Sustaining Sao Paulo: uniting different academic perspectives through design

Design is said to be central in unifying a holistic understanding of complex systems. It must amalgamate knowledge from ‘art’, ‘literature’, ‘music’, ‘philosophy’, ‘math’, ‘science’, ‘technology’, ‘social science’ and more, with its own understanding. But within these subjects are more defined individual interests that must interweave and complement other qualities. This paper presents a glimpse of what lies underneath the disciplinary institutional nomenclature that administers and organizes knowledge into collective identities that may not usually interact beyond the boundary of a subject. Under the guise of ‘bridging the gaps’ between STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering math) and non-traditional partners such as arts, humanities, or social science, efforts to expose diverse interests in sustainable urbanism for São Paulo are explained here. Towards consilience best describes the intention and willingness of diverse disciplinary perspectives that come together and share expertise and knowledge in the service of sustainability

Working with waste to dignify human existence through collage as spontaneous design

Working with waste to dignify human existence through collage as spontaneous desig

The ephemeral aesthetic of spontaneous design on the streets of Sao Paulo

There are few opportunities when the poor and prosperous can be spoken about with respect to the same, shared cultural experience. And yet, visual culture, and the design process that contributes to its materialisation in specific contexts, offers an opportunity to recognise a socially inclusive activity that reveals similarity rather than difference. This paper celebrates an ephemeral aesthetic that is appreciated by people at different ends of the economic, political and social spectrum. A mutual appreciation for the medium of collage differs only in terms of the environment within which the recycled object is eventually revealed. This paper explores some of these different contexts, and those who recognise and practise this phenomenon in a South American and European context. The conclusion of this speculative and exploratory study is that there is potential to develop this unique medium as an accessible and inclusive visual language, giving voice to those who often do not have the opportunity or the means to speak and be heard. Collage is recognised as a channel that mediates between social exclusion and inclusion when political and economic means have been exhausted. The resulting ephemeral aesthetic is proven to have visual appeal, satisfying lowand high-order human needs

Education as a practice of affiliation: facilitating dialogue between developed and developing nations

Exploring Design research and Design education that straddles developing and developed world contexts is the aim of this paper. It is a bold ambition to identify the key debates that inform these two significant aspects of Design – much too big to cover in the limited space here. Nevertheless we speculate on some of the issues that emerge from within Architecture, Urbanism, Philosophy, Sociology, Geography, Education and Design. We do this through the idea expressed by Lang that ‘affiliation’ is the need that links to all other human needs. We hypothesize that affiliation, and our need for belonging not only within our local communities, but also at a global scale, is a central concern that links research and education in developing and developed world contexts. Some design practitioners are shown to be tackling this problem, but too often these are single projects limited in scale. We maintain that these worthwhile and noble efforts must be scaled up to deal with problems of urban planning through first, second, third and fourth order design concerns, recognizing that whilst contemporary design is increasingly occupied with ‘interaction’ and ‘environment’, the established preoccupation with ‘symbols’ and ‘things’ remains out of reach for millions of urban poor. In fact, urban designers consider ‘symbols of affiliation’ as central to city dwelling. Design research and design education must therefore aspire to a material democracy that judges the appropriateness of each given situation on its merits, recognizing the need at times for basic material provision

Space-and-place modelling-and-making: a dialogue between design and geography

Geography and design have much in common. Both draw from or reflect science, social science, humanities, and employ sophisticated technology to achieve their aims. However, aside from a mutual interest in urbanism, there appears to have been little collaboration between the two. And yet some aspire for design to learn from geography. In this paper we explore how the characteristics associated with geography and design may function together in a space-and-place modelling-and-making dialectic

From greed to need: notes on human-centred design

This exploratory paper identifies some of the critical debates that have resulted in the city problematic. The context for this discussion is the need for transition from an approach to design that serves the few who are economically privileged, to a situation whereby design confronts some of the challenges associated with the less fortunate in our global society. A key outcome of the inquiry is that a better understanding of affiliation is essential if interdisciplinary design process is to succeed

Dreaming sustainability, realising utopia: ‘convergence’ and ‘divergence’ in art and design practice

