ICIS NeWS
October 2005
in this issue:
Editorial
Spotlight
- Design Bloggers - article from icon
Environment and Health
- New Environmentalism
- Solar Energy
- Increasing Disasters
Business and Design
- Philip’s New Lightbulb
- VW Hydrogen Car and the ‘EcoRacer’
- Hydrogen Tablets
- Towards Fuel Efficient Cars
- Windpower on the Rise
- Ethical Fashion
Society
- Alternative Health in Sweden
- Domestic Violence on the Downturn
ICIS Education Update
- Designer Development Programme 2005/6
- Sustainability Days 2005/2006
- ICIS/Lund EcoDesign Project
- ICIS ISL Programme
Contact ICIS
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E-mail address: center@iciscenter.org
Editorial
Welcome to the Autumn edition of the ICIS’ E-news. Its been a while since you last heard from us and since then a lot has happened here at ICIS.
At the beginning of summer, one of the historically significant farm buildings on the ICIS estate burnt down, also destroying the home and archives of ICIS founders, Karen Blincoe and Mervyn Kurlansky. The ICIS secretariat office managed to survive, only to be burgled a few weeks later. All this dealt a considerable blow to our work, and we closed down the office for a month during the summer, in order to regroup and get our bearings. Fortunately, before this drama, we had just received the green light from the EU on two important projects: the Danish Designers Development Programme 2005 and the ICIS/Lund EcoDesign project. So the end of summer saw us back in business.
The Designer Development Programme builds on last year’s competence training for Danish designers, aimed at developing their skills and knowledge to meet the challenges of internationalisation, globalisation, networking as well as the environmental, social and ethical demands of the designer of tomorrow. You can find more about the programme here (in Danish).
The ICIS/Lund EcoDesign project aims to map out and create the basis for a Scandinavian masters programme in Ecodesign. It is an EU Interreg funded joint project with the University of Lund’s Environmental Strategy Department and was kicked off at a two-day workshop in August this year.
We also participated in the recent World Design Congress, Era 2005, a unique gathering of design professionals from around the world to discuss the status of the design profession today. We at ICIS have mixed views on the event; it did, as promised, take a good look at the changing role and challenges that face designers today and provided some answers and inspiration in terms of a shift towards more socially conscious design. However, as is often the case with this kind of large-scale event, the impact that it could have had was a little diluted. Maybe this was due to the two-year organisation process, the format of the event or the fact that another high profile design event, Index was taking place simultaneously in Copenhagen with little cooperation between the organising bodies. We were also a little disappointed at what we felt was the missing link: sustainability, which was not addressed as an overarching theme. Something of a missed opportunity? However, the topics of the Congress went beyond that of most design congresses and this is very encouraging and commendable.
This issue includes a brief round-up of some sustainability related news in our part of the world and beyond. If you have anything that you would like include in our e-news, please forward snippets to me at trudy@iciscenter.org.
Peace
Trudy
Spotlight
- Design Bloggers
Even the weekly design press can't keep up with the pace and sheer number of developments going on all over the world. Print is just too slow. Only the internet provides a medium that's reactive and interactive enough to show what's happening in architecture and design literally today.
This fact is being exploited by a growing band of bloggers who are using expert Google skills and digital cameras to document new buildings, product designs and exhibitions. They're having an increasing effect on the way that news is disseminated: instant information on developments on a global scale makes them a valuable source of stories for publications like ours. For example, we first found our story on Patrick Jouin's chairs on a Dutch site called Reluct.com. By circumventing the traditional routine of PR, interview and exclusive, they're beginning to question the current role of print media.
0lll.com, a London-based architectural photography website, regularly publishes pictures of new buildings and exhibitions - it published photos of the Libeskind exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery the day after its private view. Dezain.net, based in Japan, publishes information on updates to design and architecture websites around the world and tipped us off about Toyo Ito's Tod's building in Tokyo long before we saw it at the Venice architecture biennale.
The blog, or weblog, has risen to great prominence over the last couple of years. Formatted like a reverse diary, with the most recent entries at the top, it's a platform that requires little maintenance with the use of publishing tools like Blogger and Moveable Type. Entries are usually filled with hyperlinks to other sites to help explain and cite terms and references. They also frequently link to similar blogs to form large communities of people writing about similar issues, and this, combined with a common capacity for readers to post comments to entries, allows blogs to be a powerful means
for debate.
Media corporations don't run these websites; they're usually edited by people in their spare time for no financial gain. Eizo Okada, the editor of Dezain.net, works as research assistant in product design at the Kyoto Institute of Technology. He uses a web browser function that automatically checks for newly updated websites and magazines (including icon), but says that now many companies, architects and websites inform him directly of new developments. It's a sign of how significant Dezain is becoming. About 5000 pages are viewed a day - 90 per cent of them by Japanese visitors - and the total is rising.
