Professor Stuart Walker
Co-Director
+44 (0) 1524 593574
Product Design for Sustainability, Design and Meaning, Aesthetics and Sustainability, Design-centred Research, Design Process
Stuart is Co-Director of ImaginationLancaster. His research focuses on design for sustainability; product aesthetics and meaning; and design-centred research. He is also Adjunct Professor Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada and Visiting Professor of Sustainable Design at Kingston University, UK.
His writings on design and sustainability have been published internationally and his experimental designs have been exhibited across Canada, in Italy and at the Design Museum in London. Prior to joining Lancaster University he was Associate Dean Research at the University of Calgary, Canada. He studied design at Exeter College of Art and the Royal College of Art, and holds a PhD in Engineering (Leeds). For several years he was an engineer with Shell Internationale in The Netherlands, the Middle East and London.
View slideshow of selected conceptual designs
Design & Production for Sustainability
Integrated scales of manufacture
- Local, regional, national and international
- Implications for product design
- Materials
- Processes
- Localisation (maintenance, repair etc)
Product Consumption & Sustainability
Voluntary simplicity groups
- Reasons for simplifying
- Attitudes to material possessions
- Implications for design
- Relationship to sustainable principles
Product Meaning & Sustainable Design
Theory + exploratory, conceptual design
- Beyond the triple bottom line
- Questions of meaning and purpose
- Implications for product design
- Localisation
- Aesthetics
- Ethics
- Systemic shift
Research Through Design
Designing as an element of research/scholarship
- Conceptual objects
- to explore and express ideas
- as critique
- as a non-analytical, holistic, intuitive
form of creative inquiry
Manzini, E., Walker, S. and Wylant, B. (2008) Enabling Solutions for Sustainable Living, University of Calgary Press, Calgary. (Contributing Editor) Book and DVD
Walker, S. (2006) Sustainable by Design – explorations in theory and practice, Earthscan/James & James Scientific Publications, London
Walker, S. REMIX : design for sustainability, Invited Contribution, translated into Italian, for an edited monograph by Prof. L. Imbesi, University of Rome, In Press
Walker, S. Evolving Permanence: Product Design and Sustainability, in “Source 03: Timeless Necessity”, Eindhoven Design Academy, Episode Publishers Rotterdam, 2009, pps. 13-20.
Walker, S. On Sustainability, in “Enabling Solutions for Sustainable Living”, contributing editors Ezio Manzini, Stuart Walker and Barry Wylant, University of Calgary Press, Calgary, AB, 2008, (see ‘Books’ above).
Walker, S. Design Redux, in “Designers, Visionaries and Other Stories”, edited by Jonathan Chapman and Nick Gant, Earthscan, London 2007
Walker, S. Extant Objects – Designing Things as They Are, in “Management of Natural Resources, Sustainable Development and Ecological Hazards, eds. Brebbia, C. A., Conti, M.E., and Tiezzi, E, WIT Press, Southhampton, UK, 2006, pps 361-370
Marchand, A., Walker, S., De Coninck, P. (2006). Aesthetic Attitudes and Responsible, Sustainable Consumption, in “Management of Natural Resources, Sustainable Development and Ecological Hazards, eds. Brebbia, C. A., Conti, M.E., and Tiezzi, E, WIT Press, Southhampton, UK, 2006, pps 371-380
Walker, S. Crushed before the Moth - secular time, sacred time and designChapter in book “Time In Design - Eternally Yours” 010 Publishers Rotterdam Published December 2004, pps 302-332
Walker, Stuart Conscientious Objects - Product Aesthetics in the Context of Sustainability Book Chapter in “Visions on Product Endurance - Eternally Yours” edited by Ed van Hinte, 010 Publishers Rotterdam, 164-180, 1997
Walker, S. 3 practice-based-research conceptual design examples included in the book: Bramston, D. Ed. (2008) Basics Product Design 01: Ideas Searching, AVA Publishing, Lausanne, Switzerland. (Specific contributions include: “Portable MP3 Unit” (pps. 130-131); Lather Lamp (pps 5 &150); “Wirelight” (p.151).
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS IN JOURNALS
Walker, S. After Taste: the power and prejudice of product appearance, Design Journal, Berg, Oxford, Peer-reviewed, Vol. 12, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 25–40
Walker. S. Following Will-O’-The-Wisps and Chasing Ghosts: Design-Centred Research, Sustainability and the Bottom Line, Design Journal, Berg, Oxford,
Vol. 11, Issue 1, 2008, pp. 51-64
Badke, C. and Walker, S. Designers Anonymous,Innovation – The Journal of the Industrial Designers Society of America, USA, Spring 2008. p. 40-43 Best paper selection at IDSA Conference
Walker, S. Cack-handed Design: Design-centred Approaches to Process and Product for Sustainability, Design Journal, Ashgate, Vol. 10, Issue 3, 2007, pp. 28-40.
Dogan, C. & Walker, S. Localization and the Design and Production of Sustainable Products, The International Journal of Product Development, Inderscience, Switzerland., Vol. 6, Nos. 3/4, 2008, Peer-reviewed.
Marchand, A. and Walker, S. Product Development and Responsible Consumption: Designing Alternatives for Sustainable Lifestyles, Journal of Cleaner Production, 2008, 16:11: 1163-1169
Walker, S. Extant objects: designing things as they are, International Journal of Sustainable Design, Inderscience, Switzerland, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2008, pp.4-11
Walker, S. Light Touch The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, UK, Springer/Kluwer Academic Publishers, Netherlands, 3/3-4:1-12, 2006
Dogan, C. and Walker, S. The Best of Both- A study of the feasibility of integrating scale of design and production for sustainable products, The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, Springer/Elsevier Academic Publishers, The Netherlands, 3:135-147, 2006
Walker, S. Object Lessons: enduring artifacts and sustainable design Design Issues, Vol. 22, No.1, 20-31, Spring 2006, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Walker, S. “Desmascarando o objeto: reestruturando o design para sustentabilidade” in "Revista Design em Foco", Vol.II, No.2, Jul/Dec 2005, 47-62, University of The State of Bahia, Brazil.
Walker, S. After the Endgame: creating objects in a saturated culture The Design Journal, Ashgate, UK, Vol. 8, Issue 1, 2005, pgs. 3-13
Marchand, A., De Coninck, P., Walker, S. (2005). La Consommation Responsable : Perspectives Nouvelles dans les Domaines de la Conception de Produits , Nouvelles Pratiques Sociales, Université du Québec à Montréal,Vol.18, no 1., 2005, 39-56.
Walker, S. A Design Journey The Journal of Sustainable Product Design, Elsevier, Netherlands Volume 2. Number 1-2, 2002
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