Unboxing the Design Process through lens of Interior Design

UNBOXING THE DESIGN PROCESS

Saloni Patel SCAD | Fall 2020 | M.A Design for Sustainability Prof. Scott Bolyston

UNBOXING THE DESIGN PROCESS How does Interior Design’s design process relate to the system thinking and Sustainability?

T A B L E

Abstract 8 Introduction 12

System Thinking 14

Phases in Design Process

Design Process 18

Programming 20

Triple Bottom Line 24 Concept Development 26

OF

16

Buchanan’s 4 order of Design 29

Sustainability 32

Causes of the imbalance

36

SDG’s 38 Circular Economy 39

C O N T E N T

ALDI 40 Presentation

Design for Envt. Strategies

Design and Documentation

42

48 50

Agenda 54

Waste, resource, or Asset?

56

Execution 58 Transition Theory 62 Evaluation 64 Sustainable Lifestyle 67

Glossary 75 Citations 76

7

“NATURE doesn’t fit into a GEOMETRIC notion of What the World should be, is the NATURELESS which is hardest to capture

IT

A B S T R A C T

11

Dennis P. Doordan mentioned in “Developing Theories for Sustainable Design� that Design is a process through which abstract ideas become concrete realities. As designers, we have continued to be highly focused on consumerism while putting aside the pressuring needs of the world that surrounds us.

Design has evolved causing a shift in the responsibilities of designers today. Recent scenarios have shifted the finger of question and liability towards the designer, requiring acknowledgment the power that design possess. We as designers must be the first ones to question our practice, design decisions, and ethical commitment to the way we are transforming everyday interactions and consumers.

This Unboxing story of Sustainability and how the system thinking leads to the paradigm shift into understanding of the literature, reasoning, causes, effects, and the future through the lens of design process and the programming levels of an Interior Designer.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

15

System Thinking

System thinking is a set of related components that work together in a particular environment to perform whatever functions are required to achieve the system’s objective – Donella Meadows. A systems thinker uses this mindset to untangle and work within the complexity of life on Earth. The focus is how one or more variables of interest change over time. Humans need food, air, and water to sustain our bodies, and trees need carbon dioxide and sunlight to thrive. Everything needs something else, often a complex array of other things, to survive. That is, what patterns of behavior is and once identified, we can look for system structure, and have the possibility of permanently eliminating the problem pattern of behavior.

An Interior designer clubs the different sectors into a functional format aesthetically into space whereas the System thinking is about thinking or seeing the repercussion of the smallest actions into a larger system.

It forces us to see beyond us on a global scale.

An interior designer enhances the function, safety, and aesthetics of interior spaces while considering how different colors, textures, furniture, lighting, and space work together to meet occupants’ or visitors’ needs. Relating it with the System thinking: Systems thinking is a way of helping a person to view systems from a broad perspective that includes seeing overall structures, patterns, and cycles in systems, rather than seeing only specific events in the system.

Image Courtsey: Leyla Acaroglu. (2017). Disruptive Design

17

Phases in Design Process

In an interior space, it’s a collaboration of different agencies coming together to work on a common goal decided or created by the designer and delivering the best for the clients which in the reading two Expansion Model of Design by Margolin in which it says the reason of the failure of the previous model were because they were static and located differently within hierarchy of greater and lesser importance. In that manner, all the sectors in the project are important and should work with the same importance and value of their contribution. The Archetype policy Resistance talks about the actors bounded with rationality and to move towards a particular goal.

The Design Process can be summarized in 6 narrowed steps.

• • • • • •

Image Courtsey: GreenCherry Life. (2020)

Programming/ Research Concept Development Presentation Design and Documentation Execution Evaluation

D E S I G N

P R O C E S S

The design begins knowing the client, their homes, preferences, ideas, and desires. The goal of the first meeting is to exchange information, walk through the home with the client and understand their lifestyles and preferences. Together addressed the problem areas, solutions and their vision for the new space.

Programming is stating a problem statement and doing the necessary research on the client’s background and the requirements by them.

