Transition Design #1
- Alice
- Jul 29, 2021
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 23, 2021
Transition design
Refer to the lecture slideshow, any notes you have taken this week (including from the reading group), as well as secondary research to support your ideas.
What are the key features of Transition design?
How does it differ from the design frameworks you’ve encountered on the Design programme so far?
Transition design focuses on the needs of the present and looks at a better solution for a better, sustainable transition into the future. It mainly uses resources that currently exist and creates a design that society could use in the near future. Transition Design allows us, the designers, to focus on the fundamental change in our society and develop design solutions that could potentially transition us towards a sustainable future. As the name suggests, “transition” design offers designers to refer to the present and propose a design solution that will allow the present transitioning period to better transition and lead to a better pathway.
The concept of transition originated from the idea of ‘change’ and how it can act as a catalyst - the beginning. For example, the Great Transition Initiative which was launched by Tellus Institute in 2003, focuses on planning scenarios and strategies for the ‘Great Transition’ like improved quality of life and reduced poverty. The transition concept acknowledges the different approaches of transition and acts to educate future generations of designers to create qualified work with the concept of transition.
The Transition Design Framework outlines four different areas; vision, theories of change, posture and mindset and new ways of designing. These four areas work with one another to create the Transition Design Framework for designers to use. Vision depends on each individual designer as they are the initial starting point and inspiration for designers to develop their own solutions. Transition Design introduces the grassroots-based vision where it focuses on the local conditions or a one-size-fits-all process which results in a more open-ended and speculative approach. This vision is affected by the three other areas as they influence one another to build a stronger, developed vision for each designer to create their own work.
“Transition Design acknowledges that we are living in ‘transitional times’. It takes as its central premise the need for societal transitions to more sustainable futures and argues that design has a key role to play in these transitions. It applies an understanding of the interconnectedness of social, economic, political and natural systems to address problems at all levels of spatiotemporal scale in ways that improve quality of life. Transition Design advocates the reconception of entire lifestyles, with the aim of making them more place-based, convivial and participatory and harmonizing them with the natural environment. Transition Design focuses on the need for ‘cosmopolitan localism’, a lifestyle that is place-based and regional, yet global in its awareness and exchange of information and technology.”
- Carnegie Mellon Design
What are the strengths/limitations of this mode of design?
The strengths of this type of design would be that we, the designers, can focus more on the present and the current problem happening in society to design a solution. Designers can focus more on the ‘transitional’ aspect of the current society and concentrate on building a sustainable future. However, this also leads to the limitation of this framework is focusing on just the current problem and the process, they could miss out on the upcoming situations. As the Transition Design is mainly about the actual process of developing the idea in a near future, it has limitations on the various ideas and solutions that a certain problem could have. This leads to the next question.
How does it compare to Speculative design in your opinion?
Speculative Design, I would say is opposite to the Transition Design therefore both design frameworks are needed to develop a more preferable solution. Speculative Design does not have actual solutions. The case studies that I have found all shows ideas and visualisations of how the problem ‘could be solved but does not show the actual process of how to develop the solution. This is because although the idea itself does not have limitations, with the current technology and resources it is difficult to achieve the design therefore called ‘speculative’. Whereas the transition design focuses more on the actual process itself and how to physically develop the idea to solve the problem, have a specific goal.
Case study 3: ‘Smog Free Tower’
Select what you found to be the most successful example of transition design from the cases you discussed in class today.
What was the overall goal of the design?
Smog Free Tower is “the world’s first smog vacuum cleaner which creates clean air parks”. Created for a campaign to reduce air pollution, this case was introduced during DES231: The Future of Work and Play course. This project has partnered with governmental authorities and has currently launched in five different countries including South Korea, Mexico and Poland. The case has won many design and sustainability awards for its innovative objective and the design solution to the ongoing environmental problem. The tower, 7-metre tall in height, runs on green energy and uses its environment-friendly technology allowing fresh air in public spaces. The smog particle that is collected from the cleaning process gets compressed and then turned into an aesthetic piece of jewellery. The overall goal of this design is to reduce air pollution around the globe and aspire for a future with clean, fresh air.
Why did you find it a more successful example of transition design than the other cases your group analysed? How did it better achieve its goal?
The reason why I found this case the most successful as an example of transition design is that with the current societal problem of air pollution, a physical model has been developed to be used by the public as well as actually provide a solution and the potential of development to the environmental problem. With the ‘transitioning world’ in mind, the Smog Free Tower shows an example of how the current environmental situation can be reversed with the technology that we presently have. Comparing with other examples that were discussed during the lecture, the case Smog Free Tower shows a much more successful example of Transition Design as it focuses on the ‘sustainable’ outcome and the future. Another example that was discussed during the session was Virgin Hyperloop - a new futuristic way of transportation through airless tubes - and Future Craft Strung - a newly developed way of creating textile for footwear to produce high performance. Although two other cases introduced showed effective Transition Design, they personally did not show enough of the sustainable aspect of the framework. The case that I have decided to focus on and discuss is both a very effective and probable solution hence directly fits the framework of Transition Design.
Reference:
Comentarios