Designboost 2008 magazine

long live the city sharing design knowledge

15 October – 16 November 2008

“Can we learn from marginalized illegal cities and town hoods something?”

Ilkka Suppanen - designer

“Sustainability, albeit a few common denominators, seems to be an issue addressed differently depending on the globe region one approaches it – it is directly related to local resources availability; technical and social development, culture, etc.

Should sustainable strategies be defined globally, or is this an issue to be addressed locally?”

Gonçalo Prudencio - designer

“Is it possible for a city council to foster sustainibility by making people more aware of their energy consumption (perfect example is Neuchatel that has become the Curitiba of Switzerland)?”

Oliver Ike -interiors and architecture photography

“Can a city be green without vegetation?”

Peter Moritz - Malmö University

“Should citizen be financially rewarded if they apply sustainability to their private homes?”

Oliver Ike -interiors and architecture photography

“Increasing conformity; a threat or necessity?”

Mats Theselius - designer

“Can this society of cool dudes change their attitudes and become sustainable?”

Cay Bond - trend analyst

“If the city is not merely a temple for ephemeral consumerism, a monument to imperial dreams and architectonic follies, a storm-drain for cars and natural resources – what is it for? And who says?”

John Manoochehri - sustainability designer

“Consumption and sustainability – how do retailers trigger conscious consumption? Is it possible? Who’s responsible?”

Caroline Björkholm - trend analyst

“Good quality in planning, design and materials will make the city sustainable...or? (Quality never goes out of style...?”

Anders Runerheim - architect

“How can we keep sustainability as a hot sexy topic for the many?”

Maria Vinka - designer/IKEA

DESIGNBOOST

– sharing design knowledge Do you know the relation between ‘visual pollution’ and sustainability?

Do you know when it is an improvement to demolish a building and replace it with a new?

Do you know what makes the individual space feel homely and inviting even before the furniture has arrived?

Do you know the difference between individuality in building: reflecting a city’s soul or individualism in building: reflecting an architect’s ego?

Do you know which factors in the interaction between individual, common and public spaces that enhance the quality of living?

Do you know how to facilitate the use of public transport?

Do you know how to design against crime?

Do you know that most cities’ have ‘wasted places’: areas with an undeveloped potential?

Do you know what it takes to make bicycling a real option to the use of a car?

Do you know how to judge the need for change beyond the desire for renewal of for example public spaces?

Do you know the importance of concern for a city’s history when planning its sustainable future?

Do you know that cultural diversity in cities is a very old phenomenon?

D esi gnbo o s t i s a k n o w l e dge c omp a ny t ha t he lp s c omp a nies an d organ is ation s to lear n more abo u t d e s i g n i n g e n e ra l a nd sust a ina b le d e sign in p articu lar an d h ow to u s e it as a co mpet i t i v e w e a p o n a n d t ur n it int o a b usine ss a d va nt a ge.

D esi gnbo o s t c a n b e s e e n a s a p roc e ss t o c re a t e gre a t e r c om petitiv en es s .

D esi gnbo o s t ’s v i s i o n i s – s ha ring d e sign k nowle d ge .

D esi gnbo o s t w i l l a r r a n g e so p e op le c a n me e t , d isc uss a nd ch allen ge th e m ean in g of des ign , throug h “ b o o s t c h a t s ” , “ boost t a lk s”, “b oost shows” a nd oth er m edia.

D esi gnbo o s t h a s d e v e l o p e d a c he c k list t o d e fine sust a inable des ign in a m ore profou n d an d ho l i st i c m a n n e r. T h e c he c k list is c a lle d t he Sust a ina b le Wh eel.

D esi gnbo o s t i s a s w e l l u s ing t he Sust a ina b le Whe e l a s a t o ol to con ceptu alize s u s tain able desi gn an d t u r n i t i n t o a c omp e t it ive e d ge .

T h e S usta i n a b l e W h e e l w ill a lso b e p re se nt e d a s a sust a inable des ign label.

De s i g n b o o s t i s f u r t h e r m o re a knowledge tank with a broad network of creative thinkers from al l o ver th e w o r l d w h e re t hought s on sust a ina b le d e sign a n d du rable dev elopm en t can be debated, e x c h a n g e d , t r i e d a nd d e ve lop e d .

D esi gnbo o s t w o r k s i n t h e fie ld of: – – – –

S ustai na b l e d e s i g n c o n sult ing E ven t a n d c re a t i v e c o m m unic a t ion Trend i n s i g h t N etw o r k d e v e l o p m e n t

D esi gnbo o s t i s a f u s i o n o f t he t wo word s d e sign a nd b oost. Des ign can h elp u s create a better wo r l d . I n s p i r a t i o n, inje c t ion or more p owe r – t ha t ’s th e m ean in g of boos t.

D esi gnbo o s t i s c re a t e d b y a wa rd winning c ommunic a t ion strategis t P eer Eriks s on , fou n der of th e c o m m u n i c a t i o n a g e n cy Peer Communication and inter national acclaimed design thinker an d trend s t r a t e g i s t D a v i d Ca rlson, found e r of Da vid De sign an d Dav id Report.

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The mission of designboost

reating a platform where people can meet, discuss and challenge the meaning of design,

through workshops, talks, exhibitions and all other media.

The vision of designboost

Sharing knowled Design in a sustainable society The more you give the more you get.

At Designboost we believe in sharing knowledge.

We use this thinking in everything we do. We have an open minded attitud to processes where interaction is in the core of the method.

It can concern consultancy work, development of creative communication, an event or building a community. Groundbreaking ideas quite often arise in the intersection of knowledge from different industries and cultures.

Designboost can be seen as a catalyst and conceptual incubator.

Designboost connects people; industry with schools with designers with politicians with future scientists with‌ the list is never ending.

We are working hard to apply more �open-source� thinking to the design world.

For our main Boost and Mini Boosts we have developed a process consisting of three integrated steps to better knowledge.

All three are equally important but can differ in size from time to time.

We call them: Boost Chats (formerly known as workshops) Boost Talks (formerly known as lectures) Boost Show (formerly known as exhibition)

Our goal is that Designboost shall be humanistic arena and a big boost for you, both on a personal as well as on a professional level.

design dge...

The sustain It’s important to have a holistic view on sustainability. Sustainability is not only about “green” and environmentalism, even if it is an important part of it. Sustainability is also very much about timelessness, new materials that push the envelope, storytelling, sensorial experiences and cultural awareness.

Designboost has defined seven different themes that by itself or in combination are important in the definition of sustainability. The Sustainable Wheel can be used as a tool or why not a check list.

Environmental influence – to have an aspiration to affect the environment as little as possible

Quality – to own multi-quality capacities

Which material resources do we use directly or indirectly; does our product consume too much energy when in use? What waste do we produce directly or indirectly; recycling of our product is costly and/or reuse is complicated as it demands transport or substantial deconstruction?

Do we recognise that quality is a multi capacity? Have we tried to specify our products capacity beyond the most obvious; material quality and physical functionality? Is quality relative to intended use? Have we recognised quality as lasting meaning and appeal and considered if our product makes sense: is meaningful or appears merely strange: new and cool?

Innovative development – to develop unique attributes on several levels Is our product merely innovative or does it contribute to development; an improvement of our lives, and not only to a demand for newness? Innovation is about seeing things in different ways, thinking out-of-the-box, thinking for renewal and change, removing blinders, boldly processing new and old information. How can we break innovation barriers and push the envelope concerning technology and production?

Affectivity – to be a part of the user Does our product have a chance not only to connect emotionally; create attachment, but also to retain it? Have we considered that emotions are much less sustainable than feelings? Emotions make us buy, whilst feelings make us keep. Has our product a meaning; tell a story which goes beyond temporary lifestyles and makes us associate and recognise? Meaning is paramount for affectivity; the moderator of emotions and feelings, and thus for long-term attachment.

Aesthetics – to age with grace

Authenticity – to be able to tell a credible story How do we define authenticity? Is it a product which is as close to the original version as possible? Or is an authentic product is an object which is true to its meaning and its function? An object without history is fiction and an object which has not moved on from history is retrospective. An authentic product could be seen as a mix of the two. How do we create authentic experiences that has meaning and value and a strong sense of cultural identity?

Compatibility – to be part of a bigger coherence What is at stake if we make our product compatible with that of our competitor or neighbour? Is it a long term negative, a short term or no negative at all? How can we connect the history, with the present and the future?

And how can we create common platforms (designers, materials, technology etc) with several outcomes and, out of that, get sustainable coordination advantages? Isn’t compatibility also about supporting human to human relationships?

Have we realised that the aesthetic is about immediate but also lasting appeal? Do we confuse aesthetics with beauty? Are we aware that beauty is something negotiated and what is judged as beautiful one day might not be the next? There are things that survive year after year, are inherited by the generations to come and excellent examples of truly durable objects; “they truly age with grace”. What’s the secret?

In the end, a product is nothing worth if it is not put in a humanly context. We have to remember to always look through the lens of humanity when we develop, or trying to define a sustainable product or service. Because, we always have to extend sustainability beyond materials.

nable wheel

”Will the City of the future be a location in space, a moment in time, or a meme associated with the location in the moment?”

Bob Jacobson - sustainable innovation

“Could cities, as a pose to rural living, ever be truly sustainable?

If so, are we truly willing to take the consequences?”

Jonas Pinzke - sustainable creative director

“How does memes emerge and spread in a city?

Is there a common format?”

Ted Persson - creative director

“A sustainable solution for transportation, housing or energy should always be within reach – but how to make this solution self-evident, how to make the sustainable alternative the preferred one for a broader audience?”

Anna Markelin - portfolio manager/Iittala

”How does the city stimulate your senses and allow you to work with your mind?”

Christine Hedström - boundary-crossing guide

“Do we all understand the same when talking about cities, sustainability, identity? Are we sure...?”

“Is it possible to build a sustainable city in places of the third world with a low budget?”

Antoni Vives - economist, politician and writer

Noé Marcial González Camperi - industrial designer

“How can we involve and engage everyone in making our cities sustainable?”

Kerstin Sylwan - sustainability designer

“Are identities assets to be preserved in our cities?

How, when, why do we find, miss them?”

Antoni Vives - economist, politician and writer

“Is it possible to shape a city based on the involvement and responsibility of the inhabitants instead of the interests of profit mongers?

How can the decision-makers of the city loosen up for the advantage of a more allowing city progress?”

Petra Lilja - industrial designer

“Who will be involved in the design of the sustainable city?”

