In one of our lectures at Konstfack, we tuned, via Skype, to Mark Drewell from South Africa to hear some of his views on the current hot topics for our planet. The uniqueness of this online “mini-lecture” was not just in the form and the medium that was used, but also in the message. Mark paraphrased James Martin and his book The Meaning of the 21st Century, which actually has a whole school build around and named after it. Martin uses an analogy named “Into The Canyon” to describe the situation of our civilization as we face many signs telling us there’s something wrong with the way we’ve been dealing with the world.

“The Canyon” is a metaphor for the downfall of our species, considering the increasing number of social, ecological, political issues we have to deal with—inequity, population overload, intolerance, carbon overload, etc. The metaphor says that we’re heading down the canyon at full speed, and predicts the bottom-most point will be reached as we start experiencing vital problems–such as water scarcity–on a worldwide level.
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London Remade’s “Recycling Mixed Plastics” seminar was held at the Wellcome Collection building in Euston on Monday 29 September. I went along to listen and learn. It was good to see so many friendly faces in a very well attended event - there was standing room only at the back of the auditorium, emphasising how timely and interesting this subject is.

click the logo to download presentations

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Thanks to the BMD Love Blog for this link to 100%’s new vox-designer video all about sustainable design.

I know about the designers and journalists Max Fraser and Aaron Stone have interviewed for this film but I don’t really know them for their work in overtly sustainable design projects yet - something to look into. Send in your examples of mainstream sustainable design and we’ll feature them in the comments feed here.

The London Design Festival ran from 18-23 September, the week after Pli launched the Reee chair. We decided to try and show the chair in as many different places, to as many different audiences as we could.

Reee Chair at 100% Design, Earl's Court

Pli launched the Reee chair on Wednesday this week. Thanks to everyone who came to help us celebrate. We had a good party and I hear some of our friends carried on into the weee small hours.

But the main thing was for us to share the achievement of bringing an innovative product to market, with all the stakeholders, partners and well-wishers who have been instrumental in the project.

Pli began developing the Reee chair in 2006 with Sprout Design as the designer. Now we have a finished product, already in shops and installed in some homes, meeting rooms and (next week) lecture halls.

Here are some photos of the launch… (click to enlarge)

Christopher launching the chair

I will be taking part in the “100% Sustainable?” round table discussion to be held at London’s 100% Design exhibition in Earl’s Court on 21 September.

The discussion will open up to take questions from the floor and it’ll be great to hear some testing questions and illuminating ideas, so come along if you’re available. It starts at 2 pm on the 100% Sustainable? stand.

100% Design 2008

There will be a seminar on each day of the exhibition. Sunday will be the best one. The seminars are free to exhibition visitors (that’s free to trade visitors too, if you register online before 12 September).

Here’s 100% Design’s description of the event…
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Pli has been working towards sourcing all of our materials sustainably since we started in 2003. We have met and discussed novel, eco-friendly materials for our furniture designs with suppliers in India, China and all over the UK. We’ve built up a fair amount of knowledge and experience which we are eager to share with other designers.

So Pli was really pleased to be given the opportunity to talk at the Eco Design Network’s Big Picture Brunch in London on 18 September. Christopher Pett from Pli will be discussing our experience and ideas regarding from compostable panel furniture to biocomposites and recycled plastics.

The EDN Big Picture Brunch

There will be lots of interesting speakers there and we are looking forward to learning a lot and getting into some lively and illuminating discussions. Apparently the coffee and croissants are on the house so we hope to see you there!
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Christopher Pett from Pli will be on the panel of the Materials Masterclass on Thursday September 18, as part of the Greengaged event series, hosted by the Design Council during the London Design Festival. The seminar will run from 2 pm until 3.30 pm and there are lots more interesting lectures and discussions to follow on that day. You can register here. Come along and get involved in the discussion — we want to make it an informed and productive event.

greengaged seminar series

Here’s an announcement from our friends at Birmingham City University’s Institute of Art & Design…

Sustainability specialists will be converging at the ICC in Birmingham at 12 noon on Monday 15th September for an interactive debate. The focus of the debate will be looking at issues facing up and coming managers and future leaders in the development of green strategies in the work place. The event, organised by Birmingham City University, follows research into attitudes and influences in developing green policies, reviewing how individuals can pro actively apply green lifestyle choices in the workplace.

Grrreen Debate

The Big Debate chaired by the BBC’s special correspondent Richard Bilton, will feature Peter Ainsworth, Shadow Environment Secretary, leading blogger for treehugger.com, Leonora Oppenheim (expert in eco design) and Birmingham Post and Mail environmental correspondent Patrice John.
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On Friday last week Pli was invited to deliver a 10 minute presentation at the Upcycling Textiles Symposium held Chelsea College of Art & Design. The day was run by TED (Textile Environment Design) and it aimed to encourage the London textile and fashion community to embrace sustainable thinking.