01 Programming

23

Programming sets in the Goals and the foundation for the new project. John Elkington strove to measure sustainability during the mid-1990s by encompassing a new framework to measure performance in corporate America. This accounting framework, called the triple bottom line (TBL), went beyond the traditional measures of profits, return on investment, and shareholder value to include environmental and social dimensions. In which further the branch between Environment and economics defines the Institutional Policy and Strategy in which fewer designers are involved and is known as the prism of Sustainability.

Wicked problems are a

“class of social system problems which are ill-for

mulated, where the information is confusing,

where there are many clients and decision makers

with conflicting values, and where the

ramifications in the whole systems are thoroughly

confusing” - Tittel

These are problems whose definition and resolution have eluded everyone, eg., waste, poverty, healthcare. We should see these ‘problems’ as challenges and rise to meet them. Designers shape ecological and cultural environments and are tasked with the responsibility of sustaining them.

Cooper in 2000 mentioned that Design thinking with the capacity of creative thinking can meet the viable future and that designers involved with skills will understand the consumer psychology and the forces, which drive in consumption and well-being.

If we are to create a more sustainable world, will need to change the very nature of design and designing. R. Buckminster Fuller dedicated himself in 1927 to

“A world that works for 100% humanity, in the shortest possible time, through spontaneous co operation, without ecological offense or disadvantage to anyone” (quoted in Zung, 2001).

Designers such as R. Buckminster Fuller and Victor Papanek observed the changing landscape and began to share their observation with the world and publicly challenge the complicity of design in consumerism and suggested new path for the profession.

25

Triple Bottom Line

The TBL is an accounting framework that incorporates three dimensions of performance: social, environmental and financial. This differs from traditional reporting frameworks as it includes ecological (or environmental) and social measures that can be difficult to assign appropriate means of measurement. The TBL dimensions are also commonly called the three Ps: people, planet, and profits.

Image Courtsey: GreenCherry Life. (2020)

In 2004 Emily founded LimeRed with a plan to prioritize high-quality design, user experience, and meaningful social impact. Over the last 15 years, Emily has built this business into a reputable presence with national-scope clients focused on doing work that has socially responsible intentions. lt is a Certified B Corporation, a triple-bottom-line company, and a certified WBE and DBE.

After the initial consultation, a proposal to the client will follow, this is a simple documented agreement between the firm and the client which state what it will take to make it all happen, what’s is to be done, by whom, by when and how much would it cost.

This phase involves the work of the designer researching, drawing, space planning, generating ideas, envisioning what the project will look like, and how each individual space will be transformed to become something new while maintaining consistency throughout the design process.

02 Concept Development

29

Concept Development is a stage where we create ideations, concept statements on which style to follow, and the basic schematics of it. Richard Buchanan in 1992 in Design as Liberal art talks about the 4 domains which are symbolic & visual communications, material objects, activities & organized services, complex systems or environments for living, working, playing & learning and how design relates to all. The model shows the viewpoint from an individual eyepoint to a macro level view and find a stable arrangement between the society and human being.

In Wicked Problem Rittel mentions the problem: “A class of social system problems which are

ill-formulated, where the information is

confusing, where there are many clients and

decision-makers with confusing values, and where

the ramifications in the whole system are

thoroughly confusing.”

Buchanan’s thoughts can be related to what we understand in Traps i.e., Tragedy of Commons where individuals work on selfish motives and the Drift to low-performance trap.

Tragedy of Commons: When there is a commonly

shared resource, every user benefits directly from

its use, but shares the costs of its abuse with

everyone else.

Drift to low performance Trap: Allowing performance standards to be influenced by past performance, especially if there is a negative bias in perceiving past performance, sets up a rein forcing feedback loop of eroding goals that sets a system drifting toward low performance.

Buchanan’s Four Order of Design

31

In 1992 Victor Margolin talks about the 2 Development model: Expansion and Sustainability so as a designer it’s on us which to incorporate; expansion model where the practitioners believe in production first as a token for economic exchange whereas sustainability checks and balances on ecological aspects or go with Kung where he says to bridge both the models.