Anders Emilson - Malmö University

“Can a city be sustained by the personal stories of the people who inhabit it?”

Jennifer Leonard designer writer

Boost chats 15th October

Who will chat?

BOOSTERS 2008

We don’t have the truths. The question is, does anyone? On the other hand there are plenty of questions and possibly some answers.

The Boost Chats can be regarded as internal meetings in an external form. A closed circle, open to the participants. Every participant will, together with other companies and creative people, be given the opportunity to to discuss, vent, ponder, think and reflect over a number of questions that concerns design of the future and the sustainable city. Eventually this will hopefully lead to action. In total we will carry out 36 Boost Chats.

The Boost Chats will be held on floor 53 and 54 in Turning Torso, the Malmö landmark designed by Santiago Calatrava.

The participants consists of representatives from brands like Audi, Ikea, Eon, Absolut, Skanska, Iittala and Peab together with specially chosen ”boosters” with unique competence in their certain fields. This group contains designers, future scientists and architects as well as urban planners and ethnographers. In addition to this representatives from City of Malmö and Region Skåne and students from Sweden’s leading design schools are invited.

Michael Young - designer Ilse Crawford - creative director and designer Jeffrey Inaba - architect Bjarke Ingels - architect Shari Swan - consumer insight Gert Wingårdh - architect Ilkka Suppanen - designer Cay Bond - trend researcher Lisa White - horticulturalist Sante Poromaa - zen buddhist teacher Jody Turner - trend and future empowerment Thomas Ermacora - sustainability designer Jennifer Leonard designer writer Anders Wilhemson - architect John Manoochehri sustainability designer Kristina Dryza - design strategist Maria Cecilia Loschiavo - environmental design and philosophy Antoni Vives - economist, polititian and writer Satyendra Pakhale - designer Guido Verijke - Deputy Business Area Manager textiles/IKEA Maria Vinka - designer/IKEA Johan Ejdemo - range stretgy/IKEA Mike Betts - design strategist Johan Lindau - furniture producer Pontus Frankenstein - creative director Marie Markman - artist and landscape architect Peter Majanen - futurist Patrick Schenck - trend research Christel Vaenerberg - creative director/Iittala Katarina Graffman - anthropologist Claes Foxerus - planner Ewa Kumlin - managing director/Svensk Form Caroline Björkholm - trend analyst Bob Jacobson - sustainable innovation Robert Fekete - architect Gonçalo Prudêncio - designer Christer Larsson - City of Malmö Magnus Thure - producer Hanna Ljungström - designer

(Boost Chats are formerly known as workshops)

Iréne Stewart Claesson - design strategy Matthias Weber - trend research Virginia Kamau - student/Hyper Island Elisabeth Björkbom - graphic designer Gillian Russell - design think tank Eva-Maria Elstner - PR manager/Audi Irene Bernald - marketing manager/Audi Jonas Olsson - architect Noé Marcial Camperi - designer Christine Hedström - boundary-crossing events Emma Shanley - PR Fredrik Magnusson - design director/Iittala Anna Markelin - Iittala Tuija Aalto-Setälä - PR manager/Iittala Mårten Knutsson - creative director Charlotte Wiking - project leader Pernille Johansen - project leader Wickie Meier - project leader Tom Hedquist - principal/Beckmans college of design Ted Persson - creative director Magnus Wålsten - account manager Saher Sidhom - planner Carina Brorman - communication director/Eon Chandra Ahlsell - designer Anna Holmquist - designer Joakim Kaminsky - architect Brent Richards - architectural research Mats Theselius - designer Per Söderberg - architect Anders Runerheim - architect Jonas Pinzke - sustainable creative director Michael Svedemar - Malmö University Anders Emilson - Malmö University Peter Moritz - Malmö University Anders Ljungmark - Malmö University Pelle Ehn - Malmö University Jens Pamp - brand strategy Oliver Ike - interiors and architecture photography Kerstin Sylwan - sustainability designer Karin Månsson - project development/PEAB Carin Daal - business development/Region Skåne Jenny Nordberg - industrial designer Petra Lilja - industrial designer David Sim - architect/urban designer Pi Åhnberg - manager brand development Mads Kjøller Damkjær - industrial designer Ida Marie Nissen - creative director Louise Hederström - designer Tine Utzon-Frank - architect Mario Thadeu Leme de Barros - professor Alexi Robinson - designer Bo Reimer - professor Isabel Froes - interaction designer Alexander Wiethoff - interaction designer Johanna Stål - editor-in-chief Artur Moustafa - design entrepreneur Andreas Lundberg - Property Developer, Key Account Manager/Skanska Öresund Åsa Guilamo - Swedish government environmental advisory council

Boost talks 16th October

Who will talk?

SPEAKERS 2007

The Designboost Boost Talks is for you who want Michael Young Michael Young has been amongst the most successful and influential deto widen your scope and see the opportunities signers of his generation from the outset of his career. His clients include in diversity rather than in speciality when apArtemide,Cappellini, Rosenthal and Established and sons. Young is currently proaching and discussing a complex subject. The based in Hong Kong, where he enjoys direct access to factories in China.

He hopes that by bringing the design closer to those production facilities he Boost Talks are focused on best practise: ideas, concepts and projects which individually or when will be able to elevate an awareness and appreciation for the art of design in that key market. put together offers new insight in what contributes to a long and prosperous life of a city or of cities.

Ilse Crawford You will leave Designboost with a fresh conscious- Ilse Crawford is head of the department of man and well-being at the ness on how you can make a difference, become a DESIGN ACADEMY EINDHOVEN, author of two books and regularly speaks at international events. she has created the vision for the soho house brand, booster, professionally or privately.

(Boost Talks are formerly known as lectures)

has worked across product development and regeneration as vice president of DONNA KARAN HOME and as creative director of the SWAROVSKI CRYSTAL PALACE project where she brought together visionary designers to reinvent the chandelier, showing in Paris, Milan and New York.

Jeffrey Inaba Jeffrey Inaba is the founder of INABA, a strategy, architecture and urban design firm based in Los Angeles. The office’s current and recent clients include Axe Body Spray, Microsoft, Coca Cola, the City of Miami, Enel Contemporanea, the New Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Gyeonggido Museum of Modern Art. INABA currently has architecture and urban design projects in Rome, Miami and South Korea. Jeffrey is also the Director of C-Lab, a think and action tank that conducts cultural research and urban design projects based at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He has lectured and published internationally, and is the Features Editor of Volume Magazine.

Bjarke Ingels Bjarke Ingels is the founder of BIG, Bjarke Ingels Group – a Copenhagen based group of 85 architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. BIG are devoted to investing in the overlap between radical and reality. Each building site is a testbed for its own pragmatic utopian experiment.

Gert Wingårdh Gert Wingårdh is the the most well known living Swedish architect with a major influence on the architect scene in Sweden. The main office is in Gothenburg with a second office in Stockholm. In 2007 Gert Wingårdh was appointed adjunct professor in building design at the architecture faculty at Chalmers. Wingårdh is the creator of the Swedish embassies in Washington and Berlin.

Cay Bond Cay Bond, a writer, tv journalist and trendanalyst with socioculture and progressivity in mind for more than 20 years, while lecturing for educational purpose, for new business for cityplanning, for development on the market, for the purpose of design, for the fashion universe. Progressivity in Ethics

and Aesthetics, Environment and Utility, Moral and Respect. Earlier topics: The New Geography of Business, Design and Industry, Tradition and Provocation, Women’s Influence in Society, Attraction and Generosity a new formula.

Lisa Whit Lisa White is The Horti-Culturalist and trend gardener, focused on bringing horticulture into all other aspects of contemporary culture—and vice-versa.

After working for 15 years at Studio Edelkoort/Trend Union and editing the trend magazines View on Colour (colour trends), Inview (design trends), Bloom (flower trends) and Provider (all of the above), Lisa White recently founded her own independent consulting company, White SA, and a new blog: www.thehorticulturalist.com, whose goal is to disseminate ideas and inseminate inspiration, to untangle the tendrils of nature and culture and let them grow back again together, with a twist.

John Manoochehri John Manoochehri is a sustainability designer, integrating rigorous analysis of sustainability with design theory and practice, focussing on urban form and lifestyles. He is currently a guest researcher at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, and consults and lectures in the architecture and planning field. He wrote the policy framework of the UN Environment Programme on sustainable consumption and production, ’Consumption Opportunities’, and has worked as an advisor for the world’s leading environmental organisations.

Thomas Ermacora

Sante Poromaa was born in 1958 in Kiruna. In the beginning of the eighties he met the American born Zen master Philip Kapleau and became his student. After years of training Sante became ordained as a Zen priest in 1990, working within the Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet (Zen Buddhist Society).

In 1998 he was appointed a Zen master. He is currently teaching Zen in Sweden, Finland and Scotland and is spiritual director of Zenbuddhistiska Samfundet together with his colleague and lifelong partner Kanja Odland.

Founder and Creative Director for Etikstudio, Ermacora is a serial creative entrepreneur with a cause and a focus on sustainable urban design. He is currently consultant to Sønderborg Project Zero, heading the Actics Green Cities tool development and serves as Sustainability Expert for the Club of Amsterdam Think Tank. Along with a series of activities in Media and lifestyle as well as Greentech, Thomas curates ”positive events/exhibits” with the intent of bringing a “debate with outcomes”. Amongst those he exhibited ”dreams on wheels” on cycling cities in the national design centre of Denmark in 2004, which has now become a selected exhibit to prelude the 2009 Copenhagen UN Climate Change Summit. Half Danish, half Italian, grown up in Paris, living in London, 32, he holds a degree in Urbanism from the Sorbonne, a bachelor of International Affairs from Northwestern University and has attended the MIT Start-up program.

Shari Swan

Antoni Vives

Sante Poromaa

With over 15 years of branded strategy, product innovation and trend research experience, Shari Swan specializes in bringing together original thinkers from around the globe for conversations that facilitate the sharing of ideas at the highest level. For this purpose she founded Streative Branding, a strategic design and trend intelligence agency.

Anders Wilhelmson Anders Wilhelmson has been a professor of architecture at the Royal College of Technology in Stockholm since February 2008. Between 1995 and 2005 he was a professor at the Royal University College of Fine Arts, where he was responsible for the school’s postgraduate studies in architecture. Since 1988 he has owned and run Wilhelmson Arkitekter AB, which engages in work extending from product design to urban planning. The company is, among other things, engaged in the major work of establishing the New Kiruna, a city which must be relocated due to mining operations.

