierarchical system architectures,

and process simplications and standardizations. ese interests arethereore, consciously or not, using their power to reduce biodiversity

and socio-technical diversity and, consequently, to increase the overall

ragility o the system.

Luckily, at the same time, something else happened and is happening;

new generations o distributed systems emerged and are emerging. is

emergence is driven by dierent actors: the power o technological net-

works and a growing number o enthusiasts ( who, wherever these dis-

tributed systems become possible, tend to adopt them enthusiastically ).

[ 3 ] is complex trend towards distributed systems can be described as

having three main waves o innovation.

e rst evolution occurred when the architecture o inormation

systems shited rom the old hierarchical systems to new, networked

structures ( distributed intelligence ). is change started with the diu-

sion o distributed intelligence and the radical changes in our systems o

organization it made viable. e result is that rigid, vertical organization-

al models that were dominant in industrialized society are melting into

uid and horizontal ones as new distributed orms o knowledge and de-

cision-making become more common. [ 23,1 ] e success o this innova-

tion is such that, today, networked architecture is considered an obvious

quasi-natural state. But o course this is not the case; beore laptops

and the nternet, inormation systems, concurrent with the mainstream

model at the time, were based on large mainrame computers and their

consequently hierarchical ( and thereore ragile ) architecture.

e second wave o innovation has altered energy systems. ese shits

are driven by a cluster o dynamic elds, including those producing

small, highly efcient power plants, renewable energy plants and smart

grids that intelligently connect them ( distributed power generation ).

oday, these new but already viable solutions are challenging the ( still )

mainstream systems, which are based on large power plants and hierar-

chical ( stupid and ragile ) grids. Distributed power generation is one othe main components o the ongoing and powerul green technology

trend. t is reasonable to think that energy systems will ollow the tra-

jectory o inormation systems, moving increasingly toward distributed

system architectures. [ 18 ]

e third wave o innovations toward distributed systems challenges

mainstream globalised production and consumption systems. ese

production systems include initiatives ranging rom the rediscovery o

traditional cratsmanship and local arming, to the search or hyper-light

and lean production, to the hypothesis o networked production sys-

tems based on the potentialities o new orms o micro-actories such as

ab labs ( small-scale workshop[ s ] oering personal digital abrication )

[ 5 ] and by the makers movement ( [ a ] subculture representing a tech-nology-based extension o DY culture. ) [ 10 ] While this trend is still in its

initial phase, the whole production and use system must be re-shaped

ollowing a new localization principle; products must be designed so that

their production can be as near as possible to where they will be used

( point o use production ). is principle can be implemented by mixing

traditional technology, cratsmanship and high-tech solutions.

ese three waves o innovation have one actor in common: they reer

to a globalisation aimed at using local resources and reducing distances

between both production and use, and producers and users. range o

very dierent motivations has driven this result.

For a long time, we have known that, whatever our uture society will be, it will be a risk society [ 2 ] a

society likely to be aected by dierent kinds o traumatic events ( rom natural catastrophes, to war and

terrorism, to fnancial and economic crisis ). We have known or a long time, thereore, that the precondition

or every possible sustainable society is its resilience its capability o overcoming the risks it will be exposed

to and the stresses and breakdowns that, inevitably, will take place. [ 24 ] oday, the implications o this risk

society are no longer only projected. ey are becoming evident worldwide in our daily lie experiences; the

notion o resilience is moving into the vocabulary o more and more people. It would be wise to accelerate its

entrance into policy makers agendas and into the design communitys aims and practical actions.


14/52

SRENGHENING SYSEMS. Focusing on local resources and reducing

distances between production and use can result in stronger systems and more

resilient communities.

2

SuSTAINAbIlITy

ne o them is the search or efciency in dealing with inormation,

energy and production in the quest or lean production, with products

specically created not only or whoever needs them when he or she

needs, but also in the same place ( or at least, as near as possible to the

place ) where it will be used or consumed. e second strong motivation

is the desire to use local and minimal resources. third motivation is an

interest in quality o proximity : a perceived quality deriving rom the

direct experience o the place where a product comes rom and o the

people who produce it, as with the creation o new local ood networksin which citizens and armers are linked at the local level. [ 19, 20 ] Last

but not least, there is a growing demand or sel-sufciency ( in ood,

energy, water, and products ), in order to promote community resilience

to external threats and problems. [ 22, 7 ]

SuSTAINAblE QuAlITIES

Distributed systems are the result o complex, innovative processes

in which technological components cannot be separated rom social

ones. While centralised systems can be developed without considering

the social abric in which they will be implemented, this imposition is

impossible when the technological solution in question is a distributed

one; the more a system is networked, the larger is its interace with

society and the more the social side o innovation has to be considered.

n other words, with regards to our discussion here, we can say that no

resilient systems can exist without social innovation.