Roman Architect Vitruvius in 1914 wrote that Architects should select sites for cities which has supplies for the community and he was the earliest sensible human to talk about human settlement planning. Fuller in 1969 though contradicts by saying that we do not have to change skills and knowledge known. This winds up on the designer to select the model and approach which includes values from Ecological and Sustainability perspective in decision making.

The Sustainability model is the more sensible of the two, which requires reigning in consumption that poses a direct challenge to the expansion model.

The concept of mutual benefit is the understanding of the market-based system of enterprise that we have come to know as capitalism through the early musings of Adam Smith (1776/1994). The designers must use their skills in addressing the challenges of a professional society which may include energy use, urbanization, new housing paradigms, transportation, poverty, and waste which was entitles as Ecologically Affirmative Design. One of the key concepts is the notion of working with only the current income of our natural capital.

33

Sustainability

In Our Common Future (WCED: 1987) defines Sustainability as

“Sustainable Development is development that

meets the needs of the present without

compromising the ability of future generation to

meet their needs.�

The design for Sustainability Win-Win Idea by Schmidheiny in 1992 expresses that it is possible to find a pathway for the future that avoid an oppositional relationship between the environment and the economy, pathways that would bring natural and financial capital into alignment: Product-focused eco-design.

Sustainability is first a human problem and then an environmental problem.

35

Unsustainability is the outcome of addictive behavior and mindless consumption. The Diderot effect is defined by McCracken as “A force that encourages the individual to

maintain a cultural consistency in his/her

complement of consumer goods” (1998).

The goal of a designer is to understand people’s (clients) expectations, experiences, and perceptions regarding products in relation to their commitment to sustainable consumption. The role is to show clients that sustainable practice is a form of humanity and the need of the growing contemporary world.

As Friedman wrote, “Consumption is a material realization, or

attempted realization, of the image of the good

life” (1994).

Image Courtsey: Edward Design Group, (n.d)

37

Causes for the Imbalance

There are certain issues and problems that are related to ecological imbalance. These are problems that have evolved because of the disruption of ecological equilibrium. Probably, there are three major problems which effects of imbalances in the ecosystem: 1. Global problems – these are problems that affect

different nations and can only be resolve through

solidarity of affected nation.

Global warming or Greenhouse effect

Acid Rain

Pollution (Air and Marine Pollution)

Depletion of ozone layer in the atmosphere

Radioactive fallout because of nuclear war 2. National problems – these are problems that affect

a country and can only be resolved within the country.

Pollution (air, water, and soil)

Degradation of natural resources

Alteration and inconsistent land use 3. Community problems – these are problems that affect

in a particular localities or communities and can

only be resolve at in that exact level.

Broken and not flowing drainage

Stench damping site (Pollution)

Widespread of epidemic in localities

Image Courtsey: Rattan Lal, (2015)

39

Sustainable Development Goals

The United Nations General Assembly set a collection of 17 global goals in 2015 called the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals for Sustainable Development. They cover social and economic development issues which are broad and interdependent, with each of them having a separate list of targets to achieve.

Image Courtsey: World Co-op. (2016)

“The seventeen Sustainable Development Goals are our shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world’s leaders and the people. They are a to-do list for people and planet, and a blueprint for success.”

– said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Circular Economy

Circular Economy represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits.

Transitioning to a circular economy does not only amount to adjustments aimed at reducing the negative impacts of the linear economy. Rather, it represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits. With current advances, digital technology has the power to support the transition to a circular economy by radically increasing virtualization, de-materialization, transparency, and feedback-driven intelligence.

Image Courtsey: Racheal Smith, (2019)

41

ALDI

Aldi uses cardboard boxes for shelves, and shopping carts that you can rent for a quarter. Shoppers bag their own groceries, and employees do not spend much time restocking. Stores are relatively small.

Aldi keeps prices down, in part, by employing a small workforce. In fact, that small workforce is the reason you will have to insert change to use an Aldi shopping cart. Considering shoppers do the work of putting the carts away, Aldi save money by not hiring cart attendants to gather them from the parking lot.

So, how exactly do you bag your own groceries at Aldi? You have several options: • You can purchase plastic and/or reusable bags at the store • Bring your own bagor • Opt for empty cardboard boxes, which may corral in an area within the store.

