SUSTAINABLE DESIGN: PRINCIPLES & PRACTICE
Fall 2001

Instructor: David Bergman, bergman@cyberg.com

Description. A comprehensive look at design for sustainable environments: what defines sustainability and why it is more than just a fad for the design world. This is a combination lecture and studio course in which we will study and design products looking at their effects upon us both individually and globally. We will analyze the design process including not just the "standard" environmental topics of recycled and sustainable materials, but more fully looking at such other areas as the behavioral and cultural aspects and alternatives, and the real life cycle costs of the product. Our products surround us and define us and, in one way or another, affect our environment now and for years to come.

In this course, we are going to look at what it means for a product or piece of furniture to be sustainably designed and produced. We will be taking a "holistic" approach, meaning that we will look at sustainability in all its aspects, ranging from the more obvious ones of material usage and recycling to more subjective and far reaching concepts of sustainability such as equality and self-sufficiency.

This will be a combination lecture, discussion and studio course. We will simultaneously study the existing literature and state of the art - via existing products, both sustainable and otherwise - and design our own products. Throughout the course, we will also be researching eco-materials. The purpose of this research will be two-fold. One, to find and analyze materials that you can utilize in the design projects for this and other courses and, two, to build up the department's materials library so that there will be an area in the library devoted to eco-materials.

Assignments for the course will be of several types. For the first few weeks, we will be doing reading and studying existing products. You will be asked to present your research and hand in notes that will comprise part of your grade. You will also be locating and researching the eco-materials mentioned above. Then we will switch to design projects. The specifics of the projects will be presented later in the course.

Assignments will also be posted at the course website at the NSOU. If you have to miss a class, check the site for assignments/updates, etc.

NOTE: One of the tenets of sustainable design - which may at first seem unrelated to the topic - is the open exchange of information. This will take several forms in this class. One will be, of course, in our pin ups, where everyone is expected to participate. Another will be in the materials research portion of the class - your presentations will benefit everyone in the class as well as other students in the department as the green materials library expands. Moreover, presentations - whether mine or yours - are not to be regarded as one-way lectures. They are discussions. I want to know when you don't understand something or disagree with something or just wish to add to the topic. Much of sustainable design is a listening and learning process.

Grades will be based on the assignments, exams and participation in class discussions and crits. Departmental attendance requirements will be applied -- your presence for both the weekly presentations and for crits and pinups is an essential part of the course. Per department rules, more than three absences is automatic grounds for failure.

There will be two exams: a midterm quiz and a final.

Victor Papanek, Design for the Real World (available at Barnes & Noble)*

William McDonough and Michael Braungart, "The NEXT Industrial Revolution," online (in three parts) at http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98oct/industry.htm. Also reprinted in Sustainable Solutions as chapter 7.

US Department of Technology Assessment, Greener Products by Design, online at http://www.wws.princeton.edu/~ota/ns20/alpha_f.html. (There is a lot of repetitive material in this document, so it isn't as long as it looks.)

Janine M. Benyus, Biomimicry (available at Barnes & Noble)*

Sim van der Ryn and Stuart Cowan, Ecological Design.

Bruce Sterling, "What if Green Design Were Just Good Design," Dwell magazine, June 2001

Recommended Reading:

Sustainable Solutions, Martin Charter and Ursula Tischner. (available at Barnes & Noble)

*The Green Imperative: Natural Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek.

*Reuse: Good Everyday Design from Reused and Recycled Materials, Arango Foundation.

The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability, Paul Hawken.

*Design for the Environment, Dorothy MacKenzie.

*The Total Beauty of Sustainable Products, Edwin Datschefsky

Green Marketing, Jacquelyn Ottman

*Trespassers, Ed van Hinte and Conny Bakker

*Some of these books have been placed on reserve at the library (or are on order).