Ilkka Suppanen Ilkka Suppanen once belonged to the successful Snowcrash design community and his creativity often leads him forward towards new materials and technologies. He is both preserving and developing the innovative and functional Scandinavian heritage. Ilkka Suppanen is based in Helsinki, Finland. For Ilkka Suppanen design is based on several factors: human experience, social behaviors, global, economic and political issues.

Maria Cecilia Loschiavo Maria Cecilia Loschiavo dos Santos is a philosopher and an associate professor of Design at the School of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo. Currently she is the co-ordinator of the Workshop of Social Design at the Institute of Advanced Studies, at the University of São Paulo.

Dr. Loschiavo dos Santos current research is about Discarded Products, Design and Homelessness in Global Cities and she is deeply committed to design and social responsibility issues.

Jody Turner Jody Turner lectures globally on human culture topics, most recently as keynote in Brazil’s artisinal area to 400 interior and architectural professionals on international design trends. This fall Jody ideated in Montreal on the new waterfront park design; worked on a citizenry empowerment software project; in Seoul Korea with Samsung home; on a Microsoft Euro innovation product and is heading next to speak in Denmark on innovation retail.

Kristina Dryza Kristina Dryza is a designer, strategist and writer. She is the retained consumer trends expert for media agencies and innovation bureaus in London, New York and Tokyo. Kristina helps companies make the imagined future real by translating emerging trends into new products, spaces and experiences. She is also a Business Ambassador for the State of South Australia.

Antoni Vives (1965), economist, politician and essay-writer. Worked as product manager and sales general manager for the japanese car industry.

Secretary of the Cabinet Office of the Catalan Government, elected member of the council of Barcelona. Promoter and member of the board of the Catalan Institute for Advanced Architecture (IAAC), lecturer at the London School of Economics, cooperates with several think tanks working on the city, identity and other related subjects.

Christer Larsson Christer Larsson is the director of cityplanning of Malmö.He has been influental when it comes to the transformation of Malmö from an old industrial city to a modern knowledge city. Among the projects Christer Larsson has been involved in is ”Västra Hamnen” which started as the exhibition Bo01 and the completely new urban area of Hyllie.

Guido Verijke I’m 45 years old. I’m originally from Belgium, now officially Swedish, and live in Sweden for 9 years. I’m married for 5 years with a Swedish woman (Wanda Blom). I have 3 children - 2 in Belgium and one (adopted) here in Sweden. I have worked for IKEA for 24 years. First 12 years in the stores in different management functions, then sales leader for IKEA Belgium for the children’s range. I started in 1997 as commercial manager worldwide for children’s range north Europe. From 1999 as commercial manager worldwide for children’s range. From 2001 as commercial manager worldwide for bedroom. From 2003 till now as deputy business area manager for textiles. Hobbies: music, film and enjoying life.

Jennifer Leonard Jennifer Leonard is a senior designer at the global innovation firm IDEO, where she leads projects dealing with the human side of service, interactions and space. Prior to design, Jennifer had a ten-year career in print and broadcast journalism, did an internship in NY at Rolling Stone magazine and co-authored the book Massive Change with Bruce Mau. Canadian by birth, she lives in San Francisco but is currently on assignment in London.

Johanna Stål and Kerstin Sylwan Kerstin Sylwan is a designer with a background within design with focus on sustainabilty. Among other things she is involved in the initiative Saving the Planet in Style togehter with Svensk Form.

Johanna Stål is editor in chief and one of the founders of Camino, a magazine for sustainable lifestyle. Energi - hur design kan göra skillnad is their first book. With a focus on energy and design the authors presents innovative solutions, companies and entrepreneurs that has tried new paths and researchers that examine producition and consumption patterns of the future. A changeover of energy usage in society is necessary and in this process designers and product developers have an important role to play.

Programme Boost Talks October 16 Inaugural speech by David Carlson, Peer Eriksson and Kristina Börjeson Morning boosts Christer Larsson Cay Bond Antoni Vives Ilse Crawford Bjarke Ingels Short body stretch Jeffrey Inaba Lisa White Thomas Ermacora Jennifer Leonard Gert Wingårdh Lunch Afternoon boosts Introduction to afternoon boosts by David Carlson and Peer Eriksson Kristina Dryza Michael Young Shari Swan Short body stretch Sante Poromaa Anders Wilhelmsson Coffee Break Jody Turner Ilkka Suppanen short body stretch Maria Cecilia Loschiavo Guido Verijke Kerstin Sylwan and Johanna Stål John Manoochehri

Wind-up: David Carlson and Peer Eriksson

Boost show LONG LIVE THE CITY The Boost Show (formerly known as exhibition) will this year celebrate the city: how shall we make it live long and well? To answer the question Designboost brings forward a holistic view on the sustainable city. But we don’t have the truths. The question is, does anyone? On the other hand there are plenty of questions and possibly some answers.

LONG LIVE THE CITY is this year, as last year, based on our tool and check list The Sustainable Wheel. Through “best practice” examples you will be able to experience how different companies, cities and regions are adapting to the challenges of the sustainable city. The list include Apple, E.ON, Alcro, Artek, Audi, Biomega, BRIO, City of Malmö, Electrolux, Iittala, Noir Illuminati, Region Skåne, Thule and Tom Dixon.

Another group of companies are coming from the furniture sector; Cappelini, Blå Station, David Design, IKEA, Källemo, Gulled, Nola, Folkform, Artecnica and Lammhults. With their help we will raise questions around timeless design and future classics.

We will also present a conceptual installation with Iittala were seven designers have made a personal reflection on compatibility according to the Iittala brand. The designers/designer groups are Ilse Crawford, Claesson Koivisto Rune, Folkform, Stephen Burks, Ilkka Suppanen, Satyendra Pakhale and Apocalypse.

Printed on large banners you will be able to read the one hundred question formulations written by our ”booster” as a challenge to the sustainable city. You will also find the question formulations printed here and there in this magazine.

During the weekends ”mini boosts” or short lectures will be held in the Boost Show.

Opening hours: Thursday–Friday 11am–6pm Saturday–Sunday 12am–4pm Free entrance.

long live

Designboost 2008 will celebrate the city

the city A city must make the best of its inherent capacity to be sustainable. This is our vision.

It is only then it can profit and further develop knowledge and resources which are provided from ‘the outside’. Designboost 2008 will thus focus on ideas and examples on how to create a long- term liveable city from a micro approach: what is aimed at or has worked well in a specific place. This solution might be possible to apply elsewhere or alternatively merely be just that: specific. We believe it is more rewarding for the planet to have many cities like this than to have a few, which have managed to fit into a general model of ‘the sustainable city’, often by adding scarce resources from the outside!

To create a sustainable city is not a project.

It is a process.

Design is very relevant to this process, not only initially but as a way to assure continuous improvements. Design is about creating the built and landscaped environment, but it has also an important role as provider of the right tools to facilitate sustainable life for individuals as well as for communities and their social and economic enterprises.

The issues of providing clean air, water and to manage waste are basic for all communities and are even more challenging in a dense city environment.

Design is not irrelevant to these issues and it would be effortless and tempting to focus these basics in chats and talks during Designboost 2008. We think other organisations are better equipped to do this and we have decided to instead pursue our vision and invite to discussions on how to best develop a city’s inherent capacity to offer lasting quality of life seen in a holistic percpective. This vision does of course not exclude the basics mentioned above but it has a different scope.

The popularity of a city is its fortune and its fate.

A city where individuals prosper, cultural and

economic life develops well. The city starts to grow and offers new possibilities to its citizens but also challenges, which are not all for the better.

The impact of the city on its stakeholders risks running out of control. Many of the famous and for their time advanced Maya cities in Mexico were abandoned due to uncontrolled expansion.

80% of EU’s inhabitants live in urban communities and as a total there are 3 billion urban dwellers in the world. It is not an exaggeration that to regain control of how cities develop is critical for the future of the world. If not urban development is seriously addressed with a holistic approach, current and future efforts for sustainable development risk not only being inefficient but even promote the opposite: un-sustainability, There are indications that a lot of ongoing research and projects are not sufficiently interlinked both what concerns relevant disciplines and theory/ practice. The result, as expressed by one official, is that if you try to act sustainable with one hand you can be sure to create un-sustainable, or at least unwanted, effects with the other!

What can you expect to take with you from Designboost ?

Whether you take part in our workshops, the boost-chats, or have come to talk or to listen and visit the boost-show, you should leave with a much wider perspective. The aim of the event is firstly to raise questions, start new processes of thought and thus provide you with interesting angles of approach to the projects and problems in which you are engaged. This is well preconditioned as the invitees to Designboost represent relevant professions and specialities but which are out of the ordinary for this type of events.

Secondly, the event offers a great opportunity to enlarge and improve the quality of your network.

Long Live the City! has placed the soft issues of city development high on the agenda. We believe that awareness and knowledge about the nature of soft issues will eventually contribute to a change of priorities when politicians and policymakers deal with harder issues. We are not alone to wait for them to put a more holistic perspective in place.

The City and the Sustainable A city ought to be viewed with the sustainable wheel in mind

Even if with varying success, most cities in the developed world have taken measures to improve their infrastructure with regard to the environment: air and water quality, waste management and means of transport.

There is unfortunately an important back log: awareness came only to realise that focus on economic growth had created difficult preconditions for the project to restore our relationship with nature. Like in some long time marriages, harmony had disappeared.

The other bad news is that developing countries have followed suite: focus is on economic growth and the regard not only to nature, but to human welfare is often not only secondary but absent.

The good news is that awareness is rising everywhere even if prevalent general conditions in several countries present a tough handicap.

Designboost is not focused on the big technical and political issues concerning environmentally adjusted infrastructure. These discussions have already several high quality forums.

Designboost is the scene for the extraordinary questions: we want to raise the sort of awareness which will allow you to doubt excuses for slow progress and to be suspicious as soon as something is labelled impossible.

As workers in the world of design we are all partly responsible for the design of the world. We know that you know that the re-design of a detail might change the whole.

This goes for cities as well.

Wheel – just like any other manmade product.

The importance of asking questions Designboost is about going beyond often asked questions in an effort to hit the edge.

The first and very relevant question to ask if you are involved in projects for sustainable development is if you really know what you are talking about.

Here are twelve examples which allow you to do introspection

Do you know ...?

1. ... what makes the individual space feel homely and inviting even before the furniture has arrived?