"When I started Dezain in 1999, it was very difficult to find where nice online sources on design and architecture were, and when they were updated, so I decided to make a list of these resources to help me and other people," he says. "It is daily research and a memorandum for my study, and also what I think many people want to know."
Dan Hill, editor of City of Sound, set up his blog for similar reasons. Hill is the design and technology manager for BBC Radio Interactive: "My blog is partly a response to the informational overload from working in an insanely fast-moving industry. It's a time characterised by exponential rates of change in terms of culture, architecture, cities and design practice in general. City of Sound is an indexed notebook I can store concepts in and can refer back to easily. It's a personal information tool as much as it's a publishing device."
Utrecht-based Joost van Brug established Reluct.com as a portfolio for his product designs (by day he is an art director for a marketing agency), and started the blog to help promote it. The blog took over, however, and he now gets around 4,500 page views a day, but because there's no advertising Reluct.com doesn't actually make him any money. But advertising is no guarantee of financial return: Thomas Angermann's site, Angermann2, has earned $31 in total from his GoogleAds - from an average of 400 visitors a day.
MoCo Loco, a contemporary furniture design blog, is more commercially minded. Its Montreal-based editor, Harry Wakefield, was the general manager of Canada's Citysearch city websites and online Yellow Pages directories when he set up MoCo Loco - in part because he saw a need for speciality directories with a unique focus. MoCo Loco attracts an average of 7,800 page views a day, though it's still done in his spare time and only covers its running expenses.
Even established websites like Archinect.com, a large architecture resource that uses the blogging format for its news coverage, aren't fully commercial concerns. While Archinect has "recently begun focusing more on financial sustainability with a variety of sponsorship and advertising relationships", most of the 20-30 strong editorial team have day jobs or are students.
Paul Petrunia, Archinect's founder and director (he's the creative director at a web design company by day) sees the development of blogs as positive for architecture and design. "The increased information distribution from blogs helps keep the community better informed, and at a faster pace. Increased awareness can only be a good thing." He enjoys the fact that this increased distribution also allows people outside the industry to learn about it, and be able, via the comments systems, to get involved.
Joost van Brug from Reluct.com thinks this is very valuable: "Being a designer, I know there is nothing more important than user feedback. They are the ones who buy and enjoy your products." The same goes for journalists who are also writing blogs. Rick Poynor, ex-editor of graphic design magazine Eye, is one of the four contributors to a blog called Design Observer. "Intrinsic to the way I want to explore blogging is the possibility of feedback and interaction from readers. Writers have to have that, and I find it exhilarating. The downside is that a lot of it isn't necessarily good - that's the stuff that editors remove in print - but if you create the right tone you can get the good responses." For Poynor, the element of debate is invaluable: "I felt real frustration as a journalist because print publications tend to ignore competitors, which limits the extent to which they engage in full debate. Blogs offer a breadth of discussion."
Dominic Muren intends for his site, IDFuel, an American industrial design blog, to become a powerful forum for design by using this ability for discussion: "I hope it can become a cross-pollination point for the different design-related communities - architecture, physical science, engineering, art and social science - so that they can all be discussed and re-formed into the 'greatest new designs of our time'."
If blogs can offer incredibly wide distribution, great speed in reacting to new developments, enable more people to get involved in debate and discussion and encourage greater interaction between disciplines, what can the value of print be? How can we keep up? As already admitted, icon has run stories found on blogging sites, and the bloggers know it: "When I open a magazine and see something I posted weeks or months ago, I can't help thinking that they read it at Reluct.com."
Dan Hill, who wrote the essay on adaptive design in icon 012 that we originally saw on the Core77 website, feels the same way: "I have a conspiracy theory about journalists increasingly reprinting blog entries in the papers - I keep finding myself reading things a second time around. Difficult to prove though!"
But bloggers don't think print is doomed; rather, they see that the relationship can be reciprocal and that both have their strengths. "I'm sure there's still a role for traditional media," says Hill. "The internet has allowed magazines to rediscover everything unique about the magazine format in the last five years or so - tactility, portability, finish and all that."
Dominic Muren agrees: "The act of reading a physical magazine on a bus, in a waiting room, in your studio, and then storing it for later, then re-reading, is deeply valuable. Web-based media is inevitably one-time reading material because it's so ephemeral." And so does Harry Wakefield: "It will take a long time for digital media to replace print, if ever. Each has a role to play. Digital is good for immediacy. Print for the experience. Both are good for advertisers."
