Abstract
The 6th Assessment Report (2021) claims that the most ambitious threshold of the Paris climate agreement will be reached and exceeded by 2040: climate change and climate diplomacy do not coincide. The adaptation and mitigation failure indicates a certain increase in inequalities at the intra-state and global levels and substantial economic damage. Design for Balance stimulates the reimagination of our productive, technological, societal and cultural systems, moving away from compensation strategies, which focus on balancing their negative impacts, to embrace systemic change, which focuses on establishing new balance within their components. Design principles, processes and competences have highly contributed to the simplistic vision of facing sustainability through compensation strategies. Reaching a systemic “balance” asks designers challenging questions: which design principles could inform this new paradigm of balance? Which design processes could enable its growth? Which diverse knowledge and competences are required to design for embracing it? The track invites proposals reflecting on the evolution of design practices, processes and related competences. The track goal is to address design practices, processes and competences that failed in promoting sustainable change, by analyzing their gaps and limitations and reimagining them through redefying principles, bodies of knowledge and systems of competences.
Keywords
systemic balance, sustainable design processes, sustainable design principles, sustainable design competences, sustainable futures
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.121
Citation
Bertola, P., D'Itria, E., Gramegna, S.M., Bruno, C., Valusyte, R., Simeone, L., and Neuhoff, R. (2024) Design for Balance: Reimagining Processes and Competences for Sustainable Futures, in Gray, C., Ciliotta Chehade, E., Hekkert, P., Forlano, L., Ciuccarelli, P., Lloyd, P. (eds.), DRS2024: Boston, 23–28 June, Boston, USA. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2024.121
Creative Commons License
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Conference Track
Research Paper
Included in
Design for Balance: Reimagining Processes and Competences for Sustainable Futures
The 6th Assessment Report (2021) claims that the most ambitious threshold of the Paris climate agreement will be reached and exceeded by 2040: climate change and climate diplomacy do not coincide. The adaptation and mitigation failure indicates a certain increase in inequalities at the intra-state and global levels and substantial economic damage. Design for Balance stimulates the reimagination of our productive, technological, societal and cultural systems, moving away from compensation strategies, which focus on balancing their negative impacts, to embrace systemic change, which focuses on establishing new balance within their components. Design principles, processes and competences have highly contributed to the simplistic vision of facing sustainability through compensation strategies. Reaching a systemic “balance” asks designers challenging questions: which design principles could inform this new paradigm of balance? Which design processes could enable its growth? Which diverse knowledge and competences are required to design for embracing it? The track invites proposals reflecting on the evolution of design practices, processes and related competences. The track goal is to address design practices, processes and competences that failed in promoting sustainable change, by analyzing their gaps and limitations and reimagining them through redefying principles, bodies of knowledge and systems of competences.