According to Aldi’s website, the German-based grocer “(teams) up with local farms to help (customers) get the freshest produce at low prices.”

Designers while creating concept should consider the ramifications of their decisions and how it will affect the ecosystem. The role is to do sourcing and evaluate the design basis on the local level. Consideration of the LSA, circular economy, SDG’s and other matrix while development stage.

Image Courtsey: Patel Saloni, (2020)

Interior Designer will present to you, the existing, and the new layout, the inspiration and new design concept for each of the areas to be designed. The presentation incorporates all selected furniture, lighting, accessories, materials, colors, rugs, partitions and much more to provide our clients with a vision and a real feeling about the way space will turn out to be.

It is a core and important stage where you must convince the client and approach them in a way that benefits the ecosystem and them too. You approach them with models, statistics, and options for a better lifestyle.

03 Presentation

45

To convince clients designer needs proof and solid foundation by showing both sides of the coin through the Loop Diagram and how Richardson says the loop is a closed sequence of causes and effects, that is, a closed path of action and information. As Tracy mentions Design has a major role in the inclusion of environmental and social factors through innovations and new concepts such as the Product services system.

We have changed the balance of basic elements in the environment, from the intentional manufacture of nitrogen to fertilize our crops to the unintentional release of carbon dioxide in the generation of energy from fossil fuels.

The objective of an alignment based on ideals of sustainable development should drive decisions towards • economic viability, • environmental integrity, • social equity, resulting in new and innovative products and business models.

Natural Capital

Human Capital

Physical Captial

(materials and their design (labor, skills, knowledge, (plant, equipment, product potential) netwrok, structure and potential) durables, consumables and service components)

47

While creating concepts and ideation designer should consider the strategy list by Hemel which talks from production to end of life system. Design became part of the system; Design became the system.

Durable and Repairable

Business Model

Non Durable and Disposble material Sales and service model

Quality

Quantity

Choosing the path for sustainable living is based on Voluntary simplicity as Richard Greeg mentions it is an attempt for better quality living by minimizing the impact of our living on both humans and nature. Which is the future discussed by many philosophers.

Kaplan in 2000 discusses that self Interest is traditionally a major contributor of environmental and social problems, but personal benefits derived from environmentally responsible behaviors can be a part of solution and can complement altruistic motives.

Setting up the concept and backing with literature research into practice can push the individual to do better.

49

Design for Environment Strategies

It is the consumer that creates demand for a product and a user that creates the need for it. It is important to distinguish the difference between the two to create successful product designs. There comes the Human Centered Design, it is an approach to design through the user’s perspective. Using empathy as a driving tool, we create products that amplify the user’s experiences.

To make the best decision to minimize any ecological impact, a proper evaluation of the full effect of the life cycle must be made, done using LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) technique. Van Hemel suggests that having list it is possible to identify the appropriate areas for redesign, and it also enables improvements to be quantified and compared to the original and helps identify appropriate redesign strategies. Common environmental impact measurement modes are

• Emboided Energy • Crabon Footprint • Water Usage and many more

Image Courtsey: Philips Innovation Service (2020)

Construction details for demolition, openings, joinery, cabinetry, bracing, structural and stairs. These will include dimensioned plans, elevations, and cross sections. The documentation to demonstrate and accurately describe the complete contract to current industry standard or better. Remember the more detail, the less questions on site, the more time you will save and the less interpretation by all involved.

04 Design & Documentation

53

Design and Documentation are more of a designer’s role and to construct drawings and plans for the construction team which can be stakeholders in this case and provide them with all details needed for installation.

It is choosing what fits best in the space and the orientation of how it will function best. The Agenda is to fit in the integration of environment and development concerns and greater attention to them will lead to the fulfillment of basic needs, improved living standards for all, better protected and managed ecosystems, and a safer, more prosperous future. Which in other words is discussed by Gore and Ehrenfeld in Design for Spirituality that the problem of sustainability has a spiritual dimension and that we humans have a tendency of dominating nature and its elements, hence degrading the biosphere.