In Rick Poynor's words, blogs are still in their honeymoon period: "They have the glamour of newness and maybe they see print as being a bit comfortable." Bloggers are still learning how best to use the format and how to communicate effectively. "I'm not sure how powerful these voices are at this point - it's 'early adopter' days still," says Dan Hill. "But they do seem to be affecting the media's ecosystems directly now. As a designer working in new media, I'm almost tempted to ask, 'However did we do without them?'"
Source: icon magazine
Check out Putting People First An experience design aggregator blog from the people at new experience design company, Experientia.
Environment and Health
- New Environmentalism
In the leader in the Economist (April 23rd 2005), it is interesting to read about a new ‘green environmentalism’. This new environmentalism will be subject to market mechanisms, meaning that new environmental products and services such as water filtration, flood prevention and the preservation of wildlife can be traded for a profit. The leader also states that if this new environmentalism is to succeed, three things must happen; proper pricing, so that the environment no longer is a ’free’ commodity and is priced accordingly; availability of information such as the Millennium Ecosystem assessment, the World Bank’s annual ’Little Green Databook’ as well as satellite observation, the internet, green accounting and computer technology. Finally, cost-benefit analysis is a necessity in order to evaluate the costs and benefits of investment in the environment. The leader states: ’The world may yet leapfrog from the dark ages of clumsy, costly, command and control regulations to an enlightened age of informed, innovative, incentive-based greenery’.
- Solar Energy
The first publicly owned solar panel system is to produce energy to the energy supply company, Københavns Energi. On the ‘suncell exchange’, it will be possible to buy solar energy at a price which will make it economical to develop more solarpanel systems for the city. The solarpanels will be produced by the company Gaia Solar A/S, based in Copenhagen (Frederiksborg Amts Avis, September 2005).
- Natural Disasters hit epic proportions
Tsunamis, cyclones, hurricanes, floods, landslides and, now, another huge earthquake. It's not just your imagination: The world has been hit with an increasing number of deadly natural disasters. Developing countries, particularly in Asia in particular are bearing the brunt - whether it's because of a greater number of people living in disaster-prone areas, the vicissitudes of climate and weather, or inadequate preparedness and the lack of effective early warning systems. The just-released Red Cross World Disasters Report says the extraordinary December tsunamis, which were responsible for about 90 per cent of all reported disaster deaths last year, "introduce great variability" to fatality statistics.
Debbie Guha-Sapir, who studies natural disasters, agrees that the trend is worrisome. "Today, the world is facing disasters on an unprecedented scale: more than 255 million people were affected by natural disasters globally each year, on average, between 1994 and 2003, with a range of 68 million to 618 million," she and her colleagues say. They work at the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at Belgium's l'Université catholique de Louvain.
According to their research, an average of 188 million people a year were affected by disasters between 1990 and 1999. Asia was affected by about 43 per cent of them and accounted for almost 70 per cent of all lives lost.
Prof. Guha-Sapir said the losses associated with earthquakes can be attributed in part to an increasing number of people living in dangerous seismic zones. She cited, for example, the Bhuj earthquake in northwestern India that killed nearly 20,000 in January, 2001, and left more than a million homeless. "Had that earthquake hit in 1975, you would have had a third or less of the people killed," she said.
While it is impossible to prevent an earthquake, governments can prepare better for floods and hurricanes, Prof. Guha-Sapir said. "You really have to have environmental policies in place; you really have to do flood-plain management and deal with a growing number of peoples in coastal areas."
Natural calamities are divided into two main categories: geological events such as earthquakes and volcanoes; and hydro-meteorological happenings such as floods, typhoons and hurricanes. But only the latter is increasing in frequency, Prof. Guha-Sapir said
She acknowledged that a debate is raging in the scientific community about whether global warming is the root cause of more hydro-meteorological disasters.". . . today there are questions being raised about, for example, the increase in the severity of hurricanes. I share, to a certain extent, the view that there is no proof that climate change is the major driving force."
In India, Prof. Guha-Sapir's homeland, floods regularly kill people and destroy others' livelihoods. "These are very, very immediate problems. I think it's really irresponsible to link them to processes like climate change, about which almost nothing can be done in the short term. So, it's more important to deal with population settlement, management of flood plains. Those are things you can do something about."
Source: INS Net
Business and Design
- A new lightbulb….
It is very encouraging when multinationals take environmental consideration seriously and use innovation to produce sustainable everyday products which makes commercial sense. Next year, Philips is launching a new lightbulb on the market which uses light-emitting diodes (LEDS).The bulb is more robust and consumes only one-eight of the power of ordinary light bulbs. (The Economist, 1st October 2005).