Considered all that, the good news is that social innovation is spreading

worldwide. [ 16, 17 ] nd that the emerging ways o living and producing

these innovations generate are largely convergent with the trend toward

resilient distributed systems.

n act, in its complexity and with all its contradictions, contemporary

society is developing a growing number o interesting cases in which

people have invented new and more sustainable ways o living. [ 15 ] We

are increasingly seeing, or example, groups o amilies sharing services

to reduce economic and environmental costs, while also improving their

neighborhoods; new orms o social interchange and mutual help, such

as time banks; systems o mobility that present alternatives to individ-

ual ownership and use o cars, such as car sharing, car pooling, and the

rediscovery o bicycles; and the development o productive activities

based on local resources and skills that are linked to wider global net-

works ( e.g., certain products typical o a specic place, or the air and

direct trade networks between producers and consumers establishedaround the globe ). Further examples touch on every area o daily lie and are

emerging all over the world. ( o read more about them, see: D. ) [ 4 ]

Being localized, small, connected and open ( to others ideas, culture and

physical presence ), these promising social innovations actively contrib-

ute to the realization o resilient, distributed socio-technical systems.

nd vice versa: distributed socio-technical systems may become the

enabling inrastructure o a society where these kinds o social innova-

tions can ourish and spread. [ 12 ]

Behind each o these promising social innovations there are groups

o people who have generated them groups o creative and entre-

preneurial people who invented, enhanced and managed innovativesolutions, recombining what already exists without waiting or larger

changes in the system ( in the economy, in institutions, in large inra-

structures ). Creative communities that challenge traditional ways o

doing things introduce behaviours that, oten, present unprecedented

capacities or bringing individual interests into line with social and

environmental ones ( or example, they oten incidentally reinorce the

social abric ). n doing so, these communities generate ideas about a

more sustainable wellbeing a wellbeing where greater value is given to

a new set o qualities. [ 8 ]

People involved in these innovations compensate or their reduction

in consumption o goods and space with an increase in something else

that they consider more valuable. is something else is qualities o

their physical and social environments that, or them, substitute or

the unsustainable qualities that have been predominant in industrial

societies until now. e most evident newly valued qualities are the rec-

ognition o complexity as a value; the search or dense, deep, and lasting

relationships; the redenition o work and collaboration as central

human expressions; and the human scale o the socio-technical systems

and its positive role in the denition o a democratic, human-centered,

sustainable society. e qualities that these rameworks generate

radically diverge rom the ones that mainstream models have spread

worldwide in the last century. For this reason, we can reer to them, as

a whole, as disruptive qualities qualities that clash with mainstream

ways o thinking and doing.

n this battle between cultural and behavioral models, several dierent

social actors play a role. mong them designers ( who are, or should

be, the most inuential players when the topic at stake is daily lie expe-

rience and its quality ) are doing their part, on both the sides o the

ront. n the past, they did a lot to promote the past centurys unsus-

tainable qualities. oday, many o them are continuing in this same old

direction. But others are starting to play a dierent role ( and a poten-

tially very important one ) in promoting the new, sustainable, disruptive

qualities. is battle is still at its beginning. t is, and will be, a dramatic,

ascinating conrontation.


15/52

DISTRIbuTED SySTEmS

ARE ThE RESulT OF COmplEX,

INNOVATIVE pROCESSES IN WhICh

TEChNOlOgICAl COmpONENTS

CANNOT bE SEpARATED FROm

SOCIAl ONES.


16/52

SuSTAINAbIlITy

EmERgINg SCENARIO

esilient systems and sustainable qualities are two elements o an

emerging scenario characterized by our adjectives that appeared sev-

eral times in the previous paragraphs: small, local, open, and connected.

Considered together, these our adjectives outline the emerging scenar-

ios main characteristics. ndividually, they are comprehensible ( since

everybody can easily understand their meanings and implications )

but, considered as a whole, they generate a totally new vision o how a

sustainable, networked society could maniest. n my view, this LC

cenario ( where LC stands or small, local, open, connected ) could

become a powerul social attractor, capable o triggering, catalysingand orienting a variety o social actors, innovative processes and design

activities. [ 11, 12 ]

ore precisely, the LC cenario is neither a dream nor a orecast

o what the uture will be. t is a motivating vision o what the uture

could be i a large number o social actors move in the direction that it

indicates as viable and desirable. [ 14 ] o be implemented, thereore, the

LC cenario requires a large number o converging design programs

to ocalize and develop an array o themes that, as a whole, outline a

possible ( and in my view necessary ) design research program. ese

themes include collaborative solutions ( systems o products, services,

and communication capable o empowering people and communities

to collaboratively solve everyday lie problems ); updated cratsman-

ship ( the development o traditional and high-tech cratsmanship

within the ramework o the network society ); territorial ecology ( the

sustainable valorisation o the physical and social resources o a given

place or region ); and sustainable qualities ( the widening and deepening

o emerging qualities that are driving peoples choices toward more

sustainable ways o being and doing ).

o conclude, to make the LC cenario meaning, motivations and

implications clearer ( and to underline its novelty ), lets take a step

back in time. ome orty years ago, .F. chumacher wrote his amous

book Small is Beautiul. [ 21 ] t the time, he made a choice in avour o

the small and local on cultural and ethical grounds as a reaction to the

prevailing trend toward the large scale, standardization and loss o sense

o place he saw around him. oday, we ollow chumacher or these and

other new and compelling reasons. But at the same time, we have to

recognize that in these our decades things have deeply changed. What

at chumachers time was only a utopia is today a concrete possibility.