5. ... when it is an improvement to demolish a building and replace it with a new?

We appear to be sadly ignorant about the importance of the aesthetic when planning individual spaces. Or rather: we interpret aesthetical values superficially and do not include characteristics like for example recognition and orientation. Aesthetics is more about simplification than beauty and if you do not feel that the individual place takes care of essential needs it will not be cared for.

A building is always part of something. When you desire to demolish it you are ripping away something from a whole: at times for the better but this is not a rule. At least you ought to consider what more than the building you are tearing down and how to replace it.

2. ... which factors in the interaction between individual, common and public spaces that enhance the quality of living?

The planning and equipment of an apartment or a family house is one of several criteria which decide the comfort of the people living there.

The immediate impression of a space is of course important as is the experience of functionality which follows. Still, the individual space will not be cherished and sustained if it is not part of a whole: if the common and public spaces of which it is dependent are not planned with regard to human ways of being. No space exists independently.

3. ... how to facilitate the use of public transport?

Our widespread cities are not planned for public transport but for cars.

This will take long time to change. But in the meantime: are you using your creativity to find solutions within the current situation? Or are you merely referring to this as an infrastructure problem, which will take decades to resolve?

4. ... what it takes to make bicycling a real option to the use of a car?

When is bicycling an option and for whom? This is important to consider when discussing how to facilitate for bicycle riders in the city.

6. ... how to judge the need for change beyond the desire for renewal of for example public spaces?

A public space is for the public. Is the reason to renew a space for the public good – or is there a different agenda? Have you analysed the cause of the situation you are trying to improve before suggesting a solution?

7. ... the importance of concern for a city’s history when planning its sustainable future?

This is not about enforcing vernacular architecture as the preferred way of building. This is about the experience which is ‘hidden’ in traditions, about association and recognition. It is easy to create a feeling of homelessness, which has nothing to do with lack of homes or resources. When we do not feel at home that is when things start to go wrong.

8. ... the relation between ‘visual pollution’ and sustainability?

Who are to judge visual pollution? Is this not all about taste or individual preferences? We have different taste as a result of among other things experience and interests. But humans have also things in common: we want to make sense of what we see and we want to do it fast, almost without thinking. An overloaded environment does not promote this.

Positive aesthetical impressions are very much about simplification.

9. ... that most cities’ have ‘wasted places’: areas with an undeveloped potential?

Are you someone who focuses on problems or do you try to find a potential? A wasted place may well be an area with problems, but not necessarily. An inventory of potential ought to be made of every place before its eventual problems are assessed.

10. ... how to design against crime?

To design is always a process where one design inspires another.

Criminality and crime does unfortunately the same. To design against crime does not have a true end product, only intermediary solutions.

These have to be constantly updated not only to prevent but in the best of cases even to convey a message: crime does not pay.

11. ... the difference between individuality in building: reflecting a city’s soul or individualism in building: reflecting an architect’s ego?

A city’s soul is not solely to find by looking behind. It is also about aspirations, entering a new era or reclaiming something that has been lost. What cannot be compromised is the buildings relevance: as an entity but also as part of a context, a landscape. When a building is judged irrelevant by the city dwellers it contributes to the city feeling unhomely, which is a strong enemy to sustainable development.

12. ... that cultural diversity in cities is a very old phenomenon?

Cities have throughout history been places where cultures meet. Culture varies in small and in large: between groups of people from different part of the globe but also between people from two parts of the same country.

Regard to cultural diversity is essential to sustainable architecture but as it has been around for a long time, there is no need to reinvent, rather to find inspiration in what already exists for further adaptation and innovation.

We hope the introspection was useful. You might not have agreed with our comments but if they started new processes of thought, we are content any way.

Environmental influence – to have an aspiration to affect the environment as little as possible There is direct and indirect environmental influence.

Awareness about the former is better grounded in most urban areas and thus the efforts to lower its negative impact. This is not enough.

Knowledge about direct impact ought to be paired with insight about the indirect outcome of every measure and action. Not least how urban lifestyles might interfere beyond our control when sustainable measures are introduced.

Moreover, reality has shown that without regard to the indirect impact, we risk sustaining the unsustainable for example by misusing resources elsewhere in an effort to improve the environmental influence from our cities.

Transportation causes environmental problems, some means more than others. Light is therefore once again shred on the slightly overused dogma of acting local: you cannot habitually solve your problems by handing them over to someone else.

First hand, you have to use a city’s inherent resources and problem solving capacity to improve its environmental act.

However, there is one important exception when it comes to external resources: knowledge and experience are in abundance out there and waiting to be used.

Knowledge is like sustainability, not a project but an ongoing process.

“Is sustainability the ’new modernism’”?

Peter Majanen - futurist

“The word sustainability contains the important word ABILITY. Is it not so that it’s quiet easy to create sustainable solutions, but that the real challenge is to have the ABILITY to let them last over time?”

Guido Verijke - IKEA

“Is landscape a part of our identity? If so, are we allowed to change it?”

Antoni Vives - economist, politician and writer

“Is it necessary to drop the level of consumption of new products, for a more sustainable city?”

Noé Marcial González Camperi - industrial designer

“How can we stop getting hung up on details and start looking at the big picture?”

Patrick Schenck - trend researcher

“Could we restore a healthy, respectful attitude for the cities, through a new architecturell city planning, where we divide the big city in to smaller cities with big green borders?”

Johan Lindau - furniture producer

“What’s the mystery with all new shopping centers? How is this planning possible considering all the knowledge we possess?”

Jenny Nordberg - industrial designer

Innovative development – to develop unique attributes on several levels Innovation does not necessarily imply development and neither does newness. The development of a city means important long term investments, which, even if proven inadequate or wrong, cannot easily be undone. Every substantial change ought to be thoroughly analysed with respect to direct and indirect improvements for people living and working in the city – or the opposite: which negative impacts might be the result on people generally or specifically.

A grand official building is a huge investment which might act as a tourist magnet and create income and pride for the benefit of everybody who is dependent of the city. But a building, however impressive, might also negatively affect the city’s sole and make the dwellers feel unhomely and also disguise important needs for improvement in other areas of the city.

Technical developments have meant a blessing for mankind – and a suffering. There are two reasons for the latter: firstly innovation for the sake of innovation and secondly bad management.

The result is a reality for all too many: underground systems and commuter trains which are too advanced and poorly tested create immense problems as does automatic services which have replaced not only humans but also their voices.

Who will be the first to design alternative jobs as a response to a city’s development and as an alternative to automation and unemployment? What will the calculation look like?

“Gentrification: integration or displacement - or simply a necessity, no matter what?”

Robert Fekete - architect

“Are we to scared to suggest utopia – and how do we define it to ourselves and our children?”

Per Södberg - architect

”How can we return to the idea of humanizing our cities without segregating ‘work’ from ‘play’ and ‘entertainment’ from ‘life’?”

Satyendra Pakhale - designer

“Are we ready to accept the implications of a sustainable city?”

Jonas Olsson - architect

“How do we motivate the individual citizens to act in coherence with the overall goal of the sustainable city?”

Pernille Johansen - project leader

“Does the sustainable city need a different composition - living inhabitants, hotels, homeless, vendors, museums and so on - than what we currently are used to?”

Pi Åhnberg - manager brand development

“How do we develop cities that are people – and relation focused?”

Wickie Meier - project leader

“Shifting the identity of cities: a socially sustainable ambition?”

Robert Fekete - architect

“From industrial city to city of knowledge, culture, commerce, tourism, and...?”

Robert Fekete - architect

Affectivity – to be a part of the user

You feel it immediately when you visit a city for the first time: I want to stay in this place – or I prefer to leave as soon as possible! Sometimes the first enchantment wears off quickly, the attraction and feeling of attachment was not long-lasting. But then there are the situations where you promise yourself to come back – and you do, sometimes even to stay and live.

We are not referring to the world’s most well-known cities and tourist magnets, but the quite ordinary place. In this case the place proves to be extraordinary in its capacity to form long-term attachment with dwellers and visitors, because you are probably not alone in your experience.

What is the secret of this place?

We suggest that it promotes affection, which as opposed to emotion is stable once it is in place.

Planners, architects and designers are able to create preconditions for affective reactions.

They ought to consider traditions as experience – not as an irrelevant pattern language.

They should rethink time as a process where development is primary and newness secondary.

They may revalue aesthetics as a sensual experience and not a learned judgment.

They must be aware that no human being can be taught affection. It is a reaction beyond the rational.

They should avoid nostalgia as an aim but cherish it as a carrier of information on affection: The simple things, which has served you well over time and which induces a feeling of warmth and being cared for.

A city you decide to return to offers association, recognition, simplification – in short, it conveys meaning.

“Is the cities ability to adjust to humans changing inner needs and demands the key to their future development, growth and well being?”

Charlotte Wiking - project leader

“How can we learn from socio-spatial processes with various outcomes, e.g. Malmö, Manchester, Barcelona, Moscow...?”

Robert Fekete - architect

“What can we do to help diversity and sustainability catch up with the growth of our cities?”

Matthias Weber - trend researcher

“Why do we build cities for vehicles and not for humans, if we want sustainability?”

Claes Foxerus - planner

“How can design contribute to preventing the spiral of urban poverty, deprivation and human suffering in contemporary cities?”

Maria Cecilia Loschiavo - environmental design and philosophy

“What if Malmö has an ecological footprint of its own size?

Joakim Kaminsky - architect

Aesthetics – to age with grace

The aesthetic sense is immediate in its verdict: I like this place – or I do not! It is therefore obvious that aesthetics have to do with simplification: if an object does not make sense almost instantly, it is rejected. Simplicity, the mantra of modernism, has little to do with simplification rather the contrary: the very simple lacks points of reference and people feel lost.

Urban planning is about huge investments, it must go beyond trends and everything temporary.

How to avoid these pitfalls?

One way is for professionals to be rational concerning technique but non-rational when it comes to aesthetics.

The aesthetic sense is less dependent on culture and lifestyle than previously thought. This would not mean that we are born with a ready developed sense in this respect but that it develops with lived rather than learned experience. As an experienced professional who has had the great advantage of being exposed to material, form and colour in varying contexts over the years, you are ahead of people in general. You have also learned through studies and influence from peers and colleagues.

“I would like to put an umbrella over my architectural students to protect them from all the ideas and influence which are falling down on them like rain and prevent them from using their own senses”, said one famous Swedish architect a few years ago. Learned aesthetics might thus be to disadvantage as it risks not being sustainable.

