scholarly journals Design Against the Plastic Soup - The Effect of Small Product Designs in Sustainable Design Education

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3201-3210
Author(s):  
Els Du Bois ◽  
Dirk Van Gogh ◽  
Lore Veelaert ◽  
Karine Van Doorsselaer
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Large Impact ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Design Students ◽  
Small Product

AbstractPlastics are ubiquitous in our daily life due to their versatile characteristics, however, these excellent characteristics also contributed to the emergence of a gigantic garbage of floating plastics in our ocean, called the plastic soup. Within this research project we investigated the opportunities by design to cope with this wicked problem. The hypothesis is that picking small opportunities in a wicked problem can have a large impact on the related ecosystem. In addition, we also wanted to investigate how design students would deal with the problem to create larger awareness of the designers' impact and responsibility. Although there is no ideal answer to a systemic problem such as the plastic soup, intervening on systems is possible. As the characteristics of a product directly influence the way the entire value chain works, designers have a large responsibility / opportunity to influence the system. An experiment was executed with 69 design students to explore the opportunities. The resulting design concepts were discussed by experts, reasoning towards relationships, needs to elaborate the design practices, and ecodesign education in a circular economy.

scholarly journals HuValue: a tool to support design students in considering human values in their design

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 1015-1041 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shadi Kheirandish ◽  
Mathias Funk ◽  
Stephan Wensveen ◽  
Maarten Verkerk ◽  
Matthias Rauterberg
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Human Values ◽  
Support Design ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Integral Role ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
Design Students

Abstract Human values play an integral role in any design that aims to improve the quality of human life. However, only a few design approaches concentrate on human values in their design, and there is even very little agreement between them in identifying human values. Considering this, we created a design tool based on a comprehensive value framework to support designers’ addressing human values in their designs. This tool intends to raise designers’ awareness about human values and provide tangible materials to facilitate the use of selected values within the design process. This article investigated whether this tool is applicable and effective to be used in design education. A quasi-experimental study with design students showed that the project groups who were supported with this tool addressed significantly stronger human values in their design concepts compared to the control groups. Results of the evaluation indicated that the tool is not only applicable in a design process but is also effective at enriching design concepts with human values.

scholarly journals Making Resilient Decisions for Sustainable Circularity of Fashion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celinda Palm ◽  
Sarah E. Cornell ◽  
Tiina Häyhä
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Ecological Impacts ◽  
Ecological System ◽  
Fashion Industry ◽  
State Response ◽  
Social Ecological ◽  
Industry Value Chain ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

AbstractThe fashion and textiles industry, and policymakers at all levels, are showing an increased interest in the concept of circular economy as a way to decrease business risks and negative environmental impacts. However, focus is placed mainly on the material ‘stuff’ of textile fashion and its biophysical harms. The current material focus has several shortcomings, because fashion is a social-ecological system and cannot be understood merely by addressing its environmental dimensions. In this paper, we rethink the fashion system from a critical social-ecological perspective. The driver-state-response framework shows social drivers and ecological impacts as an adaptive social-ecological system, exposing how these interacting aspects need to be addressed for sustainable and resilient implementation of circular economy. We show how current responses to global sustainability challenges have so far fallen short. Our overall aim is to expand possibilities for reframing responses that better reflect the complex links between the global fashion system, culture and creativity and the dynamics of the living planet. We argue that reducing planetary pressure from the global fashion and textiles industry requires greater recognition of the system’s social drivers with more emphasis on the many cross-scale links between social and ecological dimensions. Resilient decisions aiming for sustainable circularity of the fashion industry must therefore pay attention to social activities beyond the industry value chain, not just material flows within it.

scholarly journals Scenario Analysis for Selecting Sewage Sludge-to-Energy/Matter Recovery Processes

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 276
Author(s):  
Francesco Facchini ◽  
Giovanni Mummolo ◽  
Micaela Vitti
Keyword(s):  
Sewage Sludge ◽  
Scenario Analysis ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Solid Material ◽  
Sludge Treatment ◽  
Sewage Sludges ◽  
Recovery Processes ◽  
Sewage Sludge Treatment ◽  
New Perspective

The sewage sludges are the byproducts of the wastewater treatment. The new perspective of the wastewater value chain points to a sustainable circular economy approach, where the residual solid material produced by sewage sludge treatments is a resource rather than a waste. A sewage sludge treatment system consists of five main phases; each of them can be performed by different alternative processes. Each process is characterized by its capability to recover energy and/or matter. In this paper, a state of the art of the sludge-to-energy and sludge-to-matter treatments is provided. Then, a scenario analysis is developed to identify suitable sewage sludge treatments plants that best fit the quality and flowrate of sewage sludge to be processed while meeting technological and economic constraints. Based on the scientific literature findings and experts’ opinions, the authors identify a set of reference initial scenarios and the corresponding best treatments’ selection for configuring sewage sludge treatment plants. The scenario analysis reveals a useful reference technical framework when circular economy goals are pursued. The results achieved in all scenarios ensure the potential recovery of matter and/or energy from sewage sludges processes.

scholarly journals Circular Agreements—Exploring the Role of Agreements and Deals as a Political Tool for a Circular Economy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nils Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Value Chain ◽  
Circular Economy ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Free Rider Problem ◽  
Political Governance ◽  
The Eu

