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.