Knowing that they are ahead of ordinary people but not necessarily on another track would allow professionals to adjust without compromising their core ideas.

It is important to make the city dwellers jump on the band wagon rather than to be left behind unable to bridge the huge gap between your learned professionalism and their lived experience. However, be aware! It would be a giant mistake to miscalculate the width of the gap: the aesthetic sense develops quite quickly once exposed to new challenges.

As there seems to be limited awareness about the nature of the aesthetic, one significant trait of today’s city planning is the polarisation between the extreme and the safe ordinary.

“Temporary artworks and long-termed landscape projects should contribute to the sustainable city; can we plan for both present and for future generations, and still provide space for the unexpected and fantastic?”

Marie Markman - artist and landscape architect

“How can a city provide the tools for for the individual, psychosocially and physically/environmentally, so that the person will be able to facilitate a sustainable life..?”

Anders Ljungmark - Malmö University

“The city is an exciting stage for green energy actors – can you imagine the city skyline of tomorrow?”

Iréne Stewart Claesson - design strategy

“Are Sustainable cities those with a rich cultural life?”

Jens Pamp - brand strategy

Quality – to own multi-quality capacities

Quality is a so called multi capacity. It should embrace every aspect of city planning but materiality and functionality is still in focus.

Let us give you an example, you have seen them often, the children play grounds: hardwearing equipment in bright colours in a fenced space.

Everything looks very solid and expensive. Still there are few children! The place is almost deserted. Why? We suggest that long lasting quality is also about objects allowing exploration, whose meaning is not finite.

Solid material and secure function is of course paramount for a playground. However, to make it last this is not enough: it has to be flexible and naturally offer change over seasons and with children’s capacity, age and interest.

Playgrounds are often found in green spaces, parks and commons. These are recreation grounds and also important as city lungs. But again: is their multi capacity sufficiently developed? Is their lay-out the result of an aesthetic which takes into account our need to explore? Are they easily accessible for those who need them the most? Should every new development by rule incorporate a green space big enough for human activities and paid for equally by the developers?

An often heard comment concerns ‘the dead thing’, might it be an object, a space or a building. Some things are regarded as being alive (though dead), whilst others are just that – dead!

The difference in a respectively dead or alive appearance is whether there is something to explore. You do not lose interest as long as there is more to see and experience. A continuous experience might be the feeling of being cared for; might it be by an object or a house. You do not discard what cares for you. It is sustainable.

“I just read that in the city the physical, mental and digital environments are planned separately from each other.

By using research from neurological, cultural and ecological research the urban environment could be planned to lower the stress risk for each human being.

Wouldn’t this be the real sustainable city?”

Christel Vaenerberg - creative director/Iittala

“To become a sustainable city the challenge is to change attitudes and to create desire. Can a bus ever be as hip as an iPhone?”

“People don’t easily change their habits. How can we make sustainable products, services, transportation and housing so attractive that people are willing to go for the better choice?”

Tuija Aalto-Setälä - PR manager/Iittala

Hanna Ljungström - designer

“Sustainability is about long term timescales, and not short term time, is there time for sustainability?”

Katarina Graffman - anthropologist

Authenticity – to be able to tell a credible story

What does an authentic city look like?

Are the planning and the buildings restored and unchanged with respect to time passing?

This might eventually be it, but it is still not significant. Authenticity is in the ambiance created by the built environment and less in the singularity of the buildings. This would mean that the demolition of a building has to be analysed not only to the quality of the building as such but to its role and what it means in the part of the city where it is located. It is easier to replace a building than to restore an ambiance.

An authentic city tells the truth: not only about its history, but also about its future. Like when a former industrial town develops into an academic place, it cannot import academic characteristics, neither the material nor the immaterial. It has to develop its own, based on heritage, capacity and various local conditions.

The town then becomes an academic place in its own right. It is credible and credibility attracts.

Authenticity is regard to context in a very specific way but instead habitually translated into unspoilt in the meaning of unchanged. This creates a default link between spoiling and changing. The challenge is to change without spoiling, with regard not only to the built environment but also to the total context which includes the immaterial.

“How do we confront the global culture of design and encourage the last surviving products from local manufactures and small industries that have resisted the pull of the global nomadic design culture?

Long live the city with local traditions,crafts and cultures.”

Chandra Ahlsell and Anna Holmquist - designer

“Does design add value to an investment?”

Andreas Lundberg - Property Developer, Key Account Manager/Skanska Öresund

“What do we truly want out of life? What really matters to us – and how does the fabric of our cities help to realize our dreams?

Can we replace ’built-in obsolescence’ with ’built-in sustainability’?”

Mike Betts - design strategist

“How can we make city-living more cool by making it more sustainable?”

“Can we talk about sustainable cities and communities not talking about sustainable identities?”

Carin Daal - business development/Region Skåne

Antoni Vives - economist, politician and writer

“How do we develop cities that are people - and relation focused?”

Wickie Meier - project leader

Compatibility – to be part of a bigger coherence

Every city is part of a region. Only the megacities are ‘regions’ in their own right and big enough to claim it with reason.

If a city is not compatible with its region, it is not resource efficient. Examples of this inefficiency can be made into a long list:

– infrastructure which has to be constantly

ad justed,

–materials to be brought in from far away,

–overlapping activities within the region

whilst

–other activities which are totally lacking,

–disregard to the established when introdu-

cing new systems into the city dwellers’ life Compatibility is not merely a question of hard issues. System changes can be made more easily compatible if new ‘soft ware’ is used. How a new system is introduced often marks the difference between success and failure and the extra effort is normally a minor investment compared to what is at risk.

In several European countries the education system is one example of changes where focus has been on the ‘hard ware’ but where neither hard nor soft ware is compatible with what has been and what is likely to come.

This has caused long term problems for young people and harm to the quality of the work force.

Today when education has become more localised with specialised colleges in many new places, cities have a chance to make a difference, state good examples of compatibility in education.

“If the city is a mirror of its inhabitants in terms of sustainability – can we then talk about ”Citizen design” as another way to look at urban design?”

Thomas Ermacora - sustainability designer

“Can we redesign and remix cities as permeable places that allow a diversity of sentient life to coexist and cohabitate?”

Jody Turner - trend and future empowerment

“Nowadays many city centres are planned for working, shopping and entertaining.

How can we develop cities that are made for living; for sharing and doing things together?”

Tuija Aalto-Setälä - PR manager/Iittala

“When we talk about sustainable design, how have we defined what is sustainable enough?”

Magnus Wålsten - account manager

“When building, are we building for the development of greed or for generosity?”

Sante Poromaa -zen buddhist teacher

“How can cities emotionally amplify life” Kristina Dryza - design strategist

”Why have we not understood that more compact cities are easier to make sustainable and also attractive to live in?”

”Can a city be sustained by the personal stories of the people who inhabit it?”

Jennifer Leonard - designer writer

Tine Utzon-Frank - architect

”Do we want sustainability, then it is really up to us! Do we dare? Or do we dare not to?”

Mads Kjøller Damkjær - industrial designer

”Sustainability will only be meaningful in the urban context if it aligns and infiltrates the consumer’s personal and intimate bubble which is no more than 50 FEET FROM ME” Shari Swan - consumer insight

”Does the sustainable city need a different composition - living inhabitants, hotels, homeless, vendors, museums and so on - than what we currently are used to?”

Pi Åhnberg - manager brand development

”What does it take to create cities with a soul where the citizens feel belonging and involvement enough to care for it in a sustainable way?”

Ewa Kumlin - managing director/Svensk Form

”How can you create the adaptable city? A cityscape that adapts to the geographical and demographical changes with regards for the environment and because the changes in the environment?”

Artur Moustafa - design entrepreneur

”Long live the city but with what kind of standard of living? What is the meaning of urban standard of living in a degraded city?”

Mario Thadeu Leme de Barros - professor

“How can we integrate sustainability to make it more than a trend, more than just a branding tool?”

Ida Marie Nissen - creative director

”What role does beauty and aesthetics play for the genuine care by the citizens for their city?”

Ewa Kumlin - managing director/Svensk Form

Environmental influence – to have an aspiration to affect the environment as little as possible RESPONSIBILITY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL INFLUENCE. As a provider of energy E-on has power - in more than one sense. The society is dependent on responsible energy providers and it is up to all of them to hold this role in trust.

One of E-on’s aims is that you in every situation should be convinced that they do their best to provide you not only with as good energy as possible but also with energy which is efficiently produced. It is crucial for environmental protection that for every energy unit produced the surplus energy goes back into the production cycle.

The environmental influence is thus not simply a question about the source of production, what is often referred to as ‘dirty’ and ‘clean’ energy. To save energy in the production process by reusing what is side produced by the actual process is both environmentally and financially sound.

Every company has to make a profit but E-on has decided to share theirs with customers and the society – not as part of a money deal but in an agreement for environmental protection.

E-on

Innovative development – to develop unique attributes on several levels PURE INNOVATION AND MUTIDEVELOPMENT. Audi leadership is about technique and setting the standard for the future: Pure Innovation.

When you decide to buy a new Audi you can trust that it is developed and not merely changed. They do not innovate on the surface or just for the sake of it.

Pure Innovation stands for multi development. Their aim is to produce cars which combine the joy and purpose of driving with direct and indirect regard to environmental protection, which includes all measures to protect and preserve the natural bases of our lives.

Pure Innovation does not turn Audi owners into eco-drivers but provides them with an excellent tool to help Audi fulfil its mission.

The only detail multi innovation cannot warrant is your cooperation. Please do not let Audi down!

Audi

Affectivity – to be a part of the user ART SHOULD BE MORE ABOUT AFFECTION THAN BEAUTY. All art museums have one important mission in common: to give citizens sensual experiences without demanding anything in return. Should a museum mirror the city and the region where it is placed? Probably not, because then it would not surprise, only confirm. A better way of putting it is that an art museum should connect to the people who regard it as their institution because it is placed where they live.

Malmö Art Museum knows that if they offer experiences on different levels the number of visitors will increase: exposure to a variety of experiences makes you move from one level to another and enjoy art you did not initially take in. If they as a museum focus on art to please, every exhibition should be easily forgotten. Do we generally mean that something is merely aesthetically pleasing when we name it ‘beautiful’?

Or do we mean that a piece of art has gone from drawing our attention with a pleasing colour or form to engaging us through the message it conveys?