AbstractA problem for a circular economy, embedded in its policies, tools, technologies and models, is that it is driven by the interests and needs of producers, rather than customers and users. This opinion paper focuses on an alternative form of governance—agreements, which thanks to their bargaining approach brings actors from across the value chain into the policy process. The purpose of this opinion paper is to uncover and analyse the potential of such agreements for a circular economy. Circular agreements aim at increasing the circulation of materials and are an emerging form of political governance within the EU. These agreements have different names, involve different actors and govern in different ways. However, circular agreements seem to work when other types of regulations fail to establish circulation. These agreements bring actors together and offer a platform for negotiating how advantages and disadvantages can be redistributed between actors in a way that is more suitable for a circular economy. However, circular agreements are dependent on other policy instruments to work and can generate a free-rider problem with uninvolved actors. The agreements may also become too detailed and long term, which leads to problem shifting and lock-ins, respectively.

scholarly journals Putting the ‘e’ in portfolio design: an intervention research project investigating how design students and faculty might jointly reimagine the design portfolio activity

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldine McDermott-Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Design Education ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Student Work ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
Design Students ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity ◽  
Portfolio Design ◽  
Design Portfolio

AbstractThe use of portfolios is deeply embedded in practice within Design education. However, as trends change and technology improves, tensions often arise in the interpretation and presentation of the portfolio activity. Additionally, as more and more digital artefacts are produced by design students, the question arises as to whether the traditional portfolio could be accompanied or replaced by an eportfolio, which could present students’ digital artefacts in a structured fashion. This research investigates how students and faculty in the Design Department of one higher education institution might come together to examine and re-model practices in the context of the design portfolio activity. The study uses Cultural Historical Activity Theory with a Change Laboratory methodology and expansive learning to build transformative agency amongst those involved in the design portfolio activity, with a view to reaching consensus of what a future model of the design eportfolio might look like. Findings indicate that the methodology was successful in collaboratively examining work practices and exposing tensions relating to the current portfolio activity. A tentative future model of a design eportfolio was presented to the group, using institute graduate attributes to provide structure. While the lack of a designer’s ‘personality’ when using a generic eportfolio tool was pointed out, it was agreed that having student work available and accessible in a structured digital format was a requirement for today’s design graduate. Finally, this research approach is considered useful for educational research projects that require collaborative input from various stakeholders into changes in work practices.

The impact of virtual visualisation: perception and design of spaces in ethnographic projects

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Carlos Márquez Cañizares ◽  
Juan-Carlos Rojas
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Field Investigation ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Evaluation Instrument ◽  
Information Analysis ◽  
Public Park ◽  
The Public ◽  
Design Students ◽  
The Impact

"The use of VR technology within education is an area that has generated great interest in recent years, so this work follows that trend and contains nuances related to user-centred design education. The objective of this work is to identify students’ perceptions of the use of VR technology for ethnographic research. A group of 20 industrial design students from Tecnologico de Monterrey conducted a field investigation, which included interviews and surveys, using HMD with videos and stereoscopic images of a public park in Monterrey, Mexico. Based on the research and information analysis, areas of opportunity were identified and urban furniture proposals for the public park that place were generated. Once the design process was completed, an evaluation instrument was applied to measure, through statistical analysis, the students' perceptions of their experience using technology in the design process; gender, qualification obtained and the relevance of the technology used was also considered."

Not Good Enough? Exploring Relationships Between Students’ Empathy, Their Attitudes Towards Sustainability, and the Self-Perceived Sustainability of Their Solutions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohan Prabhu ◽  
Mohammed Alsager Alzayed ◽  
Elizabeth Starkey
Keyword(s):  
Design Education ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
The Self ◽  
Empathy Development ◽  
Concept Evaluation ◽  
Trait Empathy ◽  
Evaluation Stage ◽  
Future Work

Abstract Empathy plays an important role in designers’ ability to relate to problems faced by others. Several researchers have studied empathy development in engineering design education; however, a majority of this work has focused on teaching designers to empathize with primary users. Little attention in empathy development research is given to empathizing with those affected in a secondary and tertiary capacity. Moreover, little research has investigated the role of students’ empathy in influencing their emphasis on sustainability, especially in the concept evaluation stage. Our aim in this paper is to explore this research gap through an experimental study with engineering students. Specifically, we introduced first-year engineering students at a large public university in the northeastern United States to a short workshop on sustainable design. We compared changes in their trait empathy and attitudes towards sustainability from before to after participating in the workshop. We also compared the relationship between students’ trait empathy, attitudes towards sustainability, and the self-perceived sustainability of their solutions in a design task. From our results, we see that students reported an increase in their beliefs and intentions towards sustainability and a decrease in their personal distress from before to after participating in the workshop. Furthermore, students’ trait empathy correlated negatively with the self-perceived sustainability of their solutions. These findings highlight the need for future work studying the role of empathy in encouraging a sustainable design mindset among designers.

scholarly journals Sustainable Design Futures: An open design vision for the circular economy in fashion and textiles

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (sup1) ◽  
pp. S1938-S1947 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Smith ◽  
Jen Baille ◽  
Lynn-Sayers McHattie
Keyword(s):  
Circular Economy ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Open Design
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