Viewpoint New design knowledge

Ezio Manzini, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

This paper was presented to introduce Changing the Change, an international conference on the role and potential of design research in the transition towards sustainability, held in Turin, Italy, 10e12 July 2008. At the end of the paper is an Appendix which presents the first draft of a ‘Design Research Agenda for Sustainability’, which was co-generated by participants during the conference. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

eing a designer means being an optimist. which we can call optimistic-realistic. The first is Given problems e even the most difficult that the change in progress towards a society Bproblems e all we can do is to presume that calls itself network and knowledge based, the possibility of solving them. This is not because yet is still as unsustainable as what we had before, we do not see difficulties. Designers must be if not more so, can be re-oriented towards realists. We presume that we can solve problems sustainability. The second is that the designer because we have no alternative. To be designers, community can play a positive role in this neces- we must make proposals, and we base these sary re-orientation and that this can be done by proposals on the opportunities we meet. building new design knowledge.

Faced with a world drifting rapidly towards ca- Therefore, Changing the Change is a conference of tastrophe, it seems to me that we need this sense designer-researchers who gather to discuss the of a designer’s realism and optimism more then state of the art and to consider how to create ever. We must see the problems, and we must new design knowledge. We do so accepting the think that in spite of everything, it is possible to challenge of a transition towards a network solve these problems. We must find solutions. society and a knowledge society while making This is why we are all here today. the transition towards sustainability.

1 A Conference as Occasion for In organising the conference, we have done our Research best to make it a serious event, properly ac- Changing the Change is a conference for designers credited in academic terms. However, we have and so the spirit of the conference is a designer’s also done all we could to avoid a value neutral realistic optimism. It is based on two main ideas, conference, a conference without values.

Corresponding author: More than any other kind of research, design re- Ezio Manzini search cannot be separated from the purpose and [email protected] the social significance of its results. Today, facing

www.elsevier.com/locate/destud 0142-694X $ - see front matter Design Studies 30 (2009) 4e12 doi:10.1016/j.destud.2008.10.001 4 Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain grave social and environmental problems, we can- Finally, the conference will involve an open not remain neutral. Every research project we start discussion stream starting with a round table must take a stand. Whatever the specific question, and continuing into free discussions. Our goal is we cannot forget the need to consider our actions to bring important issues into focus. Finally, the as a contribution to the sustainability of the systems conference is an exercise in collaborative creation in which we work. This involves all the systems for of possible lines of action that will become which we are working e environmental, social, a Design Research Agenda for Sustainability. economic and even aesthetic. 2 Research and design knowledge So this is the first message this conference seeks to Much recent discussion on design research communicate. Today, sustainability must be the focuses on methodological aspects. I would like meta-objective of every possible design research to focus above all on results with a simple work- activity. It should not be a specialised sector along ing definition. Design research is an activity that with other specialised sectors as it has been in aims to produce knowledge useful to those who recent years. design: design knowledge that designers and non-designers (individuals, communities, institu- It is likely that no one would disagree with this tions, companies) can use in their processes statement. Who wants to design and or conduct of designing and co-designing. design research in a way that leads to unsustain- ability? Nevertheless, we must take the term From here, discussion on the nature and quality sustainability for what it effectively means e of design research can move from a discussion a radical change in ways of being and doing. of methods, where it has largely been centered un- From these words, we must move to concrete til now, to results. This is the issue of the knowl- actions. If we do, things will change. edge that design research has produced, its nature and quality, and therefore ways of getting hold of What would it really mean to bring research for it. sustainability into every design discipline and all areas of design research? How can we bring In terms of content, design knowledge is a collec- design research out of the straits of what green tion of different cognitive artifacts with different design, ecodesign, and sustainable design have purposes. These include visions to stimulate and been up to now? steer strategic discussion; proposals to integrate into the development of specific projects; tools In the face of these questions, Changing the to help understand the state of things and imple- Change is itself an occasion for research. Our ment design ideas; along with reflections on the call for papers was an international inquiry sense of what we are doing or could do. among researchers to see what they are working on. This enabled us to map out what we mean However, the design knowledge we are talking today when we talk about design research for about can also be described in terms of form. It sustainability. It also helped us to map what we must be explicit, discussable, transferable, and are actually doing in the field. The same is true accumulable. It must be knowledge that can be of the invited speakers that we asked to critically clearly expressed by whoever produces it, dis- outline the shape of these themes in their various cussed by anyone who is interested, applied by regions. Together these became a survey based on other designers, and it must become the starting the opinions of a select group of privileged point that allows other researchers to produce interlocutors. further knowledge.

