Design 21: Social Design Network

Launch Pad™ AUSTRALIA

Launch Pad is the most extensive Australian initiative aimed at directly developing the careers of Australian product designers. Held in conjunction with Saturday in Design®, the Launch Pad events program includes an exhibition of finalists prototypes, mentoring and networking events, and critique from both judges and an International Review Panel.

Saturday in Design Friday 27th and Saturday 28th July, Sydney, AUSTRALIA Over 90 participants, 60 locations and countless design launches made for a jam-packed schedule for Friday and Saturday. This year’s event saw companies across the city offering warm hospitality, design talks, a chance to meet designers and a glimpse into current design trends and future directions. Across the city and the suburbs, bright oranges flags decorated showrooms within each design precinct, with hordes of visitors popping in and out of showrooms at their leisure.

With so much to see and do, the CarriageWorks space in Redfern and PYD building in Waterloo, which contained a number of design companies, made for a time-effective visit. There was high drama to be found around town, with an opera singer at James Richardson, a geisha and goth at Alternative Surfaces, and high culture in the art “installation” at Gelosa. Others preferred to take it down a notch in the simple farm atmosphere at Eco Concepts, listen to the jazz at Precision Flooring or take a breather at the oxygen bar at Work Arena.

There was a distinctly international flavour this year with the “Danish with the Danish” at Interstudio and African food, music and dancing at Krost System Furniture. All in all, Saturday in Design was a celebration of design and creativity; spectators watched glass blowers at work at Diffuse, viewed the architects and designers version of the Archibald at Haworth, and were invited to contribute to...

The Watercone is one of those brilliant "Why didn't anyone think of that before" devices. You fill it with salt water and wait while the heat from the sun causes the water to evaporate, catching it in a gutter on the side - distilling the water. When it's done, you flip it over and open the bottle top to release the water. A simple, low-cost way to distill fresh water from salt water.

via The Seitch Blog

Contemporary design work by Frameworks:

At the World Timber Federation addressed by Prince Charles, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) wanted to promote awareness of timber products produced by sustainable forestry. Frameworks created an installation of a forest of identical planks four metres high, making the point through economical messaging that there is no visible difference between sustainable and unsustainable timber.

A clean design with a clear intention.

The Low Impact Woodland Home and it's accompanying village project has got to be one of the coolest things I've seen in a while. Ecologically friendly and built into the side of a hill, it's... well, it's hobbit hole.

Built in 4 months and for around £3000, the designer claims that the skills required to build one of these homes are within the reach of anyone. And they're planning on building a village next year to prove it.

Sort of reminds me of William McDonough 's city proposal for China. (click through to the last chapter of the video)

via Core 77

Looking beyond the spelling errors, I was happy to stumble on this Social Design' site today. Social Design' is an art project covering the creative arenas of art, design and architecture. With a mapping styled aesthetic and focused projects, the site illustrates the limitless opportunities awaiting visual designers to use their skills within the world-changing arena that is Social Design.

Social Design' examines the character and possibilities of the physical space, and through this also what meanings this space holds in relation to social constructions in society. Space is a hybrid of both architectonic and social dimensions, and out behaviours are thus determind by the spaces we occupt and the values we ascribe to it. Jesper N. Joergensen

Here is an exciting project I am awaiting; The 11th Hour is a documentary film produced and narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio and distributed by Warner Brothers. It features an interview with Bruce Mau as well as over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the state of the world and the state of humanity.

It premiered as a special screening at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19, and is planned for public release this fall.

With thanks to Jim Shedden (Toronto, ON), who spoke of two fairly recent on-line essays from Bruce Mau. The first link took me very happily to Science plus Art to Change the World presented on CBC's Radio project This I Believe and the second to Ideas Imagining the Future from Walrus Magazine.

Together, they neatly summarize Bruce's position on optimism, humanism and "design", in the sense that it's delineated in Massive Change. - Jim Shedden

Do take a look at This I Believe, and spend some time reading the articles as there are some really interesting reads there for all of us. Other than Bruce's article, do read Maria Vamvalis' Children of Our Future.

The World House Project is a multi-year, collaborative initiative led by the Institute without Boundaries that will explore the evolution of shelter and plan for the next generation of holistic housing design. The project will build on the research concepts of IwB’s inaugural project, Massive Change, using the same method of interdisciplinary design innovation.

The challenge: to design a sustaining, universal and healthy human dwelling. That challenge is different depending on where you are, for example in developing countries, over a billion people live in urban slums or in the streets without shelter. By the year 2030, three billion people in the developing world will need housing. That’s 96,150 housing units per day.

Recent research led me to the work of Duncan Wilson through a stunning example of design called Pixelnotes; a wallpaper which is four layers of 'post-it' notes of varying grey tones, on a primary colour backing. The beauty of this project is both how it responds to the way we interact with wall space, and how it becomes richer over time, as the layers are peeled away.

Cutout [pictured] follows the same principle, addressing the way we interact with space. What is truly beautiful about both ideas is capturing the contrast of simplicity and functionality, while creating something so dynamic and so human - I have notes, photographs and other sentimental effects pinned on my wall as I write this. I would encourage you to visit his website, where photographs of both projects show how each wallpaper grows in time.

Perhaps what these designs begin to achieve is an awareness of the world we live in and how we use its space, of the make-up of our surroundings and how we could begin to use these surroundings more efficiently.

//also posted on Anamorphosis