Meaningful Stuff Design That Lasts By Jonathan Chapman An argument for a design philosophy of better, not more.
A book that I have read with great pleasure and interest.
It is like a conclusion or summary of all previous books and lectures by Jonathan Chapman with greater depth and a broader approach. An insightful and holistic examination to our needs, wants and consumer behaviours.
“What does it mean to ensure that products last over time when, as happens today, they have to be seen as hybrid, complex, and dynamic entities? Jonathan Chapman tells us everything we need to know both to answer this question and to give products a longer life.”
Ezio Manzini
author of Politics of the Everyday and Design, When Everybody Designs
I was very happy to receive this book, as I knew it was coming for some time now. I did my MA on Sustainable Design at Kingston University, where Dr Paul Mickletwaite is the course leader. This is a thorough and critical investigation on all the aspects of recycling. The book examines the role, the scope, the benefits, the marketing and finally the myth of the recycling process. It does address all the issues that we take for granted when we throw things away. It clearly states that recycling has been used as an alibi to thoughtless over-consumption. It argues that the solution to our unsustainable state is a profound change in our consumerist behaviours as well as our approach to design and manufacturing. This is a must read for every conscious human being. I enjoyed reading it and I believe that it should be in every school and university library, as well as being part of the design education process at all levels
“I find it better to improve things than to be constantly forced to come up with something new, which is often not new, but formalistically superimposed. If I start with the outside, then it will always be formalistic. And that’s why I prefer the term ‘re-engineering’. I want to start with the inside. Always form inside to outside. And I have to do this with my thinking as well. (Dieter Rams, 2018)
A ground-breaking phenomenon in the 60s and 70s, when designs by him and his group were associated to an increasing general drive for modernity and modernization, during the 70s the figure of Dieter Rams was temporarily overshadowed by different tendencies emphasizing the attention on provocation and color; still, since the 80s, it has made a grand and permanent comeback as a reference for design at a global scale, inspiring philosophies of designers like Jonathan Ive at Apple — as expressed in a contemporary icon such as the iPod, with its shapes evocating the legacy of the T3 radio. Since its early research, shared with the group at the School of Ulm, Rams has been one of the first to experiment the systemic design approach — conceiving the objects starting from the inside, from the disposition of components in connection to their use — and he has then framed his research in the theoretical system he christened as good design, anticipating all contemporary attentions to sustainability and criticisms against “programmed obsolescence ”of products. This theory is represented by the famous general principle of the “less but better”, but it has also been distilled in an equally famous sequence of 10 principles ( good design: 1) is innovative; 2) makes a product useful; 3) is aesthetic; 4) makes a product understandable; 5) is unobtrusive ; 6) is honest; 7) is long-lasting; 8) is thorough down to the last detail; 9) is environmentally friendly; 10) is minimal).
Since the 1990s, the American market has been awash with inexpensive home goods made in low-wage overseas factories, designed to last only a few years. This affordable furniture makes it possible to redecorate regularly and live itinerant lives, since we can toss everything out with each move. But the convenience comes at a great environmental cost. Making and shipping a single piece of furniture emits an estimated 90 kilograms of carbon, the equivalent of flying a Boeing 747 for an hour. And Americans throw out 12 million tons of furniture annually, up from 2 million in 1960, which clogs our landfills and wastes the wood, metal, and plastic required to create it.
The 2005 World Summit on Social Development identified sustainable development goals, such as economic development, social development and environmental protection. Sustainable design is the philosophy of designing objects, the built environment, and services to comply with the principles of social, economic, and ecological sustainability.
The intention of sustainable design is to eliminate negative environmental impact through skilled, sensitive design. Great design is sustainable design! Sustainable furniture design is an effort to address the environmental impact of furniture products on the environment by considering all aspects of the design and manufacturing process. Design considerations can include using recycled materials in the manufacturing process and using products that can be disassembled and recycled after their useful life.
He is many things at once. He’s an industrial designer, furniture designer, an exhibition maker, an artist, a manifesto writer, a polemicist, all in one. He’s also a great pioneer of sustainability. He was always saying, design has to last. He wanted design not to waste any resources; this idea of the long duration. His mission was always to liberate us from the short-term-ism of our world.
The Story of Plastic (animated short) pulls back the curtain on the plastic pollution headlines, revealing the true causes and consequences of the global plastics crisis. This animated short is a companion piece to The Story of Plastic (documentary), which premiered in April of 2020.
The Centennial Light has shone for 115 years (Credit: Bill Nale/Panoramio/Wikipedia)
As the light bulb customer base grew more mass-market, the business model that supported long-life bulbs disappeared (Credit: iStock)Smartphones need replacing every couple of years, as battery life fades and software updates change (Credit: iStock)Cars now have a longer lifespan than they did decades ago (Credit: iStock)
So is this conspiracy theory true? Does planned obsolescence really exist?
Initially, companies installed and maintained whole electrical systems to support bulb-based lighting in the dwellings of the new technology’s rich, early adopters. Seeing as consumers were not on the hook to pay for replacement units, lighting companies therefore sought to produce light bulbs which lasted as long as possible, according to Collector’s Weekly.
The business model changed, however, as the light bulb customer base grew more mass-market. Greater sums of money could be reaped, companies figured, by making bulbs disposable and putting replacement costs onto customers. Thus was born the infamous “Phoebus cartel” in the 1920s, wherein representatives from top light bulb manufacturers worldwide, such as Germany’s Osram, the United Kingdom’s Associated Electrical Industries, and General Electric (GE) in the United States (via a British subsidiary), colluded to artificially reduce bulbs’ lifetimes to 1,000 hours. The details of the scam emerged decades later in governmental and journalistic investigations.
“This cartel is the most obvious example” of planned obsolescence’s origins “because those papers have been found,” says Giles Slade, author of the book Made to Break: Technology and Obsolescence in America, a history of the strategy and its consequences.
The practice cropped up in all sorts of other industries, too. For instance, competition between General Motors and Ford in the fledging 1920s auto market led the former to introduce the now-familiar model year changes in its vehicles. GM had pioneered a way to entice customers to splurge on the latest, greatest car, to satisfy themselves and impress those in their social circles. “It was a model for all industry,” says Slade.
Although the term “planned obsolescence” didn’t enter common usage until the 1950s, the strategy had by then permeated consumerist societies.
Still functional: product obsolescence is also a mindset. Photo: Shutterstock.
Products such as mobile phones often have a shorter lifespan today. Photo: Poravute Siriphiroon / Shutterstock.com
“To many people, it would seem like there’s a bit of a conspiracy out there that manufacturers are making things not to last, and there is a little bit of truth in that,” says UNSW Built Environment’s Dr Miles Park.
“However, if the provision of spare parts, repair services and the availability of information about repairability, if it is competitive, it will become economically viable for people to seek out repairs,” he says.
“Perhaps we could have a similar attitude too about household durables, where new business models, as well as the design and the engineering of these products, allows for things to be upgraded and repaired.”
Long-term relationships between designers and clients are vital to creating sustainable design projects says design studio Formafantasma.
It is virtually impossible to create something truly green and ethical when clients commission one-off designs, said Italian design duo Simone Farresin and Andrea Trimarchi, who make up Formafantasma.
“Companies don’t realise that it’s not enough to ask designers to be sustainable,” Farresin told Dezeen.
“You need to allow the designer to work in a way that is different, is more realistic. And that’s a different approach.”
Furniture Life 