Forty years ago, the small that chumacher reerred to was really small.

n act, it was so small it had little chance o inuencing things on a large

scale. e same can be said or his concept o local it was truly local

as it was ( quasi ) isolated rom other locals. n contrast, at the time, tech-

nological and economic ideas were largely driven by ideas o economy

o scale and the bigger the better. Prevailing trends discounted any

possibility that the small could be beautiul i economy and eective-

ness were taken into account.

oday, as we have seen, the context is extremely dierent. oday, the

small can be inuential on a large scale, as it acts as a node in a global

network. e local can break its isolation by being open to the global

ow o people, ideas and inormation. n other words, we can say that

today, in the networked society, the small is no longer small and the

local is no longer local. e small and the local, when they are open

and connected, can thereore become a design guideline or creating

resilient systems and sustainable qualities, and a positive eedback loop

between these systems.

REFERENCES

[ 1 ] Bauwens, . Foundation or P2P lternatives, Peer to Peer and Human Evolution,

2007. etrieved rom P2P Foudation: p2poundation.net. [ 2 ] Beck, U. Risk Society.

Polity Press, Cambridge, 1992. [ 3 ] Biggs, C., yan, C. and Wisman, . Distributed

Systems: A design model or sustainable and resilient inrastructure. VL Distributedystems Brieng Paper 3, University o elbourne, elbourne, 2010. [ ] D, 2012.

etrieved rom DESIS Network: http://www.desis-network.org. [ 5 ] Fab Lab, Wikipedia:

Te Free Encyclopaedia. etrieved rom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_lab [ 6 ] Fik-

sel, . Designing esilient, ustainable ystems. Environmental Science and echnology,

37. 53309. [ 7 ] opkins, . Te ransition Handbook: rom oil dependency to local resil-

ience. reenBooks, U, 2009. [ 8 ] gou, F. and anzini, . Collaborative Services Social

Innovation and design or sustainability. Polidesign, ilano, 2008. [ 9 ] ohansson, .,

ish, P. and irata. . Distributed economies. new engine or innovation. in the

Journal o Cleaner Production, lsevier, 2005. [ 10 ] aker Culture, Wikipedia: Te Free

Encyclopaedia. etrieved rom: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/aker_subculture [ 11 ]

anzini, . mall, Local, pen and Connected: Design esearch opics in the ge o

etworks and ustainability.Journal o Design Strategies, 4 ( 1 ). [ 12 ] anzini, . LC,

e merging cenario o mall, Local, pen and Connected. in arding, . ed. Grow

Small Tink Beautiul, Floris Books , dinburgh , 2011. [ 13 ] anzini, . rror-Friendli-

ness: ow to Design esilient ocio-echnical ystems. in oobun, . ed. Scarcity:

Architecture in an Age o Depleting Resources Architectural Design, 2012. [ 1 ] anzini,

., gou, F. and eroni, . Design orienting scenarios: enerating new shared visions

o sustainable product service systems. UP in Design or Sustainability, 2009. [ 15 ]eroni . Creative communities: People inventing sustainable ways o living. Polide-

sign, ilano, 2007. [ 16 ] ulgan, . Social innovation: What it is, why it matters, how it

can be accelerated. Basingsotke Press, London, 2006. [ 17 ] urray, ., Caulier-rice, .

and ulgan, . Te Open Book o Social Innovation. nnovating Public ervices,

London, 2010. [ 18 ] Pehnt et al. Micro Cogeneration: owards Decentralized Energy Sys-

tems. pringer, Berlin, 2006. [ 19 ] Petrini, C. Slow Food Nation. Why our ood should be

good, clean and air. izzoli, ilano, 2007. [ 20 ] Petrini, C. erra Madre. Forging a new

network o sustainable ood comunities . Chelsea reen Publishing Company, London,

2010. [ 21 ] chumacher, .F. Small is Beautiul, Economics as i People Mattered. Blond

and Briggs, London, 1973. [ 22 ] ackara, . In the bubble: Designing in a complex world .

e Press, London, 2005. [ 23 ] von ippel, . Te Democratization o Innovation.

Press, Cambridge, 2004. [ 2 ] Walker, B., and alt, D. Resilience Tinking: Sustain-

ing ecosystems and people in a changing world. sland Press, Washington, 2006.


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pATTERNINg DIAlOguES

b lOuISE ST. pIERRE & mARI N uRmINEN

DESIgN RESEARChERS AT

pOWERTECh lAbS

arah Bailey

evan Dgostino

ames allam

Cla Lautrey

manda Leppi

ayeli antos

ADDITIONAl FACulTy

eco core studio :

lne Day Fraser and arah ay

FINANCIAl SuppORT

atural ciences and ngineering

esearch Council o Canada

good conversation can change everything. s this three-year partnership between Powertech

Labs and mily Carr University o rt + Design demonstrates, good conversation can seed insights

and change trajectories. n our case, iterative dialogue claried business strategy, identied new

markets, and deepened understanding about the technical and social systems surrounding the

use o energy in British Columbia. t also helped us realize how important it is to connect with

local communities when implementing sustainable change.

