The story of cap and trade

How wasteful our society is! I still can’t comprehend why so many of us still indulge in bottled water when we know that there is so much waste as a result. After watching that video I cant see the water that goes into those bottles as pure anymore because of the many many empty bottles that are a result of this pointless product! GRAB A CUP AND FILL IT WITH A TAP! I think this is another example of why this new generation of designers needs to be wiser with what they design. The public is very impressionable and with all the marketing techniques that exists these days its not hard to promote anything in a nice light. The truth is that we as designers know the consequences of what we design and we should be the ones that are at the forefront of environmental conservation. If we don’t design it, the public will never even notice that they needed such a thing to being with.

Design for Life

At first I thought this was going to be a really lame and stupid 6 episodes of some reality tv show. When I started watching though I got a little bit hooked! I find it really interesting that Starck picked the contestants based on their drawings and that some people got through even though their drawings looked so shit. I cant believe some of those guys made it on the show, out of all the contestants from England they were the top!? Either Starck wasn’t too fussed on who he picked or no one relay applied for this competition.

Something that I found really interesting though was how Starck tried to make them think about what surrounds a design rather than just the design itself. I guess that’s something that we learnt this past semester too. Its really important that the design is not just functional, but fits into the system and improves that system in more than just one way.

I also found it really funny how the cocky designer got kicked out not for having a bad design, cause his design was good, but rather for being too smart and just trying to please Starck. It make sense though because if all you try to do is please the guy above you, you’re never going to be able to break out of the mold that you are contained in. I guess it’s a good lesson to learn now as we are still in university, not just to design to please the lecturer like we all seem to be getting better at, but rather to design for the good of humanity.

One last thing that I found quite funny was Starcks reason for why Paris was the leader in design. He said, when you design something bad everyone says “that’s bad” when you design something good everyone says “that’s bad” so you’re always striving to do better than you did before.

Project 1 - Design for Disasters

My natural disaster is cyclones particularly in the Bangladesh and I have chosen to focus on the way it affects the aquaculture projects that are going on in that region. According to a study done by the WorldFish Center (article 1), aquaculture and fisheries are seen to be one of the major ways deve

loping nations can combat extreme poverty and hunger. The article provides many statistics on how aquaculture and fisheries are combating poverty and hunger now and how each of the Millennium Development Goals are going to be reached using these techniques. Because of all the way aquaculture is seen to be key tool to bring developing nations out of poverty, I chose to focus on this area for my project.

At present, most of the aquaculture projects that have been adopted by farmers in Bangladesh are from the Chittagong and Cox Bazar region of Bangladesh. As you can see by the map to the left, these two regions are High risk areas and prone to sea surges during times of cyclones. These sea surges and high winds have particular detrimental affects to fisheries and aquaculture because of the contamination that comes with sea water entering other water bodies and the damaged that is caused to cages and other fishing tools during the storm. A rise in salinity of the water surrounding these fisheries have cause them to be ineffective for growing fish and thus inhibiting the practice of fish farming in these regions. The way Bangladeshi fish farmers deal with this situation at the present is to just move further inland where the water is fresher, but this practice can only last for so long as global warming continue to make sea levels rise.

Current fish farming techniques (article 2) are also quite ineffective and inconvenient because of the need for water and either a river, lake or reservoir. Fish farmers have to travel daily to feed fish in these locations and theft is has also become a big problem as the fish cages are left unguarded for most of the day and night. As I was considering all the possible ways to improve this situation and combat the effect of cyclones I came across an urban aquaculture model written by Jonathan Woods (article 3). Within this study that he did, he was successfully able to recreate a recirculation system on a small scale that needed very little human interaction to function. I took the idea of this recirculation system and applied it to a Bangladeshi fish farming family and saw that it would solve many of the problems they face. Salinity would not be a factor if the water was contained separately to the water that gets affected by sea surges, theft would be less common with the easy placement ability of tri barrel system and less time in the day would be needed to care for the fish as a result of the system.

This is how the system works, This system mimics natural cycles. The sun (or artificial light) shines into the plant tank, causing aquatic plants and algae to grow These plants and algae flow into the fish tank (or are cut and fed) where herbivorous fish eat them. After digestion, the fish excrete am monia (a sort of urine) and produce feces. These are partially broken down by snails and other invertebrates in the bottom of the fish tank and then pumped into the biofilter tank.