Setting up a possible understanding like Gunter says in Zero Emission Research and Initiative on industrial ecology and the behavioral pattern out to make viable changes in necessary to provide better design choices.

Image Courtsey: Sarah Lazarovic, (2012)

55

Agenda 21

Agenda 21 states that Humanity stands at a defining moment in history. We are confronted with a perpetuation of disparities between and within nations, a worsening of poverty, hunger, ill health and illiteracy, and the continuing deterioration of the ecosystems on which we depend for our well-being.

• Social & Economic Dimensions: Combating poverty (primarily in developing countries), consumption patterns, overall health, achieving a more sustainable population, and sustainable settlement in decision making.

• Conservation & Management of Resources for Development: Atmospheric protection, deforesttion, fragile environments, biodiversity, control of pollution and the management of biotechnology, and radioactive wastes.

• Strengthening the Role of Major Groups: Roles of children and youth, women, NGOs, local authorities, business, and workers and strengthening the role of indigenous peoples, their communities, and farmers.

• Means of Implementation: Science, technology transfer, education, international institutions and financial mechanisms.

Image Courtsey: SmithSonean Ocean, (n.d)

57

Including Designers in the loop

Waste, Resource or Asset?

Keeping Enterprise needs Intact

While designing the designer needs to keep check on carbon footprint and how the decisions is going to affect in the larger ecosystem. The selection of material and the mindful use of resource, energy, capital and the ecology is very important. The cost of waste management in the industrial/ business model was once considered external but with consciousness it has became an asset and how best manage is origin of the innovative sustainable model. If we transform products and services into forms of physical capital and human/ physical capital, the value associated is the return on linear transaction.

Working with Stakeholders Captial Management

Asset Management

Basis of Sustainability

100% humanity and ecology Initiatives like Producer Responsibility and Product Responsibility builds relationships that associate enterprises economic interests with those of the community it serves.

Image Courtsey: Patel Saloni, (2020)

This is the final stage where things are built and installed. The designer is often onsite during “installation� to ensure items are received in good condition, installed correctly, and that documents have been followed properly. During the installation designer oversee the placement of rugs, furniture, window treatments, art, and accessories. The involvement continues even after the installation as they always work to accommodate clients and their families ongoing needs.

05

Execution

61

The Execution stage is very important as all the ideas, concepts, and visions start to get along. It is a stage where the designer checks for schedule and the proper sequence of work.

The execution stage can be messy as multiple factors are working on the goal at the same time as an electrician, paint agency, carpenter, etc. to put all pieces together. Exactly what Grin and Geels describe as Transition theory: the principles and values central to the kind of system thinking Meadow describes: listening, accepting, working cooperatively, envisioning desirable outcomes.

It is not about design of new greener products or services but about facilitating a culture of transformation. A true proactive theory of Sustainable design:

Identify how design instigates

Informs

Advance goal of well-being

Sustainable Global Community

In the end, we can again take out the Hemel strategy list and cross-check if all the strategies and goals are achieved and that there are no loop or traps missed. Setting up the final product aiming to the initial concept.

63

Transition Theory

Grin and Geels described the need to understand transitions dynamics, and how and to what extent they may be influenced. They do so from the conviction that only through drastic system innovations and transitions it becomes possible to bring about a turn to a sustainable society.

The authors consider this development, described in 1987 by the Brundtland Commission as one ‘that ties in with the needs of the present without endangering the power of future generations to satisfy their own needs,’ as inevitable for solving a number of structural problems on our planet, such as the environment, the climate, the food supply, and the social and economic crisis. Among other things this implies that our world must overcome the undesirable side effects of the ongoing ‘modernization transition,’ which began around 1750. However, the transition to sustainability must compete with other developments, and it is uncertain which development will gain the upper hand.

We must re-imagine the contribution design and designers could make to the nurturing of sustainable communities. The future will be a complex amalgam of multiple models and strategies, and what is too often insufficient or missing in the foundation critique.

Reflecting on a completed design is important in order to ensure you learn from experience and identify the successful parts of the design to allow you to replicate them in future design projects as well as identifying the parts of the design that did not go well in order to avoid or solve them in future designs. The Evaluation stage where POE is conducted to see if the design is up to satisfaction or not.

