Design and Production for Sustainability

Research into the nature and form of functional objects

Themes in this research focus on integrated scales of manufacture:

  • Local, regional, national and international
  • Implications for product design
    • Materials
    • Processes
    • Localisation (maintenance, repair etc)

Selected publications and presentations in this area include:

Walker, S. Design for Sustainability: Practiced-Based  in objects, environment and meaning, Keynote Address, International Symposium on Sustainable Design (ISSD) September 29th-30th 2011, UFPE, Recife, Brazil.

Richards, B., Walker, S., Blair, L. Cyber-Sustainability: leaving a lasting legacy of human wellbeing, Alt-HCI Conference, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, July 4-8 2011

Walker, S., Experiments in Design for Social Sustainability, Keynote Address: Sustainability Workshop, Cumulus 2010 Conference, Tonji University, Shanghai, China, September 6-10 2010.

Walker, S., Design for Sustainability, Keynote Address: Wuxi University, China, September 10 2010.

Enabling solutions for sustainable living.  Manzini, Ezio; Walker, Stuart; Wylant, Barry (co-editors). Calgary : University of Calgary Press, 2008.

Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice.  Walker, Stuart .Earthscan, London, 2006.

Integration of scales : mass-produced plus locally produced parts. Walker, Stuart . in: Design studies: a reader. ed.  Hazel Clark ; David Brody. Oxford : Berg, 2009.

  

Design PhD Studies in this area: Prof. Walker is one of several faculty members involved in the Design PhD conference - an annual event offered in conjunction with Northumbria University. He is particularly interested in hearing from potential Design PhD candidates with interests that would fall within the broad themes of design for sustainability and/or design and human meaning (values, spirituality etc.), or who have interests in practice-based design research.

 


 

Project Team

WalkerWalker Stuart Walker Design for Sustainability; Design and Meaning; Practice-based Design Research; Design, Values and Spirituality; Product Aesthetics; Product Design, Localization and Place

Updates

FORM BEYOND FUNCTION: practice-based research in objects, environment and meaning

OutcomeJournal Paper

An overview of practiced-based research conducted over the last four years that explores new directions in product design. The research addresses the challenges of sustainability, including localisation of design and production, as well as substantive values and deeper, enduring...More information

Enabling Solutions

OutcomeBook

The work resulted from a workshop initiated by Stuart Walker and co-produced with Ezio Manzini and Barry Wylant. It applies the 'enabling solutions' developed by Ezio Manzini in the context of the North American suburb.

From the publishers description:

...More information

Integration of Scales : Mass-produced plus Locally Produced Parts

OutcomeBook Chapter

The chapter discusses how the principles of sustainability,k when applied the creation, production and use of our human-made material culture, invokes a systemic shift away from the homogeneous, globalized methods developed over the course of the 20th century - which have proved socially...More information

Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice

OutcomeBook

FROM THE BACK COVER:

Sustainable by Design: Explorations in Theory and Practice (London: Earthscan/Taylor and Francis) offers a compelling and innovative, design-centred approach that explores both the meaning and practice of sustainable design.

 

The...More information