- ….. and a new hydrogen car
The same goes for Volkswagen. The company is developing a hydrogen car, the Touran. In a few years, the head of the fuel cell development department says Volkswagen will introduce the first hydrogen-driven car. The concept for the car is the first of its kind, as the fuel supply to the engine is a two-step process where the engine charges a battery during normal driving speeds, so that when acceleration is needed when overtaking, the battery adds extra energy. The vehicle is also a hybrid car meaning that it can also use other types of fuel for power. The environmental gain with a hydrogen-fuelled car like this is the lack of CO2 emission and all that’s left as the car zooms by, is water - clean water (Bilsnak, October 2005).
- The Ecoracer
Volkswagen has also launched the most economical sports car of its time -
EcoRacer at the Tokyo Motor Show, 2005.
VW EcoRacer is very aptly named. Eco, because fuel consumption and emission are extremely low; Racer, because the dynamic potential of this centre-engined sports car is thoroughbred and fascinating. The VW EcoRacer
has two basic figures - 3.4 litres per 100 km average consumption, and 230-kph top speed.The VW EcoRacer weighs only 850 kilograms and accelerates to 100 kph in a mere 6.3 seconds driven through the DSG double-clutch transmission. This
sports car, powered by a newly developed 100-kW turbo-diesel engine of the next generation, thus presents a forward-looking synthesis of austere economy and impressive performance.
Further info: http://www.greencarcongress.com/
- This invention may help VW get there faster!
Five Danish researchers have invented a small pill which will make oil and petrol obsolete as fuel for cars in the future. However, there is still some way to go before the pill can be launched on the market.
The hydrogen pill is a small tablet which is very light compared with the amount of energy it releases. When it is heated it releases hydrogen and can be used in a hydrogen engine, in a computer or in a mobile telephone. The advantages would be economical as the fuel tablets would be cheap to produce, environmental as it would not pollute and functional and effective as it would be easy to store and use. The new tablet stores hydrogen more efficiently than other products (Politiken, 8th September 2005).
- More on the car scene..
The latest statistics regarding car sales in Denmark indicate a trend for a preference for small and fuel efficient cars. There is also an increased interest for diesel cars; about 20% of all cars sold today run on diesel.
The other interesting trend is the nature of questions asked by the customers buying new cars; they now always include a query about fuel consumption. (Frederiksborg Amts Avis, 27th September 2005).
ICIS View: This is encouraging. When there is a demand, the producers adjust accordingly. Hopefully, small cars are here to stay.
- Windpower is increasing
Vestas Wind Systems, a Danish wind-turbine developer is going from strength to strength. Due to fears of global warming and climate change as well as increasing energy prices, alternative energy developments are on the rise. Wind power rose last year by 8,000 MW to nearly 48,000 MW. To deliver this power, Vestas is number one and produces 35% of the total amount. Gamesa, the Spanish company is rated as the second largest producer of wind energy at 18% (The Economist, 9th April, 2005).
ICIS: The Danish government is unfortunately not seen to be supporting investment in the future regarding alternative energy sufficiently. Its policies are short-sighted with the mantra that you have to receive instant returns from monies invested. This does not augur well for the future of our country, especially as it is necessary to invest today if you want to reap tomorrow – alternative energy systems development should be at the top of the political agenda. Investment into the future of these systems should be prioritised, so that the next generation can reap the benefits . . . and we can afford it.
- Ethical Fashion – report from Paris
At its essence, the function of clothing and apparel is to fulfil a basic need; to cover oneself. However, not many of us are completely oblivious to the whims of fashion and style and like it or not, how we dress can also be a form of expression, signifying who we are or would like to be. The huge industries of fashion and clothing production have heavy impacts in terms of sustainability all the way through the lifetimes of the garments created; the raw materials such as cotton and wool and its treatment, how they are designed, produced, distributed, consumed and disposed of all has an impact on the environment and society.
These issues and others were the topics of a recent roundtable on Ethical Fashion that took place in Paris to coincide with the traditional fashion week. At four roundtables, issues such as environmental impact of clothing, fashion and development,and intellectual property and the safe guarding of cultures were discussed. Kathrine Hamnett, an early proponent of sustainable/ethical clothing and ‘agent provocateur’ was patron and made some hard-hitting comments about the unsustainable nature of the fashion industry and its impacts on the environment.
The Roundtable was in conjunction with an ethical fashion show and exhibition in Paris’ trendy Marais district where designers around the globe showcased not only the end product but the process of creating the garments and related impacts on people and the earth. It was clear that the days of frumpy, porridge-coloured eco-cotton designs are over; the styles were fresh and funky, but with a conscience.
