Following Will-O'-The-Wisps and Chasing Ghosts: Design-Centred Research, Sustainability and the Bottom Line

ABSTRACT

The development of design for sustainability is considered within a design-centred research approach. This form of investigative activity is of particular interest to the design disciplines and here it is distinguished from other types of design research and discussed in terms of its potential relevance and contribution in advancing material culture in more sustainable directions. As its name suggests, this emerging form of design research within academia focuses especially on the activity of designing, and is complemented by more traditional primary and secondary source research methods. However, in order to advance this type of research activity, particularly in the challenging area of design for sustainability, it is necessary, at least temporarily, to disconnect design from the bottom line in order to more freely explore new ideas and new possibilities. A basis for design-centred research is outlined and supplemented by examples from the author's own research experiences.

KEYWORDS:

• design research
• design-centred research
• sustainability
• industrial design

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stuart Walker

Biography

Stuart Walker is professor and co-director of ImaginationLancaster at Lancaster University, UK. As professor of industrial design at the graduate Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Canada, he served successively as Associate Dean (Academic) and Associate Dean (Research), and adjunct professor of Engineering, University of Calgary. He is also visiting professor of sustainable design at Kingston University, UK. His writings on sustainable design have been published internationally and his propositional designs have been exhibited across Canada, at the Design Museum in the UK, and in Rome. He serves on the editorial boards of several international design journals, and is adviser to the UK's ‘Design for the 21st Century’ initiative. His book Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice is published by Earthscan, London. His forthcoming book, Enabling Solutions, co-authored with E. Manzini and B. Wylant, is published by University of Calgary Press, 2008.