Art was probably the first domain to already 100 years ago admit nature’s right and human’s plight to adjust. With this in mind the museum has succeeded to present art which rise emotions, create feelings and result in affection. The latter is lasting and that is why Malmö Art Museum represents the city’s collective memory.

Malmö artmuseum

Aesthetics – to age with grace THE AESTHETIC AND THE TIMELESS OBJECT Is an object which holds its attraction through repeated encounters timeless?

If this is the criteria for timelessness, how could it be achieved by design?

We suggest that it is more about design thinking than design methodology. The philosophy in place is always reflected in the actual design whatever method is applied.

The pieces of furniture we have selected for this show are all by different designers and manufacturers but with a philosophy in common: They regard time as a process, recognising tendencies but never following trends which would label their products time specific. Traditions are to them a source of knowledge. They appreciate aesthetics as embedded, not in beauty, but in immediate association, recognition and understanding. They are aware that people cannot be taught to approve of an object, only learn from lived experience, which is responsible for their intuitive judgment.

Following this philosophy, products have a chance to create affection and strengthen attachment instead of seeing the latter wear off with fading newness.

When there is no attachment, the product’s way to an already overloaded waste yard is short.

Six design producers

Quality – to own multi-quality capacities QUALITY DOES NOT LEAVE OUT ANY ASPECT. Malmö has like many cities passed through the phase were modernism ruled urban planning with the need for air and light overruling those for community and homeliness. At the time there was little awareness about the total impact of demolishing a building or a whole block. Malmö’s city planners are now aware that when replacing old buildings with new, the fact that a community might be uprooted and the soul of the city affected needs attention. If a new or a renewed city area is to be sustainable every quality aspect has to be attended to: material and immaterial. The area must make sense in itself but also as part of the city as a whole.

Bo01, the living exhibition which was to forever change the face of Malmö, involved a risk to create a new, cool part of the city which would feel like a separate isle. We know now that this did not become the case. The people of Malmö have incorporated Västra Hamnen, the Western Harbour, in their city scope. The reason spells quality with focus on eight parameters: holistic planning, sanitation of ground, energy supply, waste management, traffic planning, green spaces and water, building for living and finally knowledge and information.

The city of Malmö

Authenticity – to be able to tell a credible story AUTHENTICITY IS ABOUT TELLING A TRUE STORY. True stories have nothing to do with praising the old days.

True stories are about understanding human ways of being and meeting their needs in a constant aim for improvement.

Authenticity in what surrounds us thus facilitates our life by offering an extension of what we already recognise and understand. We do not have to continuously reflect to manage.

Thule has identified the nomad within humans: being mobile is a basic need to which society has responded. Nomads move with their belongings. Thule sees to that you can take them with you in one go, on top of your car. The solution they offer is reflecting how we humans genuinely behave.

Thule’s aim is to make us understand that there are alternatives to heavy, energy consuming vehicles when it comes down to loading: the winners are we and the environment .

Thule

Compatibility – to be part of a bigger coherence COMPATIBILITY IN DESIGN COUNTERS THROW AWAY.

It is very simple. If you design for lifestyles your products will not last as our ways of living are constantly changing.

Iittala’s aim is therefore to design for a lifetime by producing high quality objects, which continue to complement each other and fit together irrespective of range and collection.

They do not ask customers what they want but observe what continuously attracts them.

Iittala is not nostalgic. Their philosophy is instead to learn from nostalgia, which is the antidote to throwaway manners.

Iittala thus tries to design and produce objects which care for you and serve your needs and desires in a way which induce trust and comfort. In this aim, they have learned the importance of trusting designers to use their inherent experience and their senses when developing compatible objects.

The Ittala way is not only environmentally sound but also cost efficient: they design for somebody and something and try not to waste resources on developing products nobody needs and wants.

Do we need to say that Iittala also continuously improve their manufacturing, packaging and transport with regard to environmental protection?

Iittala

The sustainable city Whenever we discuss sustainability our focus goes immediately to the obvious.

We discuss cars, light bulbs, heating up houses, etc.. All the contributors to a worse environment and a warmer climate.

Why we do that? This is easier for us to understand. It’s something we can do something about…we can solve it! And than, when we are driving around with our bio-gas car and save electricity by putting out half of our light bulbs we can enjoy our “feel good” feeling. That we are on top of the situation, we’ve done something about it!

Maybe we should stop here for a while and rethink. Is this really the right focus?

Let’s talk raw material. When we look at a company as IKEA and you make the environmental footprint of it (emission), you will discover that their biggest footprint is caused by the raw material they use to make things. It’s the processing of wood, metal, cotton, etc.. The raw material footprint of IKEA is 58%. What would be the choice for a company to focus on to improve their environmental footprint?

Buildings which is standing for 2% of it? Or the raw material use which is 58% of it?

Off course it’s not either or, it’s both to be focused on.

So why does that not count for a sustainable city? What would be the real environmental footprint of a city when you would look into the raw material that goes into a city to build it but also to maintain it causing huge emission problems..

All the stones, concrete, metal, glass, electricity, water, etc….

I don’t say we should not focus on the traffic and other obvious polluters. But the issue for a city is not different than for a company.

Again, it’s not either or, it’s both to be focused on. But there is a bigger gain to reach for the environment when we prioritize the right things.

BOOSTING A DIALOGUE ON DESIGN, DISPLACEMENT AND HOMELESSNESS Maria Cecilia Loschiavo, Lara Barbosa, Milena Bingre, Tatiana Sakurai

Sheltering the poor and the victims of humanitarian crises has become one of the most pressing themes for design and architecture in the later part of the 20th century. This new condition has challenged the current limits and the methodology of design and architecture and it is a main aspect in the construction of sustainable spaces.

Across the world, a massive problem of homelessness has reached disaster proportions and the and it has been difficult to deal with this situation. In downtown areas of cities where things are discarded, the homeless can have access to the leftovers market. They can dig for things: the “Cities of Fig 3- Homeless habitat in Los Angeles, USA. Plastic and Cardboard”, and set up their habitat Photo by Mario Barros. using these wastes.

Fig 1 – Homeless habitat in Delhi, India. Photo by M.C. Loschiavo

Fig 4 – Homeless habitat in São Paulo, Brazil.

Photo by Douglas Mansur These arrangements have a significant impact on city life, leading to new uses of the public spaces, which frequently generate adverse reactions among the city inhabitants and municipal government.

Homelessness is a multifaceted problem. Architects and designers can give their responses to this humanitarian crisis and contribute to the solution. Architecture cannot deal with the question of cooperation between people and the organization of this in a community, but designers can deFig 2 – Homeless habitat in Tokyo, Japan. Phot by finitely contribute to creating devices to do this?

Ken Straiton

Design as a mediator of spatial, political and cultural conflicts to problematic social contexts, constitutes a new field of investigation. Students want to give their contribution to change the situation.

This essay presents some issues developed by projects research conducted at the School of Architecture and Urbanism, University of São Paulo, under the supervision of Professor Maria Cecilia Loschiavo. These ideas presented here aims at boosting a design dialog among people interested in this relevant contemporary context.

Communicating homelessness Many artists, designers and architects have explored the issue of the expression of the collectivity inside the urban scale. The most important point is not so much the kind of physical support or technology being used but the amount of interaction, display and new ways to express it. We are capable of affecting an object by ourselves or as a group, at the same time as we are affected by it.

Possibly we could use this kind of device to create new urban equipment, totems, to use large surfaces such as building facades and objects installed at strategic locations in a city to communicate policies, and display information that could help the homeless population, as well as to provide better understanding of this condition.

A four-step nomadic instrument development process for designers Shared Living Community models: the first step.

It is important to consider our collective history of village and community culture. The Co Housing community proposes some collective services like group cooking, shared meals, food processing, social activities, and guest lodging. In some cases, it may include library, child care room, work office, computer/telecommunications center and laundry facilities (STITT, 1999). From the sustainable design point of view it is an excellent solution because the infrastructure needs are “reduced by clustering the buildings, centralizing energy distribution systems, and restricting parking to an area near the street entrance” (STITT, 1999, p.324).

The goal for the Village Cluster/ Co Housing is to create a new definition of “home” to include the closeness, camaraderie, and caring that is shared among an extended family of neighbors, friends, and family. The small families of today will thrive when home is part of larger community, connected to other people with whom they can share emotional support, joys, hardships and sorrows, responsibilities, and frustrations (STITT, 1999).

Vernacular design: the second step.

The construction, the materials and techniques

might be based on local resources and cultural knowledge. The reuse of wasted and discarded objects can also be considered. Maintenance will be easier because they can get everything: labor and all kind of resources, in their regional economy. Bernard Rudofsky is an example of a migrant architect who advocates the vernacular ideas. He travels a lot, and he considers the travel as lifestyle. Meeting strangers is a way to get to know ourselves. For Rudofsky, likewise, to learn about architecture from other cities allow us to see our own architecture in a new light. Using this focus, you see design solutions related to specific climate situations and geographies that could only fit into that localization. Therefore, designers must exercise their look as strangers in their own country to find vernacular solutions.

This does not exclude the use of new materials and textiles if they are available in that place. Manufacturing techniques are welcome as well. Sometimes it is easier to find a solution using only a single material which is very good for recycling and solves all project requirements Using the body scale: the third step.

Priorities are based on experiences for people walking: their ability to know and be known by others in the community and the trust to interact with each other. These qualities belong to face to face interactions. Remember that freedom has to be preserved, so it doesn’t mean small and tight spaces. Be generous with possibilities that the equipment can offer to the user. He certainly will adapt it for what he needs.

The equipment project is for pedestrians. The space for its use will be the No-man’s-land, the urban street. It is directly related to body dimensions, just like the furniture.

A strong concept that cannot be ignored is the discomfort. Rudofsky also projected different shoes, as a way to express his worry about the feet. Who likes to travel must remember the times when you have to be able to carry all your things.

Just imagine having to move yourself with all your belongings.

Difficulties are naturally encountered in this territory so the project could be a way to make this route easier. There are almost no attempts to meet this challenge.

Portable, lightweight and sufficient survival equipment: the fourth step.

This nomadic way of life changes constantly.

People who substitute others, some moves from another places and a new potential friend has just arrived. It is essential to choose what they will carry with them and make this possible though lightness. Flexible solutions are required. Each person has their own priorities and they must be served. The design solution can reconcile different human needs and desires. What are the things that you can live without? This is a matter

of knowing yourself.