One particularly inspiring concept was Equop; a clothing and design label and promotor of public talent, ‘led by creativity and driven by environmental and social responsibility’.The concept is simple and unique, if you have an idea for a graphic or image for a t-shirt, you send in your design to this web-based organisation. The image goes onto the website gallery to be voted on by members of the public. After a certain time period, the designs with the most votes get printed with non-toxic dyes onto organic cotton t-shirts and are available to purchase for a limited period in limited quantities. No overproduction, no waste. The designer receives a free t-shirt and a cut of the profits from t-shirt sales. A democratic and interesting idea; get your designs onto people’s backs!
More info: www.ethicalfashionshow.com
www.equop.com
Society
- Alternative Health
By definition, sustainability includes the social welfare of people. It is therefore encouraging that both Norway and Sweden are frontrunners regarding research and information with regard to alternative health treatments. The renowned Karolinska Institute in Stockholm has just been given a private donation of 34 mio DKK to set up a scientific research centre to test the results of alternative treatments.
Norway started the process in 2000 and has a centre for alternative treatments called NAKAM. (We wonder how long it is going to take the Danes to catch up!)
(Berlingske 16/10/05).
- Violence and women
On another positive social note, violence against women is decreasing. Whether this is due to women not accepting it any longer or whether men are becoming less aggressive remains unclear. According to recent research, however, increasing financial independence for women means that they do not have to stay in a relationship out of economic need any longer. The other reason is, as stated by the Economist (April 16th 2005), that there are fewer women to beat up, due to the fact that couples take longer to marry (2.5yrs on average) now than before. Violence within the relationship takes approximately one year to surface. Women therefore have a better opportunity to leave a relationship before it is too late (i.e. marriage or with the advent of children) if the partner turns out to be violent.
ICIS Education Update
- Designer Development Programme 2005/6
This year, ICIS is continuing to run its year-long competance programmes for designers in DK. The Designer Development programme is a EU Social Fund-financed programme for designers in the municipality of Frederiksborg, in Northern Zealand, Denmark.
At the beginning of October, the first module was held in Hornbaekhus, close to the ICIS center and brought together a diverse group of designers, from film scenographers to industrial designers and including photographers and illustrators.
The programme is based on the last year’s Young Danish Designers Programme which also attracted a batch of young, bright, design professionals, dedicated to making a difference. Having finished the course, a group of them have formed a professional network called Designers of Today or DOT and dedicate some of their work time to joint charitable projects. See www.designersoftoday.org for more information.
Recently, some of last year’s group remet at an ICIS-organised weekend workshop called the Power of Presentation, led by voice guru, Stuart Pearce. Stuart is Master of Voice at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre and a renowned world expert in voice and presentation training. His skills, charisma and experience enriched and empowered the group to be able to express themselves fully, both in public and on a personal level. An inspiring ICIS master, read more about Steward and his seminal text, The Alchemy of Voice on www.thealchemyofvoice.com.
- Sustainability Days 2005/2006
This autumn we have organised the first of a series of sustainable architecture seminars that examine the need to create a constructive dialogue between architects, engineers and planners in order to drive sustainability in the building and construction industry and meet the challenge of regulation in this area.
Based on last November’s successful Sustainable Architecture Days, the 3 Days 2005/2006 will explore the above issues, through showcases, dialogues and debates, mixing highly renowned English and Danish architects and engineers, each with their specific and unique approach to the theme of sustainability in the building industry. Read more here.
- ICIS/Lund EcoDesign Project
ICIS is developing a platform for an Ecodesign Masters with the Environmental Strategy Department in Lund University, Sweden. The project will run over a year and the result will benefit both institutions in the development of sustainable design educational initiatives across the Øresund.
The first phase is now well under way: a mapping and needs analysis process, looking at existing programmes in the EU and identifying industry need for trained eco-designers. This November, ICIS is hosting a symposium for a select group of eco- and sustainable design experts and educators to brainstorm around the vision of a new masters programme in sustainable design. The ongoing results of the project will be available on a new EcoDesign website, planned for launch at the beginning of December. For more information about the project, contact Trudy, trudy@iciscenter.org
- NEW PROGRAMME
ICIS ISL Programme 2006 (Innovation, Sustainability and Leadership in Design)
ICIS is launching a new international design development programme focussing on sustainability as well as innovation and leadership competances. The education is part-time and runs over a year and a half, commencing in September 2006.
For more information, click here or contact our Director, Karen Blincoe, blincoe@iciscenter.org.