06

Evaluation

67

Loerk distinguishes 2 types of sustainable consumption: weak and string where the former focuses on products and encourages in buying sustainable products and the later covers eco-friendly product and consumption sufficiency. It all depends on the Sufficiency and efficiency model that Reisch describes that it is a change in the pattern of work and leisure.

Sustaianble Lifestyle

“The idea of sacrifice solely for the sake of the

environment is also subject to critique” (Schor, 2011).

The point where we use a sustainable approach initially, but we must carry that for the future too and it is on self-interest motives as pricen says: human falls into mis-consumption and advertiser’s trap of perpetual dissatisfaction. Setting up evaluation creates and shows if the design is used to its potential and initial objective.

Like in every design practice it has criteria, so does sustainability by Hansen and Schrader, 1997 and Cooper, 2000.

• Refraining consumption- consuming less • Regarding consumption that exceeds one’s basic needs- rather negative • Choosing products on the basis of their broad-based ecological qualities • Identify substitutes of traditional consumption – borrowing instead of buying

Image Courtsey: UN Environment Assembly, (2019)

69

Image Courtsey: Montz Marketing, (n.d)

71

As stated in Agenda 21 “No nation can achieve this on its own, but together we can”.

“We will not transition successfully to a restorative economy until systems thinking becomes as natural, for millions of people, as riding a bike” (Thackara, 2011).

Just like in Design Process, each stage has its own value, each step towards Sustainability counts.

The journey to the Sustainable Development model and the paradigm societal shift is crucial and vital for the Ecological balance.

Saloni Patel SCAD | Fall 2020 | M.A Design for Sustainability Prof. Scott Bolyston

75

Glossary B Corp: A term used for any for-profit entity that is

certified by the nonprofit B Lab as voluntarily

meeting higher standards of transparency, ac

countability, and performance Capitalism: An economic and political system in which

a country’s trade and industry are controlled by

private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Design Process: A design process generates a

conceptual solution for a problem stated in the

form of requirements.

LCA: It is a methodology for assessing environmental

impacts associated with all the stages of the life

cycle of a commercial product, process, or ser vice.

Sustainability: The United Nations Brundtland Com

mission defines sustainability as “meeting the

needs of the present without compromising the

ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Systems Thinking: Systems thinking is a holistic ap

proach to analysis that focuses on the way that a

system’s constituent parts interrelate and how

systems work overtime and within the context of

larger systems.

Wicked Problem: A wicked problem is a problem that

is difficult or impossible to solve because of in

complete, contradictory, and changing require

ments that are often difficult to recognize

77

Citations Agenda 21, Sustainable Development Knowledge Plat form.

Boylston, S. (2019, May 28). Designing with Society: A

Capabilities Approach to Design,

Systems Thinking and Social Innovation.

Circular Economy - UK, USA, Europe, Asia & South

America - The Ellen MacArthur

Foundation, www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/ assets/design/Service_Flip_Final.pdf.

Expansion and Sustainability: Two models of Sustain ability Raworth, Kate (2008) Doughnut economics: Seven

Ways to Think Like a 21st-century

Economist. Random House Business Books,

2017), White Junction River, Vermont.

Margolin, V. (1998, July 1). Design for a Sustainable World.

Meadows, D. H. (1982). The Limits to growth: a report

for the Club of Rome’s project on the

predicament of mankind.

Meadows, Donella (2008) Thinking in Systems: A

Primer. White Junction River,

Vermont, Chelsea Green Publishing.

Our Common Future, The Brundtland Report, United

Nations World Commission on

Environment and Development, 1987 Sustainable Development Goals, https://sustainablede velopment.un.org/sdgs

Sustainable Development Goals, https://sustainablede velopment.un.org/sdgs Slaper, T. (2011). Triple Bottom Line. Indian Business

Review, https://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2011/ spring/pdfs/article2.pdf Schot, J; Grin, J. (2010). Transition to Sustainable Devel

opment. Routledge Taylor and

Francis Group.

Walker Stewart, Giard, Jacques. 2013. The Handbook for

Design for Sustainability.

London, Great Britain.