In the biofilter tank, specialized bacteria break down toxic ammonia into fa irly harmless nitrates, which can be taken up by plants. Other bacteria and micro-organisms break down other waste products into forms that plants can use. Particles of waste are trapped by rocks and shells where they are eaten by invertebrates or broken down by other microorganisms. This tank acts like an aquatic compost pile, converting wastes into fertilizer for the plants.

Finally, the fertilized water flows into the plant tank, where it is taken up and converted into plant tissues. Submerged plants and algae add oxygen to the water when the sun shines. Clean water, oxygen, and green plant food flow into the fish tank, completin g the cycle.

The 11th Hour

That documentary was too crazy! It scares me to think about how much irreversible damage we did to the planet just today. It’s amazing to think that 99.9999% of all species that use to roam the earth are now extinct. It makes you wonder, why are we so special that we are gonna be any different from the other billions or trillions or how many species that have gone extinct. In the documentary it said that eventually only the insects will be left to rule the earth.

Something that was said during the film that really impacted me was “the healing power from understanding that is not just global warming, it’s not just fossil fuel dependence, it’s not just soil erosion, it’s not just contamination of our land and water, it’s not just the population problem and it’s not just all of those. The deterioration of the environment of our planet is an outward mirror of an inner condition, a like inside, like outside, and that’s a part of the great work.” Being a Christian myself I greatly believe this to be true. Because we live in a sinful world, of course the health of our planet isn’t what it should be; this planet was never created for this.

In terms of design, I find it very encouraging that there are people out there who do care about the impact of our actions. It astounds me that not everyone feels the same way after seeing so much devastation in the world. I guess it’s up to this generation to fix the problems that were caused by previous generations who did not know the consequences of their actions. After watching that video, we can no longer say we didn’t know.

Charette One

This design is for a clip on back piece to the chair to provide lumbar support and extra comfort.
This particular design is done for the larger sized people in the community that may find the seat of the chair a little to small. Its a larger and reinforced piece of wood that could be used as a substitute to the original seat base.
This idea is for children. Its a step for the chair that allows them to get on and off more easy and have somewhere to rest their feet when they are seated.
This design is a dual purpose chair that can be transformed into a bench.
These next three ideas are quite silly but i enjoy doing these kind of designs as they inspire other more sensible designs.


This last design is a chair that looks wooden, cheap and hard but in reality is very comfortable. The base seat is actually a special foam that is created to look like the wood the rest of the chair is made of.

this is the final product that our group came up with

An extra beam for more support and provide foot support.

Feet grip for stability and to raise the chair and provide a dip for extra comfort.

Back rest and lip for the front of the chair to extra comfort for the back and underside of the knees.

For something more fun and unusual, the seat of the chair functions like a piano chair and has a secret compartment.

Objectified

“Every object, intentional or not, speaks to who put it there.”

Just as a design or an object reflects the designer’s goals and ideas, in a very similar way the object or design also says a lot about the person who buys and owns the item. Thus I suppose there is a struggle for designers to put their ideas and creativity into a product while at the same time trying to accommodate for the needs and wants of the consumer. I guess in a way designers have to choices, either to try and think like the consumer, or to adversely try to make the consumer see things through the eyes of the designer.

“Every object tells a story if you can read it.”

Because every object tells a story, those objects that are able to tell a more personal and sentimental story are going to be treasured and kept for longer than an object with no emotional attachment. Thus design for emotions and the senses is a very interesting are of design to me. I love design and objects that are able to compliment my life and that I desire to use over and over again. This desire in turn adds to the use and emotional attachment I have to a product. Deconstructing how that emotional connection actually starts and how to use that in other objects seems almost more like psychology than design.

“The way in which we see design has changed.”

The aim of design has been somewhat changed in the recent past because of the environment, economy and just how perception of life has evolved. It is a very interesting time for design as we no longer are as wasteful with our choices and materials and instead have been forced to be much more frugal with our resources. I believe design is becoming more and more complex each day and to keep up with all this change it is important for designers to continue to communicate with community and gain other perspectives on things.

Ecological Footprint

After doing this survey I was quite shocked to see the impact that my lifestyle is having on this planet. I had always thought that the way I lived was far less impacting on the planet than other people I had observed. Although this may be true, the impact that I have on this planet is still quite detrimental and it makes me wonder how people who I view as living far less ecologically friendly lives are having on the planet. I was talking to one of my classmates after doing the survey and supposedly one of the greatest impacts on the planet according to this survey is when we don’t recycle aluminium. I have decided from now on that as much as possible I will recycle all aluminium cans I use.