Design For A Finate world
A portfolio that investigates how we can disrupt and enhance products whilst conserving the world’s finite resources.
The world is being moved and shaped at an unprecedented scale. Summer Islam in the book Material Cultures: Material Reform, identifies the harmful practices within the construction industry, a short term inefficient toxic practice with a legacy of colonial exploitation, and the need to turn to a regenerative, sustainable and efficient approach that brings the supply chain more local and advocates a system of care and maintenance that can enhance existing structures.
Design Objectives:
Disrupt and Enhance Using Circular Design
I have worked as an electrician within the construction and service industry for 20 years. I have seen the impact of commercial design that creates waste, inefficient systems and exploitation. I want to disrupt wasteful practices within design whilst enhancing the use of waste into practical solutions.
Working with Communities
From my experience of growing up in Africa and within self-built communities from warehouses to boats; I believe there is a way to design within communities and for communities. I have seen communities build things in response to their needs in a fluid organic way. For example in the warehouses create modular space from recycled material like in the Favelas of Brazil, which adapte to the needs of the communities with limited resources.
Designing with communities can:
Create less waste
Be more efficient and bespoke
Serves a large proportion of people and what they need.
Creates connection and interaction with others as opposed to individualism.
RESEARCH THAT DEVELOPS MY DESIGN VALUES:
Lo-TEK - Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Lo-TEK- a design movement building on indigenous philosophy and vernacular infrastructure to generate sustainable, resilient, nature-based technology.
Recognises Indigenous cultures around the world as innovators rather than primitive with their thinking embedded in the future. Popular culture promotes a superficial fix for the environment placing everything on the individual. If we welcome design mythology, an infrastructure that connects the individual to the environment it would catalyse a global shift to a better way of living.
The Living Root Bridges of the Khasis, India
The Indigenous hill tribe developed a natural system of intertwining bridges from rubber trees. The only bridge capable of withstanding the monsoon rains.
Floating Islands of Ma’dan, Iraq
This ancient system of island construction allowed civilization to flourish in an inhospitable environment, while supporting the wetland ecosystem
Omved where The Leaves Fall Talk.
OmVed Gardens is a greenscape, food project and sustainability hub in Highgate Village, North London.
Talk: A time for change with Elder Dave Courchene
Dave Courchene — Nii Gaani Aki Innini (Leading Earth Man) — is a respected elder and knowledge keeper of the Anishinaabe Nation who has devoted his life to environmental stewardship.
He talks about how we have disregard and disrespect for mother earth and Love and kindness. Elder Dave Courchene, makes the point that our collective challenge is to treat the earth in a much better way. We need to reconnect with our original mother the earth in order to reconnect with our humanity.
He has inspired me to pursue design that is good for the environment, that can open our hearts and minds and reconnect us with nature.