General environmental reading:

Small Is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher

Silent Spring, Rachel Carson

Believing Cassandra, Alan AtKisson

Earth in the Balance, Al Gore

50 Simple Things You Can Do To Save the Earth.

Websites:

www.O2.org www.IDSA.org www.re-f-use.com www.greenerbydesign.com www.eternally-yours.nl www.realgoods.com www.coopamerica.com unep.frw.uva.nl UN Environment Programme Working Group on Sustainable Product Development	www.cfsd.org.uk The Centre (and Journal) for Sustainable Product Design www.nrc.ca/dfe Design for Environment Guide www.wastematch.org www.viridiandesign.org The Viridian Movement www.rmi.org The Rocky Mountain Institute www.cfd.rmit.edu.au/ Centre for Design at RMIT www.designresource.org International Design Resource Awards

Tentative schedule

Week 1, 9.5 Overview: what is sustainable product design? (One week assignment)
Reading (for following week): Charter/Chapter 6, Van der Ryn/Part One

Week 2, 9.12 presentations of assignment, discussion of materials research. (2^nd one week assignment and materials research assignment)
Reading: McDonough article (online or in Charter/Chapter 7), Papanek/Chapter 9

Week 3, 9.19 presentation of second assignment. Discussion of Complexity

Week 4, 9.26 discussion of materials research.

Week 5, 10.3 materials presentations. LCA. (Select product for LCA analysis)
Reading: Van der Ryn/Part Two - Second Principle

Week 6, 10.10 LCA analyses due. (design project assigned, discussion of products that communicate awareness)

Week 7, 10.17 Midterm quiz. Pin up of design projects. Biomimickry/regenerative design/cradle to cradle.
Reading: Papanek bionics chapter and Benyus

Week 8, 10.24 Pin up. Socially responsible design.
Reading: Papanek

Week 9, 10.31 Final review of first project (Second design project assigned.)

Week 10, 11.7 guest, pin up, Buyers, Markets & Green Design, or Dispelling the Myth
reading: Mackenzie, chapter 1, Sterling (in Dwell magazine, June 2001)

Week 11, 11.14 guest

Week 12, 11.28 product/service combinations (take back, upgrading, reuse, lease), pin up

Week 13, 12.5 guest, pin up

Week 14, 12.12 guest, final exam

Week 15, 12.19 final review

1. Find an example of a product that, through its usage, produces or encourages environmentally unsustainable practices. Examples: take out containers, newspapers, circulation cards in magazines. Prepare a short ( 2 - 3 minute) presentation showing the problem(s) engendered by that product. Bring an example of the product if possible.
One week. Assigned wk 1

2. Take that product and reconceptualize it.
One week. Assigned wk 2

3. Materials research. areas and examples:
woods - sustainably harvested, efficiently utilized
plastics - recycled, non-petroleum based, biodegradable, reusable
resins - non-toxic processes, non-offgassing products
composites - sustainable sourced materials, biodegradable
papers - non-wood based or sustainably harvested, non-bleach
metals - recycled, low embodied energy, reusable
ceramics
textiles - non-toxic inks, non-offgassing materials/products, sustainable sources

For this assignment, you should research (through the library, magazines, Internet and other sources such as Inform and Material Connexion), what materials are "out there," and what their environmental attributes are. Keep in mind that information from the manufacturer or supplier may be suspect and that third party analyses (magazines, independent organizations) may be more accurate or reliable. Your end result should be (at least) two samples of the material(s) - one for you and one for the Product Department's materials library - along with the product literature and an analysis of the properties, LCA, and positive and negative attributes of the material.
Three weeks. Assigned wk 2 (Overlaps with #2)

4. Put together a Life Cycle Analysis of a product. You will probably not be able to do a precise quantitative analysis, but a qualitative one will do - meaning that you will not have numbers to put into the categories, but you will be able to establish the categories and provide descriptions of the scale of the projected numbers and how those numbers might be developed by others.
One week. Assigned wk 5.

5. Design Project 1: design a product, that through its usage, encourages environmental awareness. Examples: an instrument on a car dashboard that tells you how much milage you're getting and how much money you could be saving; a shower that makes you aware of how much water you are using; These designs should also be positive in their nature - not just making you feel guilty about using them, but work on the level of encouragement and reward as well.
Three weeks. Assigned wk6.

6. Design Project 2: Design a product utilizing one or more of the materials that you and the class have researched and that, as much as possible, incorporates the various aspects of sustainable design practices. This project will also be your submission for the O2 competition.
Six weeks. Assigned wk 9.