design activism

I recently visited the University of Manchester’s Architecture Research Centre (MARC) for a workshop on the Politics of Design. There were people at the workshop from all over the world and the program was provocative. In keeping with my previous geographic post, here I report on a few English initiatives that I came across at [...]

On my recent visit to Seattle (prolonged by nine days thanks to Icelandic geology) I caught up with some of the interesting work of colleagues there working along the spectrum of sustainable design. rating sustainable communities First was the STAR Community Index program, an effort to “transform the way local governments set priorities and implement [...]

Although the recent ash cloud has stranded me in the US, I wanted to report on a talk I heard before leaving the UK in March. Peter Head, the sustainability lead for Arup, a worldwide engineering, design, and planning firm, has been on a Brunel Lecture tour for the Institution of Civil Engineers, visiting 23 [...]

Alastair Fuad-Luke is a colleague of mine here in the UK and we sometimes end up speaking together or following in each other’s footsteps in one way or another. So I’m pleased to discuss here his recent book, Design Activism: Beautiful Strangeness for Sustainable World (hereafter referred to by the short title Design Activism) published [...]

It’s the time of year when I start getting asked frequently about how to find a job in sustainable design—or a related question, where you can find a role as a design activist. working with a purpose Obviously there are no easy answers to these questions, but I have written a few relatively “timeless” posts [...]

Chemicals have a been a theme for me over the past few weeks. First I had a reader inquiry challenging the idea that there could be any health risks from plastics in food and drink packaging. Then, I had a run-in with my son’s school over a new, portable classroom that wasn’t properly aired before [...]

This review is from an online newsletter on lifecycle design issues (covering LCA design tools and related teaching tools such as powerpoint slides) over at The Designer’s Atlas of Sustainability. Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable by Nathan Shedroff (Rosenfeld Media 2009) There is much to like in Nathan Shedroff’s [...]

Making potential climate change flooding visible and enabling us to discuss adaptation. The Watermarks Project of Bristol, all images courtesy of Chris Bodle and the Watermarks Project As a U.S. citizen I’m trying to decide my own position on climate legislation “The American Clean Energy and Security Act,” aka the Waxman-Markey bill (pros/cons via Worldchanging), [...]

Architect Michael Herrman’s Nomadic Prayer Space, one of the projects he uses to explore “the architecture of displacement” in his new book, Hypercontextuality (Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche, 2008) This month I’ve published a feature article on Core77 (the industrial design online magazine), on the topic of sustainable consumption. The article has lots of images and [...]

Today is Ada Lovelace day and I’m reporting to you from Iceland, where I’ve come to give a talk on “Clothing and Conscience” at the Nordic Fashion biennale and to talk about design activism at the Iceland Academy of the Arts. I have signed on to a pledge, through pledge bank, to write a blog [...]