New design knowledge 5 Starting from the results, it is possible to outline can bring to solving the problems we have to other research methods of various kinds and face. Obviously these contributions will be solid methodologies that allow us to study them in if the methodologies we adopt are too. comparison with one another. Research that produces conceptual and operational tools for de- 3 A context in transformation signing or research that helps us to understand ‘Every design project is based on good research.’ I the nature of what we are designing is research have heard this affirmation many times in the past for and on design. We usually conduct this re- to mean that the speaker did not understand why search by adopting methods proper to disciplines it was necessary to talk about specific, autono- endowed with a consolidated research tradition, mous design research activity. I haven’t heard adapting them to our specific requirements. In the phrase repeated for some time now. However, the field of research for design, this typically in- I think it is still true and it can be used to assert cludes ethnography, semiotics, ergonomics and the necessity of autonomous design research. various technological and economic disciplines. Indeed, if we update the terms, it would sound In research on design, this often means history, something like this: every good complex project sociology or philosophy. requires good design research.

Conversely, research that produces visions and In order to justify this statement we must enlarge proposals usually adopts original methods, using on the subject a little. I will do so very briefly by tools and skills proper to designer culture and taking up the sense of the conference title. practice for research through design. In this case, the research modes are, and must clearly be, To work as agents for sustainability, designers different from those of traditional scientific must take a couple of steps forward in under- research. Research through design necessarily standing the context in which they are operating. brings into play a level of subjectivity that would They must understand change already in progress be inadmissible in scientific tradition. Neverthe- better than they sometimes do. This means the less, this is not typical ‘artistic research’, totally transition towards a network society and a knowl- guided by the subjective dimension. Design is edge society. Let’s call this Change 1. They must a discipline that combines creativity and subjec- understand equally well the change required to tivity with a dose of reflection and arguments re-orient the change in progress towards sustain- on its own choices. The same is obviously true ability. Let’s call this Change 2. for research through design, with the added factor in this case that the knowledge produced This is not at all easy. Change 1 is generating cannot be implicit and integrated in the design system transformations that require of all social but, as we said, it must be explicit, discussable, actors to use new ways of thinking and acting transferable, and accumulable. with totally new artifacts, organisational forms and designing networks. This includes designers. The specific acceptable level of subjectivity in de- These changes require designers to rethink them- sign through research is an open question. We selves, to rethink how they operate and reshape have discussed this and we can continue to do their position in society. so, but I do not believe that a precise definition of this limit is of such great interest. Going back This new operational situation creates the context to where we started, I believe that what is really in which Change 2 must take place. This is the important are to discuss the results we have change that we need to move towards sustainabil- achieved case by case and the contribution they ity. This change also concerns systems and this

6 Design Studies Vol 30 No. 1 January 2009 introduces issues that have never before been time and ways, and applied rapidly, when and faced from commons regeneration to time ecol- where needed. ogy, from the new nature of communities to the one of places. I shall come back to these later. In addition, another factor emerges from the nature of Change 1. In the transition towards The expression Changing the Change refers to a network society and a knowledge society, de- a profound social, cultural and economic trans- sign processes tend to be increasingly distributed formation. For this transformation to take place, between numerous actors differing in culture, mo- we require a complex social learning process. This tivation and professional development. In these process in turn requires an original mix of reflec- conditions, traditional design knowledge, accu- tion and creativity, of visionary and concrete mulated in the implicit knowledge of professional thinking, of ability to propose and ability to designers, is no longer enough. listen. In short, this requires a diffused designing capability and therefore design knowledge that is Too many subjects are involved. They are not in able to help individuals, communities, institu- the same place and many are not designers at tions and companies to design feasible, sustain- all. In this case, too, a good design requires able solutions in the social and operational good research. However, in this case good framework of a network society and a knowledge research must produce knowledge that we can cir- society. By doing this, we can steer the future culate through the network. This means explicit, towards sustainability. communicable design knowledge, transferable to different applications. However, this last phrase is too dense and intri- cate, so I’d like to try to disentangle it. To do We can therefore say that Change 1 leads to a dif- so, I wish to go back to our original question. fuse demand for new design knowledge. This Why do we need autonomous design knowledge claim requires two points of clarification. and design research? In other words, why do we need knowledge and research that are indepen- The first is that the new demand is already visible. dent of the specifics of any individual project? Until now, however, it has not often been explic- 3.1 Change 1 and change 2 itly stated. In my opinion however, the situation There are many transformations underway in the is quickly changing. The most evident signs of production and consumption system in what we this change are the design research activities of have called Change 1. The problems that we recent years that have begun to develop in design face in this change tend to grow in size and com- agencies and in more clearly design-orientated plexity and the time we have to solve them tends companies. to shrink. This means that we cannot produce the design knowledge we require each time and every The second clarification we need to avoid misun- time in the traditional way for each individual derstanding is that the emergence of an extensive project. The cost is too high and few projects demand for design research is not in itself a good can shoulder all the costs of design research. thing. The design knowledge we require is not Time is too short and few projects can afford a de- necessarily oriented in a direction that we can velopment period as long as the period we require judge positively. Like all of Change 1, and like for ‘good design based on good research’. It is all that concerns the role of design, the design therefore necessary to develop design knowledge knowledge we generate through new research that can be produced in the most appropriate may be positive or negative.