Sustainability is contemplated by emphasis on reuse and flexibility. This can be defined by a social and technological durability with a redefinition of these categories: garments, furniture, architectures. Changing these standards to “Habitable furniture” with the building as a piece of furniture. It is urgent for designers to advance the notion of clothing, fashion, interior design and architecture. These limits are becoming blurred. In this paper the definition used for this is simplified with the word equipment, but it can be a portable structure, habitable furniture or a new one.

Urban Lights – contemporary urban nomadism This project aims at proposing of this project is to propose a provocative emergency shelter to this population, that amplifies and reveals their situation of complete misery. The term “light”, used in the title of this work refers to the idea that the installations would be lit during the night which is the time when the homeless are most vulnerable and invisible, as a way to punctuate and take the homeless from their anonymity in the city of São Paulo, through spot lights.

The theme gains most complexity when it intends to: intervene in a public space by creating a provocative shelter causing reactions between the homeless and pedestrians; to express their universe materially, their habits and conflicts (hunger, cold, lack of public bathrooms, violence, etc…) Besides this, it is a very fragile population, unprepared for a complicated construction, and constantly moving, although there are small communities that try to establish a permanent living space, as in abandoned places.

The creation of a sense of place is an important factor, which is a reference lost by the homeless.

Fig 5 - The prototype. The use of Polionda (trademark) plastic is proposed. For the necessary connections, the top of plastic bottles were used as screws. This material is easily found in the waste of urban environment. The structure is entirely recyclable. Photo by Pedro Loes.

Conclusions Design can be an instrument to alleviate human suffering, with urgent solutions, while long term public measures should be taken by the government.

The architect or designer with a range of professional and technical skills has to put themselves at the service of a community and make this community able to help themselves too.

Acknowledgements – Authors are deeply thankful to the homeless communities of Los Angeles, São Paulo, and Tokyo and Delhi who have provided invaluable information, encouragement, and friendship.

References Architecture for Humanity (editor) (2006). Design like you give a damn: architectural responses to humanitarian crises. New York: Metropolis Books.

BAILEY, R. (1977). The homeless and the empty houses. London: Penguin.

BLAUVELT, A. (2003). Strangely familiar: design and everyday life. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center.

KRONENBURG, R. (1995). Houses in motion : the genesis, history, and development of the portable building. Nova York: Academy Editions.

LOSCHIAVO, M. C. (2003). Cities of Plastic and Cardboard. The informal Habitat of home-less people in São Paulo, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Professorship thesis, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.

PAPANEK, V. (1983). Design for Human Scale.

New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.

PAPANEK, V. (1973). Design for the real world : human ecology and social change. New York : Bantam Books.

RUDOFSKY, B. (1977). Architecture sans architectes: breve introduction al’architecture spontanee.

Paris: Chene.

RUDOFSKY, Bernard (2007). Lessons from Bernard Rudofsky: Life as a Voyage. Basel: Birkhäuser.

RUDOFSKY, Bernard (1969). Streets for people; a primer for Americans. NewYork: Doubleday.

STITT, F.A. (Editor) (1999). Ecological Design Handbook. Sustainable Strategies for Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Interior Design and Planning. New York: McGraw-Hill.

WATSON, S.; AUSTERBERRY, H. (1986). Housing and homelessness. A feminist perspective. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

50 Feet From Me

by Streative Branding

‘Having the bubble’ is a term air traffic controllers use to describe a state of complete and total awareness. When ‘having the bubble’, controllers are able to construct and maintain a cognitive map of all the inputs and stimuli taking place around them at any given time and integrate this information into a coherent picture.

They are in complete congruent, a seemingly effortless, balanced flow of information. It’s a beautiful and even serene idea, this bubble, something like a runner’s high, a state of mind where all the pieces fall seamlessly into place!

Since we’re here to talk about sustainable design, Streative feels we cannot broach the topic without first identifying it. In our opinion, the most mystical and most unfathomable design in the world is in fact the human being him or herself.

We are the most advanced species on the face on the earth; we’re complex, ever-changing, mobile, intelligent and truly capable of taking charge of the planet. Which is to say, the only way to create a sustainable city is to involve and empower human beings in some way, shape or form – intimately.

Streative has been wondering aloud whether we can learn from this idea of ‘having the bubble’ and apply it to a social urban context to increase the overall stickiness of sustainability. Because, when stripped of all its military and aviation connotations, the idea of ‘having the bubble’ is actually an acute state of situational awareness, a physical and mental space that one (the consumer, the typical pedestrian) is in complete control of, visually and audibly, at any given time of the day. And instead of happening in the control tower, we propose that it is happening in consumers’ homes, in their neighbourhoods and offices and their cars – trusted spaces that are familiar to them, there they interact and where their communities reside. If sustainability is going to stick massively and for a long duration, it will have to operate on a highly micro level and very

close to the consumer -- literally. It can be sexy, but needn’t necessarily be so; after all, eco-washing detergent, organic cottons and half-flushing toilets are highly utilitarian, functional products, and they’re the closest things sustainability has produced to date that have come close to mass uptake.

So this is how we’ve translated ‘having the bubble’ to street metrics – something Streative often does as part of our Looking Sideways mantra. We’ve identified the space consumers are capable of controlling completely, both physically and mentally, to 50 Feet from their person. 50 Feet, give or take – 50 Feet of acute sensory consciousness of one’s surroundings.

Penetrate, align and connect within this state of awareness, and sustainability has a very good chance to grow, spread and flourish citywide, countrywide and globally. One human being to the next, like grains of sand on an anthill.

To make this idea more concrete, we’ve coined a concept called ’50 Feet From Me’, the idea that any sustainable product or initiative that aims to generate a genuine mass uptake in our cities will have to penetrate the consumer’s 50 Feet of ‘total awareness’. After all, one of the reasons Whole Foods has become the de facto case study of sustainable brands is the fact it has giving consumers sustainability in a way that is convenient to them and fits seamlessly into their lifestyles. It isn’t just a quirky idea or a gimmick, but a valuable part of their lives. They trust Whole Foods because, quite simply, they have the feeling Whole Foods makes their lives better.

Interestingly enough, our own Mole Poll research has shown that organic supermarkets rank higher on the consumer trust index than do banks and insurers (though, in light of recent economic developments, that shouldn’t be too surprising).

Nonetheless, it shows just how much consumers have absorbed organic foods into their daily habits and rituals.

Urban sustainability needs to be so deep and so layered that consumers don’t even notice it, it just becomes part of them, becomes them.

Because we can’t underestimate that as sustainability continues to grow in the consumer conscious, it is also wearing them down. Witness the onslaught of sustainability talk by oil and tech companies in each issue of Time, The Economist, Wallpaper or Wired. There’s so much talk out there that consumers have become distrustful of sustainability, and the number of greenwashing cases – companies that talk about sustainability but don’t actually do sustainability – are on the rise (A great way to keep track of this, by the way, is greenwashingindex.com). At the same time, consumers are being entertained by a bourgeoning armoury of funky sustainable gadgets, like Burton’s iPod battery-free jacket, Chocolate’s energy powered e-paper bracelet or Mathias Schnyder’s portable workspace. All great, a few head-turning even, but do any of these have the necessary stickiness to instigate the type of mass uptake that the sustainable city needs? Probably not. Because let’s face it: mass uptake is the Holy Grail of sustainability, and the most effective way to get there might not be the fastest way to get there. Whether you agree with 50 Feet or not, penetrating this bubble could create a sustainability revolution so close to home it won’t even register as a revolution.

So internalized, sustainability will simply become an integral part of our lives, and a great green sustainable city we all dream of, will not be a dream at all.

50 Feet From Me is your space of total, personal intimate awareness. Open yours eyes, look around you: how is sustainability infiltrating your 50 Feet? Think small. Dream big.

Send your thoughts to: info@streativebranding.com www.streativebranding.com

Sustainable Urban Lifestyle in Part of an article to Designboost 2008 Katarina Graffman, Ph D Anthropology

Humans want to live a “genuine” life!

What people experience as authentic can be connected to those things that in modern society is a sparsity: safety, time, a sense of belonging, an unequivocal identity, overview, understanding and context, clean environment, genuine experiences.

This isn’t new, but the sparsity has escalated over the last hundred years. And when the authentic, the true, is missing the need for it increases.

An apparent expression for modern mans need of new, more natural ways of living, is that we often speak of the “Dream of life on the countryside” as an expression for another kind of life - it’s a dream about simplicity. This goes for confirmed city dwellers as well as for countryside residents.

For most people this feeling of country life is just an expression for a way of living that they think is more real or authentic but they don’t act upon it. The simple life is the counterweight of the modern, stressful life. In the country you can escape stress, the noise and the abundance. “Life in the country” is about living Spartanly but comfortable. It’s the natural impressions that are the most obvious when people describe this dream: the landscape, nature life, the lack of heavy traffic, the possibility for children to move around freely, the possibility to sit and have coffee and home made cookies on the lawn. This dream is mirrored in the movement Voluntary simplicity, to choose a simpler life without renouncing the necessities.

Modern man is an aware being, this largely due to the information that is available everywhere.

When awareness grows the demands for products and services also grows. The conscious human knows she cannot change the world by herself, but she wants to do something for a better world, these actions make her feel good. But only a few act upon this awareness, at least to the extent they themselves deem ethically correct. To say that one is aware and to actually act upon this awareness are not the same. This has many different reasons.

Firstly there is a common resignation among people today. Those who carry this resignation claim that one doesn’t have any choice to act ethically anyway, the alternatives are too few. If the alternatives in everyday life are too few the ethical becomes more complicated, and the com-

plicated does not facilitate behavioural changes.

The resignation may also stem from the feeling that “it doesn’t matter what I do if no one else cares”.

I have actually quit separating paper from other trash. In the beginning I was so careful, and was upset when my friends threw paper in the regular bins. But now...I don’t know, it sort of passed.

I felt that it took so much extra time and really, what difference does it make? You see the pictures of dumps in the third world and you think “ah, screw it”. (Jakob, 24) The resignation is probably the result of globalisation and the amount of information.

The globalisation force is by its nature uncontrollable by the individual. Famous sociologist Zygmunt Bauman, who has written numerous books on modern society speaks of globalisation as unpredictable which makes people feel as if things happen to us rather than that we make them happen. Hence future is perceived as beyond our control.

Secondly the information and knowledge is not easily accessible, or even available at all.

One doesn’t have the time to get all the information necessary and it takes a great deal of engagement to penetrate the official versions. Or we just don’t want to know too much, it complicates habitual patterns.