Tim and I attended the first session of the day. First up was a talk form Marie O’Mahony who co-authored Techno Textiles: Revolutionary Fabrics for Fashion and Design - books 1 and 2 plus many other textile based publications. Her talk was very interesting and walked us through some amazing concepts and case studies including some “living” fabric which had been grown from fungi and bacteria.

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After learning the theory of Lean manufacture on day 7 it was time to put it into practice, this meant playing with Lego. The reason for the Lego was to demonstrate the difference between a ‘push’ style of manufacture, a traditional style of manufacture, and ‘pull’ style developed through Lean manufacture. A simple metaphor to explain what was to come is try and pulling a piece of string versus pushing it.

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If you want results in manufacturing the current English trend is to go ‘Lean’. However this concept of ‘Lean’ manufacturing has been around since the 1960’s if not earlier. During this time post-WW2 Japan was rebuilding its manufacturing infrastructure and trying get rid of its reputation for low-quality products. American experts were sent to Japan to help the automotive manufacturers improve quality. Companies like Toyota and Yamaha embraced this quality driven Lean manufacturing style. From there, the Japanese made Lean manufacturing their own with unsurpassed levels of quality and manufacturing efficiency. Soon Europe began to implement its own style of lean manufacture. Nissan, Toyota, and Honda brought Lean manufacturing principles to the UK during the 90’s. Now these UK plants are leading the way in manufacturing innovation and efficiency.

Day 7 and 8 of the NPD course were delivered by Colin Allaway from London Manufacturing Advisory Service. He has worked in manufacturing for the past 37 years, for a wide range of companies from plastic caps to aerospace, so he soon had us up to speed on the KISS (keep it simple stupid) principles that lean manufacture is based around.
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After the dramatic events of day 3 which I fortunately missed out on, Furniture Works had managed to regroup and relocate for day 4 which was on intellectual property. This module was headed by Marice Cumber from the intellectual property advice company Own-it. She had scheduled a range of speakers from various sectors of the IP industry.

The first speaker was David Morgan from the UKIPO. He gave an overview of how IP works and some case-studies showing the value of IP to a company. I had seen him speak before at a previous London Remade seminar and it was a good refresher on the basics of IP.
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This lecture was only one of the many fruitful outcomes of the invaluable time I spent with Pli earlier this year. It is about the ‘Utility Scheme‘ — legislation that put design, manufacturing and trade of certain products under the strict control of the British government during and just after World War II. (You may click here to read Christopher’s review of this lecture).

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On Wednesday 25 June I followed my colleague Alex onto the New Product Development course organized by Furniture Works at London Metropolitan University. Alex had already briefed me on the format and content of the course so far - I’m the one who spends most time working with design consultants and we agreed I can use the training on that topic most.

NPD Day 3

Jodie Eastwood of Metropolitan Works spoke about how furniture developers and manufacturers can work more productively with designers by breaking down the different issues and expectations into manageable ideas.

We started by differentiating between conceptual design, commercial design and technical design (e.g. conceptual like the Campana Brothers, commercial like Simon Pengelly and technical like the anonymous designer who makes injection-moulded dustbins). What kind of product are you planning — therefore who do you want to brief for the design?

Then we moved on to the design project structure. This was very useful advice — the sort of training you think you already know, but it underlines how easy it is to stray from these intelligent project structures and allow things to get ad-hoc. The whole course group spent a while discussing the balance between creative freedom and hitting the brief on target. How much leeway should a designer get, and how much restraint should the client require? It’s a fuzzy issue and it’s great to discuss it with people who really understand both sides of the dilemna. We also discussed what motivates designers and how to bring out the best in them by learning how to be a ‘good’ client.

Finally, before the morning session finished, we focused on brief writing and we looked at the specific pieces of information a designer should need, in order to fulfil it and come back with usable concept drawings on schedule. We talked about production costs and margins and went down an interesting sidetrack to debate the merits of loss-leaders in the product range.

We broke for lunch. Then this happened…

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It was exactly a week ago today that I was trying to make a point at London Remade’s Green and Thrifty seminar, about a political-economic pendulum swinging back and forth between two polar opposites: “A no-holds-barred free market; and total state intervention”.

Trying to derive a lesson from the Utility Scheme, one of my main arguements was that no matter how benign the intentions of an authoritarian action are, history shows us that the public never fully abides by what has been put forward as mandatory. It is very interesting to see that this argument can in fact strike a chord in today’s current affairs.

A recent piece of news talks about a decision by the German civic authorities to make solar panels mandatory in the town of Marburg. This legislation sets a rule for “every new house or those whose roofs or heating systems are being renovated to install solar panels”.

Looks like killing two birds with one stone: Battling climate change and surviving at a time when energy prices are soaring. Nothing wrong up to this point? Don’t be so quick to judge.