New design knowledge 7 The question of the transition towards sustain- a systemic change. It is not a question of doing ability that we have called Change 2 is set against what we already do better. It is a question of do- this dynamic, problem-laden background. It does ing different things in completely different ways. not require much imagination to say that this transition also gives rise to an enormous demand There is an emerging demand for sustainable solu- for design knowledge. This transition towards tions. This includes product and service systems sustainability must see the germination and con- that propose different ways of being and doing solidation of a new idea of well being and a new from those currently dominant, lighter in environ- production system that will make it possible to mental terms and more favorable towards new live better while reducing the weight of our activ- forms of socialisation. ities on the environment. We must also regenerate the physical, social, and cultural quality of places, and the physical, social, and cultural quality of ii. Recognising the environment problem is not the planet as a whole. All this can be imagined synonymous with more sustainable choices and as a great co-creation phenomenon, where differ- behaviour. The environment problem has ent individuals and communities interact in a vast recently come into the political policies of process of social learning and innovation. This many governments. It appears on the front process generates, and is itself regenerated by, pages of many newspapers and it is evident in new design knowledge. the sensitivity of many citizens. However, contrary to na€ıve expectations, we see that 4 Lessons learned and sustainable this leads to an explosion of new problems: in- quality ternational tension, financial crises, social Nobody can really say what a sustainable society problems, and individual fears. In particular, will be like - how people will live and on what res- when we observe the expectations and behav- idential and production systems their existence iour of people and communities, experience could be based. Nevertheless, more than twenty teaches us that the absence of feasible, socially years of discussion and experience have taught acceptable, and widely recognised alternatives, us something. Here, I would like to mention three leads to an increase in the perception of of these lessons. These three lessons seem to me environmental risk that e in turn e generates most useful in indicating directions to work along. dangerous ideas and behaviour.

i. Research on eco-efficiency has been successful, There is an emerging demand for visions of but it has not improved the overall picture. sustainability. This requires scenarios that show Current products and services, taken one by feasible, socially acceptable, even attractive, alter- one, use far less energy and materials than those natives on different scales for various aspects of of some decades ago. However, no indicator of people’s lives. It is possible to have food with little aggregate consumption (residence, mobility, chemistry and without transgenic products. We tourism, etc.) indicates a decrease: even in coun- can move without cars. We can feel safe without tries where research on eco-efficiency has been locking ourselves in gated villages. And so on. most successful. Overall consumption of envi- ronmental resources continues to increase. This clearly tells us that increasing improve- iii. The feasible alternatives found so far indicate ments in the current system are not enough. new qualities. There are few widely recognised The transition towards sustainability requires feasible alternatives. However, on a closer