t the onset o the relationship, there were many unknowns. Powertech Labs, an engineering and

testing company or the energy industry, had no prior exposure to design. ndustrial designers at

mily Carr had little experience testing design methods or sustainability. Working together, we

developed a structured dialogue that allowed or experimentation, reection, and regular revision

to our approaches.

ere were three distinct phases over the three years. ach phase eatured design research con-

ducted during the summer term that provided a oundation or students who were working to

develop ideas and concepts in the sustainable design studio course that was scheduled to ollow

( eco ). e regular pacing o the phases allowed time or the learning on both sides to guide

the relationship ( Figure ).

hOW STRuCTuRED ITERATION SuppORTS ChANgE


18/52

phASE 1:

ClEANER TRANSpORTATION

SummER 2010

FAll SEmESTER 2010 FAll SEmESTER 2011 FAll SEmESTER 2012

SummER 2011

SpRINg 2011 SpRINg 2012

SummER 2012

phASE 2:

ClEAN AND SmART ENERgy

phASE 3:

ElECTRIC VEhIClES IN COmmuNITIES

6

SuSTAINAbIlITy

phASE 1: ClEANER TRANSpORTATION

e rst phase is best understood as typical design collaboration. ur

ocus was on the transition to cleaner transportation solutions, particu-

larly electric vehicles ( Vs ). Powertech Labs was interested in exploring

new market opportunities in V-related services, but as a company that

normally worked directly with other businesses, they were not amiliar

with researching and working with consumer-driven markets.

e partnership with mily Carr was Powertechs rst step towardsincluding design as a part o their innovation process. n the summer

o 2010, we placed two student design researchers inside Powertech

Labs. ey were given a ramed set o research questions and two very

specic tasks.

ey were to unction as design ambassadors to help Powertech Labs

understand what industrial design could oer them. o this end, the

design researchers used ormal and inormal methods to communicate

ideas and make their progress visible. ey posted design drawings and

presentation panels in common spaces, engaged the employees in casu-

al hallway conversations, invited these new colleagues to brainstorm

with them, and prepared ormal project presentations.

Parallel to this, they conducted preliminary design research to under-

stand the social and cultural barriers impacting the adoption o Vs.

ey used many methods in this research-intensive summer including

interviews, observations, scenario building, system analysis, inspiration

gathering, and prototyping. n addition to end user and secondary

research, they solicited input rom engineers at Powertech Labs about

current technical capabilities, inrastructure constraints, and challenges

related to charging Vs.

e ndings o the research team helped Powertech Labs understand

how end users perceived V-related innovation. everal emotional

and practical barriers to the shit rom conventional gasoline powered

vehicles were identied: the amount o time it took to charge a vehicle,

the limited travel distance with one charge, and the generalized ear o

new technology. Figure 2 shows a probable mental model or how an

V driver in Vancouver might plan a drive. is illustrates how dierent

it is rom planning a trip with a gasoline powered vehicle. cademic

research describes how the disruptive nature o change [ 1, 3, 6 ] can be

mediated by engaging the public end-users when developing new solu-

tions. Further, when discussing the standard barriers to the diusion

o innovation ( Figure 3 ), ogers suggests that one way to overcome

them is by aligning with the values, needs, and practices o our existing

social system. [ 5 ]

n addition to the social system, V charging solutions must integrate

with the existing physical systems, such as the electrical grid. Consid-ering how much Vs change the way we uel our vehicles as well as the

related business models, we learned how important it is to nd right

balance between system disruption and alignment with existing systems.

For example, we experimented with building on amiliar and well-ac-

cepted concepts by placing the chargers in parking lots and powering

them rom the electric grid. is did not divert us rom sustainability

related goals, as electricity is 90% hydroelectric in British Columbia. [ 2 ]

o initiate the second hal o phase 1, the research team handed o their

ndings to students in the eco studio. is new group o students

developed V charging concepts. 30 was a mobile app that

would help people coordinate the thirty minutes o charging time with

nearby service opportunities such as haircutting, a massage, or groceryshopping. cg was a scheme to set up charging stations

at rest stops across Canada that would allow amilies to enjoy unique

aspects o a region while waiting or their car to charge. ther students

ocused on social and cultural norms. Q p challenged

the orth merican expectation or speed and efciency, and suggest-

ed that we might design situations dierently so that waiting might be

reramed as an enjoyable activity.

t the end o the 2010 all semester the students presented 12 dierent

ideas to Powertech Lab executives and initiated a wide-ranging dialogue.

is revealed new market opportunities and customer segments or

the company to pursue. t also acilitated a shit in thinking rom the

installation o charging stations as an engineering task, to designing

the user experience around charging. n many cases, this would have

been hailed as a successul completion to the project, but our collab-

oration continued through two more iterations. is is where greater

learning took place.