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Giraffe Innovation ran a workshop in central London on Tuesday 17 June 08 aimed at helping businesses to understand and improve the carbon footprint of their packaging. Giraffe is one of the organisations behind the WEEE Man and therefore an inspiration for the Reee Chair which Pli has developed with Sprout Design and others. Click the image for more information on this event…

Two of us attended the workshop and we learned a lot about business attitudes to packaging. We have been trying to develop packaging designs that are courier-proof, easily recycled and made from sustainable materials. The information we gained from Giraffe has sent us back to the drawing board in a couple of places but generally speaking it has bolstered our confidence to continue on the route we have chosen.
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On Wednesday this week, our colleague Eray Cayli presented his research into Utility Furniture at the Green and Trifty seminar organised by London Remade. If you’re a product designer, a design student or simply somebody with an interest in sustainable design, you’re sure to find his insights persuasive and inspiring.

Eray’s central point — as I understand it — is that the Utility Furniture scheme applied austerity measures not only to material supply and manufacturing processes, but also to the creative freedom and experimental curiosity of designers in that period (1942 - 1952). Imagine being constrained for 10 years of your working life by design committees staffed by bureauctratic appointees.

Are we risking our liberty to explore and develop new designs, materials and processes as British designers of the 1930s had done, unwittingly? If design professionals won’t moderate their own environmental impact, who will do it for them? Would it be possible for restraints to be applied centrally by governments or trade authorities to limit our work for the benefit of a low-carbon economy in the future?

Importantly, Eray has also spotted opportunities that arose from the Utility scheme, particularly for small local manufacturers who benefitted from a shortened supply and distribution network. They picked up the business that was previously aggregated by the big producers in High Wycombe and London’s East End. Will we increasingly make a virtue of local supply and short journeys?

You can download Eray’s presentation directly here. We’ll be podcasting the audio and slides in the next few days, once Eray has settled back in Istanbul.

If you want to follow up on the research into Utility Furniture and its application to new resource-efficient manufacturing business models, contact Pli or comment here and we’ll pick up the conversation with you.

Eray Cayli spent a couple of months with Pli this summer, working on a life cycle analysis tool for product designers. Some of his blog posts on this site have sparked interest among other designers. He has been invited to speak at the Green and Thrifty event on Wednesday evening this week (18 June).

Eray has travelled from Istanbul to share his research and ideas at this seminar. If you will be in London and you have an interest in sustainable design, I highly recommend his presentation.

Note: you need to register to attend but there are some places left. Click the London Remade logo to register.

Here are the details:
Date: 18 June 2008
Time: 4 — 7pm
Venue: Rich Mix Centre 35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road,
London E1 6LA

Eray will be talking about Utility furniture. He’ll be comparing the design and product development trends of the 1940s with our own situation. I guarantee you’ll think differently about your priorities, opportunities and risks as a designer once you have heard what Eray has to say about his studies in mid 20th Century design.

The Green and Thrifty event has been put together by London Remade. There’ll be a panel of speakers talking about thrifty design and thrifty business. There’ll be an exhibition on site, featuring [re]design and others. There will be drinks and things to eat. There will be a rag and bone cart, so bring your electronics waste for recycling. There will be lots of interesting people to meet.

Green and Thrifty is part of the Love London festival, running from 1–21 June. Click on the image to go to the Love London website…

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The Royal Society of Arts hosted a lecture yesterday evening in London, discussing the recent book ‘Fixing Climate’ with the authors and a panel of eminent climate scientists. An excellent debate ensued, centred around the premise that ’scrubbing’ carbon from the exhaust of coal-fired power stations is going to be one of the very most significant industrial solutions to man-made CO2 emissions. The panel preferred the term ‘anthropogenic’ to man-made, which I found reassuringly science-y.

The authors were kind enough to sign the copies which my colleague and I bought. I began reading mine over my porridge this morning and, like the oats, it’s fairly heavy going but I feel it’s probably worth it. I’ll post a review when I finish it but I want to share an interesting comment made by Lord Oxburgh on the panel yesterday, answering a question from the BBC’s David Shukman about higher energy costs and the people who don’t like them (that’s everyone).
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Annie Leonard, the genius behind the short movie ‘The Story of Stuff’, was in Istanbul on May 31st for a screening of the movie. I was among the few lucky Istanbulites-–nothing related to being invited, simply due to people’s lack of awareness!–-who were able to watch the movie with her, after which a Q&A session took place.

I already had a question in mind as I approached the movie theatre, since I had watched the movie several times–thanks to its brilliant webpage. What preoccupied me was something which I had come to realize after looking at what socially and environmentally aware thinkers has said back in the 50s and 60s. I think that today we cannot help but refer greatly to their studies, go against what they’ve gone against, and circulate around the same terms: Corporatism, consumerism, planned & perceived obsolescence, etc.

My question to her was, “Have we failed in coping with these menaces, and if we have, what has gone wrong?”

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