8 Design Studies Vol 30 No. 1 January 2009 look, in every country in the world there are develop a P2P approach, including schools, design cases of social innovation that could be seen firms, and research centers from all over the world. as significant steps towards sustainability. It could be open and collaborative, capable of self- This includes short food chains, shared resi- regulation and self-management. It should be a dential services, bottom-up urban improve- research programme with total freedom. ment initiatives, and examples of sustainable territorial management. It is easy to think and talk about all this. Can we actually put it into practice? In their diversity, these cases have a fundamental characteristic in common. Each one of them We must take the positive, critically optimistic compensates for the reduction in consumption approach of the designers we started with, saying, of products with an increase in other qualities. ‘Yes. We can.’ This conference can be a first, These qualities include the quality of physical significant step. and social environment with the rediscovery of commons; the quality of capability with the re- Appendix discovery of individual and community know- Design Research Agenda for how; or the quality of time with the rediscovery Sustainability of slowness. These aspects assume different An open and collaborative programme: Draft 1 meanings in different societies and places. Never- 12/07/08. theless, their presence in situations so far away from each other makes us think that they may Proposal constitute a first set of sustainable qualities. In This Design Research Agenda presents some state- other words, it is beginning to emerge that the ments, some emerging issues and some promising quality of places, of communities, of time, of design research fields and directions for sustainability. common assets in general could be the material on which to build every sustainable alternative It has two main goals: (1) to outline and progres- to the current unsustainable forms of production sively consolidate a shared framework for a multi- and consumption. plicity of research activities on design research for sustainability. (2) To trigger new autonomous A demand is emerging to investigate new qualities: research programmes that will enlarge and or re- design reflections, proposals, and scenarios that orient the present framework in order to give more investigate basic questions such as the quality of coherent programmes and more effective results. places, communities, commons and time. 5 An open, collaborative Design researchers who agree with this proposal programme should orient their on-going activities, or start new ones, in such a way that they can enrich these These are a few proposals. They are examples of emerging issues with visions, proposals, tools and a direction for our work in changing the change. reflections. A vast organised research programme should be developed along lines such as these. For this reason Doing so, they will participate in the development we hope to be able to write the Design Research of an open and collaborative design research pro- Agenda we mentioned at the beginning of this talk. gramme and, most importantly, in the realisation of an articulated but convergent set of visions and This programme should be something of a novelty proposals (and of the ideas and tools necessary to in the way it is conceived and conducted. It could better understand and implement them).

New design knowledge 9 This document Sustainability must be the meta-objective of every The process where this document comes from possible design research activity. started with the organisation of the Changing the Change Conference (and the debates that Sustainability is here intended as a systemic change took place between several involved researchers to be promoted at the local and global scale. It will to prepare it) and continued in the discussions be obtained through a wide social learning process, and the co-creation activities that took place re-orienting the present unsustainable transforma- during the this same conference. tions towards a sustainable knowledge society.

Its possible future evolution will depend, first Design research has to feed the social learning of all, on the commitment of the conference process towards sustainability with the needed participants who will agree with its spirit and design knowledge, that is, with visions, proposals, its present proposals, and moving from here, tools and reflections to enable different actors to to all the other design researchers who will collaborate and to move concrete steps towards also agree with them. a sustainable knowledge society.

In conclusion, this document is a draft, and it will remain a draft: an open artifact to be integrated 2 Emerging issues by the free collaboration of whoever will accept Emerging issues are research themes that, at this its spirit and the simple rule it proposes. stage of the process, appear to be potentially relevant to orient a variety of existing or future design research programmes. The document is organised in four sections:

 Background statements. These are some The following ones are the results of the ‘‘Emerg- general ideas to be shared by those who ing issues’’ exercise that took place during the intend to participate in this co-creation Changing the Change conference (Torino, 10e12 process. July 2008). Each one of the six proposed research  Emerging issues. These are research themes lines integrates several topics proposed during the that, at this stage of the process, appear to be first two days of the same conference and has potentially relevant to orient a variety of exist- been discussed in one of its dedicated sessions ing or future research programmes. the last day. The specific topics indicated for  Rules of the game. These are some simple each one of these research lines is an open list rules to be followed to participate in this that in the future will be implemented and, if initiative. necessary, re-oriented.  Basic concepts. This introduces some working definitions, needed to start a conversation 2.1 Ways of living within the community. In the future, these How to generate radical changes in everyday working definitions could be up-graded and life, orienting them to visions of sustainable new concepts could be added. life styles? How to promote sustainable qualities, sharing knowledge across geographical dis- 1 Background statements tances, cultural differences and disciplinary bar- Background statements are some general ideas to riers? How to develop scenarios and convivial be shared by those who intend to participate in tools, through community generation and this co-creation process. activation?