Fiure 1.Research and ecoANK development phases 2010-2012


19/52

ChARgE

STATION

SQuAmISh

TO uR IS T CE NT RE

WhISTlER VIllAgE

mINTER gARDENS

lANglEy COlOSSuS

bAKERVIEW ECOFARm

RIChmOND IKEA

hOmE ChARgINg publIC ChARgINg

~120Km~60Km

phASE 2: ClEAN AND SmART ENERgy

ncouraged by the new strategies developed or V charging in phase

1, Powertech Labs requested exploration about a dierent topic the ol-

lowing year: energy consumption in the home. t the time, Powertech

was doing a business analysis to see i they were going to enter the

energy management market at the consumer level, and mily Carr wasinterested in investigating how design could support energy reduction.

ost available data shows that energy consumption is steadily increas-

ing across orth merica . [ 7 ]

s with the previous phase, this was divided into two parts. n the sum-

mer o 2011, the design research team conducted probes and contextual

interviews to understand power usage in the home. ey learned about

the electric power system and related technologies rom Powertech

Labs engineers. e preliminary ndings were presented to a new group

o students in the all eco studio, and these students developed

proposals. g- was a power socket that would respond with earul

acial expressions i you were overloading it. fwas an online

game that coordinated a cooking competition potluck that included

criteria about the amount o power used during cooking. tudents also

looked at alternative energy sources to oset supply rom the grid, so

some projects harnessed solar energy to power small appliances, orcollected kinetic energy that is generated in domestic activity.

nce again, prototypes, models, videos and storyboards were brought

to Powertech Labs or discussion. is had unexpected results . rough

this conversation, Powertech gained enough understanding o behavi-

ours and values around energy management at the consumer level

to help them see clearly that this was not an attractive market. is

exemplies the value o exploratory questioning, ollowed by thought-

ul reection. ealizing what will not work is as important as gaining

insights into what will work.

Fiure 2. Getting drivers to re-think transportation lengths and routes was an

important initiative by Powerech. By placing electric vehicle charging stations in

strategic points in and around Vancouver, new attitudes towards route planning

and transportation can be created.


20/52

ChARgINg SuppORT lOCAl buSINESS

pOINTS CARD:

pending points

riving points

harging points

DOCKINg pOINT AND SIgNAgE INCluDINg:

Ino about program and how to join.

ap o local businesses and events.

Partners o the program.

Ino about Vs and charging stations.

8

SuSTAINAbIlITy

phASE 3: ElECTRIC VEhIClES IN COmmuNITIES

By 2012 the ground had shited. Powertech Labs now employed the

summer researchers as designers working alongside their rst in-house

designer. Design had become part o their business. e learning engen-

dered through the rst two phases, along with this new internal exper-

tise, helps us to establish new objectives: Powertech now wanted to

engage with communities to determine what V charging stations could

look and eel like in their neighborhoods, and to reveal engagement and

social innovation opportunities at the community and municipal level.

is shit to researching specic and locally grounded innovation

enables what zio anzini would call quality o proximity. [ 4 ] e

design proposals that resulted during the 2012 eco core studio pro-

vide examples o this. c T was a tour company

that mapped sustainable initiatives and companies around Vancouver.

Participating communities would implement V charging stations

combined with a tour hub that would supply access to local tours, Vs,

and inormation. e V c integrated a charger with a projector

that could display large images to create a point o reerence, inorma-

tion, and interaction at that location. is would oer an incentive or

cultural institutions to become early adopters o the V charging inra-

structure. xp c; Dv g was a program to incentivizeor drive change in communities. Using the Commercial Drive area o

Vancouver as a case study, the project proposed to create incentives or

V use by connecting V charging with opportunities to support local

businesses ( Figures 4 and 5 ).

e work done in phase three reafrmed the importance o designing

or local context, with local communities. ese projects built on the

knowledge gained in phase one, where it became clear that dealing

with the social side o the innovation was as important as dealing with

the technological side, and that sustainable design could not progress

without social innovation.

INNOVATORS lAggARDSEARly

ADOpTERS

EARly

mAJORITy

lATER

mAJORITy

eorey oore, Crossing the Chasm: arketing and elling Disruptive Products to ainstream Customers, 2002

FIGURE 3. Te innovation adoption curve shows that

attempting to convince a mass o people to adopt a new

idea is useless. It is the innovators and early adopters that

need to be persuaded rst.


21/52

EV CAR

COmmuNITy

mAppINg

WAyFINDINg

TO uC h SC RE EN

ICONS

ChARgE STATION

[ 1 ] Christensen, C. and aynor, . Te Innovators Solution. arvard Business chool

Press, Boston, 2003. [ 2 ] eneration ystem, 2013. etrieved anuary 26, 2013, rom

BC ydro: http://www.bchydro.com/energy_in_bc/our_system/generation.html. [ 3 ]

Leonard, D. Wellspring o knowledge: Building and sustaining the sources o innovation.

Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1998. [ ] anzini, . esilient ystems and

ustainable Qualities. Current, 4. 1013 [ 5 ] ogers, . Diusion o Innovations. e Free

Press, ew York, 1995. [ 6 ] Veryzer, . ey actors aecting customer evaluation o

discontinuous new products.Journal o Product Innovation Management , 15. 136150.

[ 7 ] Worldwide rends in nergy Use and fciency, 2008, 43. etrieved anuary 28,

2013, rom nternational nergy gency: http://hopi.iea.org:10000/search/search/C.

view=deault/results?q=usage+trends.