One doesn’t want to know too much about the company. Because it makes you sad. (...) everything about child labour and such (...) and then there are no other alternatives, so it becomes really difficult not to buy the thing that you liked and that’s why I don’t want to know. (Emma 17) Thirdly there is a common idea that others should take responsibility and act so that “I as a consumer don’t have to”; it’s the responsibility of the producing companies to act upon new demands made from an ethical standpoint. All attempts from authorities and companies to put responsibility in the individual are greeted as negative, compelling messages. It is therefore more effective, and natural, if big companies take this responsibility, thus I don’t have to care since it doesn’t matter anyway what I as a single individual do.

Consumer Society?

When our electricity company announced their “tips to save energy for environmental benefit” I was actually really annoyed. They make loads of money and then they tell me how to live more consciously. If they at least would have a made a point out of saving money instead of the world. (Nils 48) The fourth, and maybe most important point, is that man is a consumer. We consume to express identity rather than to fill basal needs. Consumption of goods is an important way for humans to mark their social status and and prestige. In modern society where we no longer are what we produce we instead let the consumption of specific goods tell which identity we have chosen to belong to. All goods, experiences and other transactions carries a meaning and therefore consumption is a part of a much bigger social reproduction in everyday life.

We live in a consumer society Today’s modern society is a material culture, where the materialistic offers both freedom and captivity.

To believe that man suddenly would surrender consumption just because of changing circumstances, for example the climate change, is naive. Consumption behaviour and shopping behaviour will however change, the consumer will be an expert that based on new knowledge knows how to buy ethically. But since meaning in our society is often transmitted and created through material things, houses, cars, clothes, electronic gadgets and so on, one must understand and affirm shopping rather than condemn and deny its huge importance in modern life.

We live in a society where products are less and less sustainable; the consumer society is founded on the idea that we should consume more. The thought of something sustainable, eternal, does not belong in this modern project. But the unsustainable is not authentic since it in a long term perspective damages our planet, means higher costs for energy, transportation, garbage managing etc. With demands for a new ethical consumption the “expert consumer” is the beginning of a new era where awareness rules rather than impulse. This will put higher demands on those who produce and who are to satisfy mans infinite consumption cravings.

Human habits, when related to a more sustainable living, are highly affected by the surrounding struc-

tural situations rather than by decrees from “above”. When the surrounding, the context, changes the sticky behavioural habits also change. Through creating windows of opportunity when it comes to a more sustainable way of living, especially regarding consumption, a positive change based on the individuals’ free choices occurs.

And freedom is something that the modern, individualised human sees as something absolutely obvious.

Through offering more alternatives, in everything from the consumption of clothes to housing, that are based on an understanding for the meaning in consumption society people can be made to start acting. It should be easy and natural to be surrounded by sustainable alternatives. It should be about natural choices in an everyday context.

Criteria for a good residence The old saying “my home is my fortress” clearly states the significance of ones home, the living environment. The home should be a safe haven away from the public room. In the home you spend time with friends and family, the core of everyday life. In ones home memories, experiences and sageness are manifested. They add to the feeling of cohesion and safety that has to be considered important to the human as a cultural being. In life that in other ways is imprinted by constant departures, rootlessness and division one can assume that the home is even more important - not least for the children’s development of safe spheres, that is built on recognition of the familiar.

It is in the home and in my surroundings that I somehow become human (...) I mean, that’s where I am myself. Here I can sort of control who I want to be and what I want to do. There is no one to tell me who I should be. (Helen, 27) But the home is not only the residential itself, the rooms, it is also the environment, the city, where the home is located. Ethnographic studies of people in different urban environments shows that an important criteria for a good home is closeness to nature, where nature is defined differently by the city individual and the nature ditto.

To some nature is the city park, to others it is the wild fir woods. If one is close to nature it’s acceptable that it is a bit further to work or to the city centre. One creates acceptance for the other.

Closeness is largely about experiencing “the country side”, and it’s authenticity. To breathe fresh air, move freely, listen to the birds singing is immensely satisfactory to most people.

Every day I walk through the park by Humlegården, both in winter and summer. I’m then able to, in my own way, follow the changes of the season and for a couple of minutes breathe fresh air. (Tomas, 33) The environment surrounding the home is an important factor in satisfaction; The surrounding environment must melt in with the feeling inside the house. It becomes one room, a feeling of entirety. We have had similar ideas, me and my wife, and have succeeded in creating this feeling. Undisciplined vegetation, a comfy messiness inside. When I come home from work, step out of my car on the pebbled driveway I immediately feel good, however stressful my day may have been. That is worth a lot. (Per, 44) When people are studied in their living environment and in their urban environment it is obvious how the surrounding environment affects peoples degree of satisfaction. To speak to basic driving forces such as closeness to nature is one example, to satisfy people’s needs for a sustainable living is another. Those areas that for example have well functioning recycling stations create simple routines for those who recycle old newspapers. In those areas it is a nonissue to recycle or not since it doesn’t imply anything complicated to do it.

I have moved around quite a lot and it’s not always very well organised for those who wants to do waste sorting. One can wonder how they think.

I mean, now I just take my paper with me in the morning and throw it in the recycling, super easy.

Before I sometimes didn’t find the energy to do that because it was so complicated, so I threw my papers in the regular waste instead and felt bad about it. (Jakob, 24) Sustainable lifestyle?

When one studies how people live their everyday life in the consumer society it is obvious that the situations and contexts that provides opportunities to change habits and routines are the ones that change lifestyles. Man is comfortable and lazy and would rather follow already existing paths; to change habits takes so much more than warnings and decrees. Through working with a

new model of the city and the living environment qualifications are created for the sustainable lifestyle in an obvious fashion. When pressing on the advantages for man himself to lead a sustainable life one also gives the sustainable city a chance.

The lion and

Every morning in Africa an antelope wakes up.

The antelope knows that he has to run faster than the lions to survive. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up. The lion knows he has to run faster than the antelopes to not starve to death.

This African proverb is almost a paradox. Who wins, and how?

But just as in real life it’s the shrewd or fast who wins. Or, to put it differently - the one who has a lead.

That is what Designboost is all about, to get a lead by collecting new ideas and thinking in different patterns, by twisting and turning questions.

Inspiration, injection or a push forward - that is also the meaning of boost.

Since the world is constantly changing and the maps are rewritten you cannot sit around and wait

the antelope

Conclusions of Designboost 07 Applying a general view …

In discussions concerning sustainability there is always we and them. But all of us have dual roles: privately we and professionally them and of course also the reverse. To refer a question to them is actually to refer it back to ourselves. Conclusion: there is no such thing as …. “we cannot do anything until they have done …..”

No company, organisation or institution – and individual for that matter – can escape their contribution to sustainable development.

Conclusion: a conceptual strategy for sustainable development ought to be compulsory for every business, non-profit organisation and institution - as also every individual. This strategy must be part of everyday thinking and not reserved for special occasions.

All efforts/actions aimed at enhancing sustainable development is linked to a number of consequences. Some of these are in accordance with the core aim and others are not – or even counteracting it. Conclusion: every effort/action has to be analysed as part of a whole before being put into practice. The whole should embrace the entire organisation and its immediate sphere top-down as well as down-up, but also go as far beyond as possible.

Applying a designer view …

Designers are dependent on their clients to realise their aims but there is a lot of effort to put in before surrendering or refraining. Effort is most effective when based on awareness and knowledge. Conclusion: designers must be well informed in as many matters as possible in relation to design: human, cultural, social and economical.

A designer has to understand not only how humans live, but also how they function: this would include understanding that our decisions are only partly rational and that this may well be for the better as our thoughtless acts often are very ‘efficient’. Conclusion: important designer awareness is that human ways of living are

changing fast while human ways of being are lasting even if constantly adjusting.

Many tensions between a sustainable and a capitalistic society can be overcome. Producing more does not necessarily mean overusing the earth’s resources. Producing less is not the same as forcing companies out of business.

Conclusion: designers should actively contribute to producing less waste by trying to improve the balance between producing objects and designing services and by not confusing new with better, desire with need and emotions with feelings.

Designing for sustainability is a way of thinking more than a way of doing. This differentiation is important as it allows for focus to combine physical and mental aspects of sustainability. Conclusion: holistic thinking on sustainability must be integrated to the point of being intuitive. This can probably not be learnt but only achieved by lived experience.

Useful design for humans is often authentic and easily understood, devoid of clutter. Conclusion: it is important for designers to study how people act in their everyday real life.

Design that last often appeals to our imagination and invites to further exploration, signals ‘who it is’ and has a narrative, something to tell. Conclusion: the very simple object might not be the most sustainable solution.

And finally …

Legislators as well as designers should not expect humans to generally act eco-centric: to always put regard to sustainability and the environment first. Yes, we will admit to do it but No, we will subconsciously act with our own immediate well-being in mind. Experience will most likely make egocentric and eco-centric more in tune but until then lots of resources can be spared if legislators and designers make use of our egocentric characteristics for their eco-centric purposes.

STAKEHOLDERS

PARTNERS & FRIENDS Audi Arena E.ON Iittala IKEA Skanska Thule Above Alcro Apple Artecnica Artek Biomega Blå Station Brio Cappellini David Design Electrolux Fälth & Hässler Folkform Great Works Gulled Källemo Lammhults Noir Illuminati Nola Peab Systemtext Tom Dixon

MEDIA PARTNER Sydsvenskan Great works

SCHOOLS

180 Academy Beckmans college of design University of Sao Paulo Hyper Island K3/Malmö University Design Academy Eindhoven Columbia University Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design

Founders of Designboost are Peer Eriksson and David Carlson together with City of Malmö and Region Skåne.

Peer Eriksson works with his own communication agency, Peer Communication. David Carlson is the founder of David Design and today works as a consultant with design and brand development issues and also has an internet based trend report, the David Report.

- It’s important to look upon things from a new perspective and be given a push forward, which is exactly what the word boost means.

When it comes to sustainable design it’s likely that things need to be questioned. Since the world is constantly changing and the maps rewritten it’s impossible to sit around and wait, says Peer Eriksson.

-There are plenty of design events in Sweden.

We want to create a different and unique arrangement that will function as a creative arena and meeting point that gathers people, companies, organisations, institutions and schools that all work with design, in one way or another, David Carlson says.

DESIGNBOOST info@designboost.se Peer Eriksson; peer@designboost.se +46705336631 David Carlson; david@designboost.se +46707982897

Partners:

Peer Eriksson, peer@designboost.se 0705-336631 David Carlson, david@designboost.se 0707-982897