10 Design Studies Vol 30 No. 1 January 2009 Physical and social commons and Local development in the global society sustainable qualities Understanding ‘the local’: local identities and Understanding the ‘commons’: from the physical cosmopolitan culture; local economies in an inter- ones (such as air, water, landscape), to the social dependent world. How to design the collective ones (such as lively neighbourhood, public local wisdom. Craftsmanship validatation and re- spaces, sense of community, perception of safety, generation. Sustainable tourism ad community- social knowledge), to the new ones (such as inter- based tourism. Local and seasonal food and net and open knowledge). What makes them exist new food networks. The ‘‘Slow food model’’ (what is their ‘glue’)? The people and community and its applicability in other fields. The design recognition of the commons in the definition of role in local and regional development. a sustainable wellbeing; what media and design can do. How to design solutions capable of gener- 2.3 Ways of designing ating or re-generating the commons? How can designers become agents for sustainabil- ity in a society where more and more people have Active and collaborative behaviours to take design decisions? What are design’s con- and the ecology of time ceptual and practical tools in an interconnected Understanding ‘sustainable wellbeing’: individual world where different (i.e. non-western) narra- vs. collaborative; passive vs. active. Sharing differ- tives are emerging? What is the role of schools ent local knowledge. The sense of personal and universities in this new context? balance as harmony and contentment. The sense Designing networks and forming new of community as communication, protection, professional designers participation, recreation, identity, freedom and Understanding the new designer role: designers as generosity. A new sense of time, with the re- connectors and facilitators, as quality producers, discovery of slowness as a desirable component, as visualisers and visionaries, as future builders permitting attention to the important things in (or co-producers). Designers as promoters of new life. business models. Designers as catalysers of change. 2.2 Ways of producing Design knowledge and design education How to promote models of production and con- Understanding the new design nature and devel- sumption based on a sustainable use of physical oping a new cultural background: from products and social local resources? How craftsmanship, to services and systems, from individual activity traditional productions and advanced technolo- to collaboration. New designing networks and gies can merge and collaborate in the perspective new learning networks. Changes in the education of a sustainable, distributed knowledge economy? priorities and methods. Challenge the barriers to design for sustainability in design schools. In- crease the transfer of knowledge between projects Distributed economies and symbiotic and develop new educational resources. Integrate production global and local knowledge. Understanding ‘distributed systems’: from com- puting to power generation, from manufacturing 3 Rules of the game to the whole economy. Distributed systems and Rules of the game are the simple rules to be followed system resilience. Distributed systems, democracy to participate in this co-creation process. They are: and power shift. Connecting people, places and things: distributed systems and the convergence  To share the background statements and with the p2p and open source movements. working definitions

New design knowledge 11  To enter in the digital platform (that will be a sustainable society. That is, to sustain promis- prepared) the description of their research pro- ing social and technological innovations and to jects (and, when available, of their results) fol- re-orient existing drivers of change towards lowing a format and keywords system (that sustainability. will be provided)  To enter in the platform comments on other Design research: an activity aiming at producing research projects, in the spirit of promoting knowledge useful to those who design: design the dialogue between different points of view knowledge that designer and non-designer (indi- and the convergence towards the realisation viduals, communities, institutions, companies) of a more coherent large picture can use in their processes of designing and co- designing. 4 Basic concepts What follows is a first list of working definitions Design knowledge: a set of visions, proposals, tools needed to facilitate the conversation among the and reflections: to stimulate and steer strategic researchers involved in this programme’s co- discussions, to be applied in a variety of specific creation process. projects, to help understand what we are doing or could do. This knowledge has to be explicit Sustainable society: a society where all the people (to be clearly expressed by whoever produces it), and the communities have the same possibilities discussable (to permit the exchange of opinions to live well (that is, to be what they want to be among many interested interlocutors), transferra- and do what they want to do) in a sustainable ble (to be applicable by other designers) and possi- way. That is, maintaining their environmental ble to accumulate (to form a reservoir of design footprint in the limits of the ecosystems resilience, knowledge that could be the starting point for pro- and regenerating the quality of the physical and ducing further knowledge by other researchers). social commons. For more information visit the conference website: Design for sustainability: everything design can do http://www.changingthechange.org/ to facilitate the social learning process towards

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