REFERENCES

SummARy ThOughTS

e essence o this collaboration is that multiple modes o conversation

over a period o time allowed or eective reection. Design research in

phase one illustrated the scope o the challenges in shiting to Vs. n

phase two, demonstration prototypes helped Powertech Labs visualize

and discuss the boundaries o their core business. ese conversations

and reections led to the phase three shit rom a single user to local

communities. is process resulted in actionable design solutions orPowertech Labs, and a deeper understanding o sustainable design.

e iterative approach to the project also allowed us to modiy our

collaborative strategy based on the companys state o readiness or

design and community engagement. n the early project stages, the

process was more structured, allowing Powertech Labs to become

comortable with a design approach to innovation. s the project

moved to the second year and Powertech Labs became more amiliar

with design, we used generative approaches to explore more reely.

n the third phase, Powertech Labs took more leadership in dening

a research ocus based in community engagement. e pacing and

reexive nature o the process allowed mily Carr to understand the

mindset and receptiveness that the partner company had towards

design and social innovation, and to adapt as those needs changed.

t illustrates how conversations between companies, designers, and

communities that include critical reection and constant revision can

help us discover a way to a sustainable uture.

Fiure . ( Opposite page ) Elore Loal; rie Chane aimed to

connect EV charging stations with local Vancouver businesses. Tis was meant to

incentivize EV use while also supporting the local community.

Fiure 5. Te Elore Loal program would encompass the below

components or its tour system. Tis project promoted not just electric vehicles,

but also sustainable community activities.


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NEW SpACES, plACES &

mATERIAlS FOR CO-DESIgNINg

SuSTAINAblE FuTuRESb lIZ SANDERS


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plACES, SpACES AND mATERIAlS

IDEA

hEAD

hEART

bODy

EVERyThINg IS SOCIAl NOW

Design has been growing in scope to embrace the larger social contexts

o products and services. n the past, design was ocused mainly on

material concerns with the embodiment o design ideas in the orm o

products, environments or communication systems. But now the con-

versation is about design or experience, design or service, and design

or transormation. veryone wants to play in the social design spaces.

Designers, students and educators talk about design or social good

and design or social impact. People rom the business community talk

about social innovation. e art community is exploring social practice.

ocial practice can mean anything rom art work about social issues, to

provocative art installations, to community-based, participatory practices.

Who will be involved in the emerging social design spaces? What roles

will designers play when everything is social? e answers to these ques-

tions will vary depending upon the mindsets o the people involved.

ocial design spaces are prolierating rapidly and the landscape can be

conusing. But some patterns can be seen. Designers have ( at least )

three mindsets to choose rom:

1. esin or eole: ere designers are considered to be the

experts in designing or others. e ocus in practice is on the tradition-

al orms and ormats o objects, spaces and systems.

2. esin ith eole: ere designers take on new roles. Becausethey invite end-users and other stakeholders into the design process

as co-designers, designers become acilitators who help others to be

creative. n advantage to this approach is that the co-designers will take

pride in and ownership o the process, leading to sustainable results.

3. esin or hane: ere designers turn to the applied social

sciences and use probing, provoking, and other interventional means o

getting people to change their behavior. For example, this approach is

being explored in addressing healthcare situations such as obesity. But

some people are concerned with this approach since it has the potential

to inringe on personal rights.

n this short paper ll talk mainly about design with people wheredesigners learn to acilitate the creativity o others. n order to design

with people we need to know more about how spaces, places and mate-

rials can contribute to creativity.

CONTEXTS OF CREATIVITy: A FRAmEWORK

ere are many competing theories about what creativity is and how it

works. Contexts o Creativity [ 8 ] is not another theory about creativity.

nstead, it is a ramework or organizing what we know about creativity

in order to help people acilitate the creativity o others. Figure 1 shows

the layers o context that contribute to individual creativity. t shows

that individual creativity is not only in the head ( as once was thought )

I were to design sustainable utures, well need to do it collectively. ow can we oster collective

thinking and creativity? Unortunately, we dont know much about the spaces, places and materials

that can support and inspire collective creativity. Its time we learned.

but in the heart as well because creativity is aected by emotion. nd

creativity takes place in the body. t is evoked through activity and

motion. [4 ] nd the last layer shows that creativity is aected by the

environment and the materials that are present.

Collective creativity is shown in Figure 2 as a group o diverse individuals

connected in thought and action while working together on a very big

idea ( i.e. , the green splat ). Collective creativity uses all o the contexts

o creativity ( head, heart, body, places, spaces and materials ) to support

and scaold the shared space o thoughts and ideas. When collective

creativity is working well, everyone contributes simultaneously to the

big picture that comes rom the shared mind and body space. e

co-construction o the big picture is essential or collective creativity

and this is where the importance o the materials comes into play. e

tools and materials must possess generative potential. [ 7 ] Communica-

tion design will soon undergo radical transormation as we learn more

about creating such materials and tools to support and provoke creativity.Th RE E DI ST INC T mI ND SE TS Ab Ou T SO CI Al DE SI gN

CAN bE SEEN IN pRACTICE

FIGURE 1. Individual creativity


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2

CO-CREATION

hOW muCh DO WE REAlly KNOW AbOuT CREATIVITy?