Throughout the twentieth century, the disciplines and practices of artists and designers were convergent and divergent in the way they developed similar ideas identified now with sustainability. Whilst under early modernism, artists concerned themselves with the retention of ‘aura’ (Benjamin [1936] 2008), designers released this in pursuit of reproduction. Consequently, designers discarded individuality for commonality, and old for new in the guise of economic and technological advancement, whereas artists concerned themselves with cultural artefacts. Both had social impact. The designer’s grasp of systems thinking and reproductive methods as ‘social systems’ (Nelson and Stolterman 2012) set against the modernist artist’s preference for the oneoff characterized different motivations. Subsequently, in the second half of the twentieth century design became closely associated with the mass-production and promotion of products, but subsequently became implicated in consumer culture and the massive problem of waste (Walker 2014). Design’s deviation towards ‘wicked’ problem solving on a global scale – often to improve social and economic well-being – before the challenge of sustainability came to light, sits in contrast to art’s concern for individuality. There are a few exceptions. In 2004, in Beyond Green, Stephanie Smith brought together a series of sustainable art and design projects – such as the Learning Group’s Collecting System - arguing that the convergence of these two strands can provide rich opportunities to rethink approaches to environmental questions, as both shared a goal of bringing social and aesthetic concerns together with environmental and economic ones (Smith 2006). Yet, when systematic approaches to the problem of waste are discussed in terms of integrated sustainable waste management frameworks, the potential contribution of artistic strategies and methodologies is absent and the opportunity for an expanded view of design to readdress concerns is overlooked. Are we to assume it to be buried in the socio-cultural aspects of environmental and contextual concerns? Or is it also related to the financial/economical, technical, environmental/public health, institutional, and policy/legal aspects of waste management frameworks? This paper makes explicit the potential for specific socially-engaged art practices to contribute to a waste discourse about re-purpose, re-use and appropriation. We also challenge notions that design as a product of modernist twentieth-century thinking emanating from early modern art practice is devoid of re-use, by positioning ‘practical meaning’ as a paradox of scale and context

Developing urban design discourse beyond the critical point: the case of Sao Paulo

This paper discusses some environmental challenges confronting humanity over the next fifty years by considering conditions that have emerged over the previous fifty years in one of the world's 'megacities'. Problems of homelessness & poor social housing conditions, ‘visual pollution’ and urban water, are linked through a case study about the City of São Paulo. From the combined perspective of philosophy, the arts, design and engineering, the paper seeks to explain how such diverse disciplinary concerns can be unified through urban design and address a situation that is well beyond what has been called 'the critical point'. Some approaches to urban design are recommended that provide typologies of products and processes to address such challenges

Amo voce Vaatelainaamo, mas algumas coisas podem melhorar: Analise de motivacoes, barreiras e facilitadores em servico finlandes de compartilhamento de roupas

Este artigo apresenta os resultados de pesquisa realizada com usuarias de um servico finlandes para o compartilhamento de roupas (Vaatelainaamo), cujo objetivo foi compreender motivacoes, barreiras e oportunidades para a adocao de praticas de consumo na Economia do Compartilhamento. A pesquisa fundamenta-se sob o paradigma interpretativo e estudo fenomenologico enquanto metodo, utilizando-se de questionarios abertos como tecnica de coleta de dados. Dentre os resultados, podemos destacar que o fraco sentimento de copropriedade, o descuido no cuidado com as roupas e a indisponibilidade de produtos e do servico sao fatores que prejudicam a relacao das usuarias com o mesmo. Por outro lado, as principais motivacoes para a adesao ao serviço sao: a consciencia ambiental, a valorizacao da producao local e a oferta de acesso a itens considerados caros, permitindo a possibilidade de experimentacao, associada ao prazer de utilizar roupas diferentes com menor impacto ambiental. Assim, Vaatelainaamo oferta uma solucao ambientalmente e economicamente benefica para o estilo de vida das usuarias, promovendo o sentimento de pertencimento, que e o fator principal para elas amarem esse servico, ainda que alguns aspectos possam ser melhorados