Title: Design as a problem and design as a solution for sustainability

Authors: Nicola Morelli

Addresses: Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology, Aalborg University, Østerågade 6, Aalborg 9000, Denmark

Abstract: The role of industrial design has been essential for the definition of an industrial model based on large production volumes for broad markets, but industrial designers also contributed to the maturation of such a model towards sophisticated models that are now proving to be unsustainable. This made the design discipline particularly sensitive to the question of sustainability. In this context, the need for a decisive change of perspective for designers is certainly a necessity, but can also be an opportunity to propose a new approach that can generate sustainable innovation and development, especially at the local level. This paper proposes a change in the design perspective that is strongly linked to a new approach to innovation in industrial production. Only a genetic change in the role of industrial production is likely to provide the radical changes required for a sustainable development. Consequently, only a radically new design approach will be able to support such change.

Keywords: industrial design; value co-production; local solutions; individual solutions; social quality; social sustainability; service platforms; knowledge modules; trans-local solutions; sustainable development; innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2012.047840

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2012 Vol.6 No.3, pp.265 - 280

Accepted: 26 Oct 2011
Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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