We know a lot about creativity in individuals but very little about

creativity shared between people. [ 8 ] e matrix in Figure 3 distin-

guishes between individual and collective creativity across three levels

o context that could aect the output o creativity: the socio-cultural

space, the physical environment, and the space o tools and materials.e size o the splat indicates the amount o research in each o the

cells. We know the most about individual creativity in the socio-cultural

space, ollowed by individual creativity in the physical environment. e

other our cells are largely unexplored. ( But see anders [ 8 ] or more

inormation on these our cells ).

ere is not much research at all on collective creativity. ere is some,

such as socio-technical environments to support social creativity in

urban planning, collaborative learning, and collaborative sotware

design. [ 3 ] But theres not much more than that. nd theres not much

research about the impact o tools and materials on creativity, although

this is an area that have explored in practice and described in a book

called Convivial oolbox. [ 7 ]

SOuRCE OF INSpIRATION:

TR AN SF OR mATI ON Al gR Ou p EX pE RIEN CE S

ince we dont have much to draw on rom the published research on

the impact o spaces, places and materials on creativity, it makes sense

to look or other sources o inspiration.

enee Levi [ 5 ] studied transormational group experiences and ound,

unexpectedly, that the place or space in which magical moments in

groups happened was identied by over hal o the studys participants

as inuencing their elt shit rom a collection o individuals to a true

collective able to think and work together. is nding was surprising

to Levi in that she did not anticipate it, nor did she ask about it. he

explored extraordinary group experiences urther [ 5 ] and ound the

ollowing qualities to be important.

e place is distant rom peoples daily lives. ere are welcoming elements o the acility ( e.g., long entrance

roads, people to greet you ).

e main meeting room is the right size and shape.

ere are places or sitting and walking side by side.

e space contains symbols ( e.g., objects or materials ) that can be

called upon to evoke meaning.

ere are open interior spaces with both public and private spaces

available within them.

e windows oer views o nature.

atural materials have been used in construction.

e space contains elements that remind people o home.

e ood is resh and healthy.

ere are opportunities or people to explore and challenge themselves.

Levis research covered many other qualities o transormative spaces.

e list above descr ibes only the physical environmental attributes.

nspiration comes also rom alternative approaches or the education

o very young children: Waldor, eggio milia and ontessori. [ 2 ]e

eggio milia approach is explicit about the environments and materials

needed to scaold the childs learning. n act, eggio milia practi-

tioners reer to the environment and the materials available in it as the

ANOThER SOuRCE OF INSpIRATION:

REggIO EmIlIA pRESChOOl

FIGURE 2. Collective creativity


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REFERENCES

[ 1 ] Cadwell, L.B. Bringing Reggio Emilia Home: An Innovative Approach to Early

Childhood Education. eachers College Press, ew York, 1997. [ 2 ] dwards, C.P. ree

approaches rom urope: Waldor, ontessori and eggio milia. Early Childhood Re-

search and Practice, 4 ( 1 ), 2002 [ 3 ] Fischer, . ocial creativity: aking all voices heard.

in Proceedings o the HCI International Conerence ( C ), ( Las Vegas, 2005 ). [ ]

Leung, ..-y., im, ., Polman, ., ng, L.., Qiu, L., oncalo, .. and anchez-Burks,

. mbodied me taphors and creative acts . Psychological Science, 23 ( 5 ). 502-509,

2012 [ 5 ] Levi, . roup agic: n nquiry into xperiences o Collective esonance.

Dissertation bstracts nternational ( U o. 3098829 ), 2003. [ 6 ] Levi, . Te

Powers o Place: An Inquiry into the Inuence o Place, Space and Environment on

Collective ransormation. 2008. etrieved rom http://www.collectivewisdominitia-

tive.org/papers/levi_place.pd. [ 7 ] anders, .B.- and tappers, P.. Convivial oolbox:

Generative Research or the Front End o Design. B Publishers, L, 2012. [ 8 ] anders.

.B.-. Creativity in strategic thinking. in Wolters, ..., rome, . and inds, . eds.

Enhancing the Armys Strategic Tinking Capability: Insights to Assess, Develop, and

Retain Strategic Tinkers, esearch eport or U.. rmy esearch nstitute or the

Behavioral and ocial ciences, 2012.

third teacher ( who is in addition to the two teachers who collaborate

daily on each childs learning journey ).

e spaces, places and materials in a eggio milia school are described

as ollows ( adapted rom Caldwell ). [ 1 ]

e ront door welcomes you.

atural light ows into as many parts o the space as possible.

e halls are much larger than normal, with places to stop and sit

as you go.

ere are studio spaces in each classroom as well as spaces designat-

ed or small and large group activities.

Provocation stations with careully selected and arranged materials

invite manipulation and exploration along a specic theme.

Large inner windows connect the interior spaces.

Wall-size outer windows provide views to the outside and doors to

the outside can be ound in every classroom.

e walls are painted a neutral color so that you can see the chil-

drens projects that are exhibited on the walls in the classrooms andthe hallways.

ere is documentation about each project in the orm o state-

ments made by the children as they talked about their projects.

wide range o quality materials is available: tempura paint, water-

color, wire, weaving, collage, natural materials, cardboard/paper

construction, and light, color and transparency at the light table.

ese materials are beautiully arranged and displayed in containers

that sit on low shelves backed by mirrors.

For photos o eggio milia inspired environments and materials, see

http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=reggio+emilia+spaces

ImAgINE A FuTuRE

What i we combined the qualities o eggio milia preschool environ-

ments with the qualities o transormational group spaces to create

spaces, places and materials or adults to engage collectively in creative

thinking and making? ese environments or co-designing will have a

positive impact on peoples ability to address complex social issues andimagine uture possibilities. ey will be the new materializations o the

social design spaces. we learn to master the new spaces, places and

materials or co-designing, well see a uture capable o supporting new

levels o conviviality and cultural sustainability.

FIGURE 3. How much we know about creativity

INDIVIDuAl CREATIVITy COllECTIVE CREATIVITy

Th E SO CI O-C ulT uR E SpAC E

Th E ph yS IC Al EN VI RO Nm EN T

Th E Sp ACE OF TO Ol S

AND mATERIAlS


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CO-CREATION

AbSTRACT

is article examines how participatory

design strategies can serve as an eective

tool when working with multiple design

constraints. mily arr University o rt +

esign students were asked to collaborate

with children with special learning needs

to create a textile-based product rom

reclaimed abric that endorsed sustainability

among both the users and the designers.

KEyWORDSco-design, design constraints, interactive

textiles, children, learning disabilities,

participatory design, sustainable thinking,

systems

CO-CREATINg SpACES: ThE TAg pROJECT

b bEAyuE lOuIE

enneth ordon aplewood chool ( ) is an independent school that specializes in teach-ing children with dyslexia and learning disabilities. wned and operated by e ociety or the

ducation o Children with pecic Learning Disabilities, employs the rton-illingham

teaching method, which avours visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic cues. [ 2 ] n 2010,

relocated rom Burnaby, British Columbia to its present location in orth Vancouver, BC.

econd-year design students rom mily Carr, working in pairs, were asked to create an interactive

textile-based artiact or system that would encourage sustainable practices within the

community. ach team was matched with a group o three to our Division 6 students rom ,

who would serve as co-creators on the project. e resulting design would be gi ted to and

its students or implementation in their school.

DEFININg ThE pROblEm

Prior to this project, the majority o our design bries have been directed towards theoretical users

and allowed or blue sky ideation designing without limits. n order to gain practical experi-

ence, we were challenged to apply our knowledge and skills to a set o complex, real-world issues

that contained multiple non-negotiable parameters. Working with users with very specic needs

and limitations, we were asked to use participatory design techniques to create a product that not

only encouraged sustainable practices, but considered such practices in all acets o the produc-

tion process as well.

e project was subjected to numerous constraints. ur product had to:

be made rom reclaimed heerll - abric ( a berglass and polytetrauoroethylene

composite ) rom Canada Places ormer roo, donated by e-Fab Vancouver;

use only textile manuacturing techniques;

not exceed 2 square metres in size;

be made o repetitive elements;

emphasize dynamic relationships;

be geared towards children, actoring in ergonomics, saety, unctionality and durability;

take into consideration the learning needs o the students.

mEThODOlOgy

Preliminary Researh. n order to present sustainability to the students in tangible, accessi-

ble terms, we elected to ocus on environmental issues that were common to our region. iven

proximity to the Burrard nlet, we narrowed the initial scope o our research to environ-

mental issues related to water, such as consumption, conservation and marine debris.


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Cultural Proe. Based on our research ndings, we created a

cultural probe or each student that consisted o a team-building

puzzle, exploratory drawing and collage exercises, a scavenger hunt and

an ideation activity involving common recyclable objects. ese probes,

which would provide glimpses into the everyday lives o our students,

were intended to serve as beacons or [ our ] imagination. [ 1, 3 ]

ter receiving the completed probes back, we discovered that while

our group was aware o the environment, their knowledge waslimited to abstract recycling practices typically associated with public

advocacy campaigns. Furthermore, they expressed little interest in the

subject o water, rendering our preliminary research moot. ather than

relegate our students to the role o mere users, we abandoned our initial

concept in avour o creating a co-design space at this early ront end o

the design development process where the students would work

with us in a more emancipatory role. [4, 5 ]

Co-esin Sessions. o encourage ree-orm dialogue that would

reveal potential design opportunities, we organized two co-design

sessions that alluded to sustainability as a by-product o each activity

rather than the ocus.

e rst session consisted o:

a student-led tour o ;

a gurine workshop where each student:

created a superpower character using ound objects and scrap

material; and

ater classiying their character as a hero or villain, determined

what their character would do i it was on a planet with no trees,

plants or water; and

a round robin storyboarding exercise that was altered on site, based

on the students interests, into a riend-or-oe workshop where each

student created an accessory, companion or enemy or their original

character out o modeling clay.

e second session consisted o a material and orm exercise that bore

similarities to our own design exploration with heerll - abric.

Using only the scrap textiles we provided, the students were

asked to make something out o at least two pieces o abric that were

connected together without the use o adhesives or asteners.

FINDINgS

e topic o superhe

future faces design sample- publication

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