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(2019). Living Design. The future of sustainable maker enterprises: a case study in Cumbria. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 849-862.

Design is recognized as a discipline that is ideally placed to work across boundaries to tackle wicked problems and help cope with uncertainty. As humanity continues to become more interconnected it is thought that we are becoming more exposed to viruses such as COVID-19. Therefore, the current pandemic offers us opportunities to re-think and re-design many of our practices to ensure we are resilient in future similar crises. Through the creation and analysis of a database that captures design interventions that have emerged during the pandemic, the paper considers the role design can play in collectively recovering from the current pandemic and building resilience for the future. Whilst the findings represent the beginning of this process, (from late March until June 2020) we find that design has been deployed in a wide range of ways and on all scales, from the personal, communal, organizational, national and international. However, as we live through and emerge from the pandemic we should reflect, within the realm of design research and beyond, on how we might harness design to enable recovery and build resilience for the future. © 2021 Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. All rights reserved.

© 2019, Intellect Ltd.. All rights reserved. This article explores the relationship between design for sustainability and traditional making practices. It presents results from key informant interviews and observational research into traditional hand making of functional goods in Santa Fe in the United States, Jingdezhen, China, various locations in New South Wales, Australia and Cumbria, United Kingdom. We find that such goods fall into three main categories, primarily utilitarian, symbolic and aesthetic. These practices are discussed in terms of their contemporary relevance,potential futures and relationship to current understandings of sustainability. More specifically, they are considered against the four elements of the Quadruple Bottom Line of Design for Sustainability (Walker 2014), a rigorous interpretation extended from the philosophy of Hick (1989), which comprises: practical meaning including environmental impacts; social meaning; personal meaning; and economic means. The originality of this research lies in the development of new arguments and insights with regard to the complex issues of design for sustainability and traditional making practices. Significantly, we find that many of these practices are intellectually consistent with broad, contemporary understandings of design for sustainability. However, we also find that it is often not easy to reconcile these practices with modern consumer culture. Our research shows that pursuing these practices part-time for their own sake, rather than for primarily commercial reasons can often facilitate the pursuit of excellence and the continuation of cultural traditions. © 2019 Intellect Ltd Article.

El presente artículo muestra los resultados de un proyecto financiando por el UK Arts and Humanities Research Council llamado Living Design: The Effective Use of Design for Sustainability in Small Maker Enterprises (Viviendo el Diseño: El Uso Efectivo del Diseño para la Sustentabilidad en pequeñas empresas maker). El proyecto examina empresas que, por diversas razones, se encuentran profundamente arraigadas ”localmente’. Este continúan utilizando prácticas tradicionales, las cuales son asociadas al patrimonio, la procedencia, la autenticidad y la identidad cultural. Este artículo introduce resultados basados en evidencia y la emergencia del concepto Producción Localizada, la cual reconoce la conexión de estas prácticas al lugar y la cultura en las que operan. Busca identificar factores que permitan ayudar a estas empresas, y también aquellas áreas donde el diseño pueda generar una contribución constructiva que genere una resiliencia en concordancia con el diseño para la sustentabilidad. La investigación presenta observaciones que serán de interés para investigadores, empresas de personal de desarrollo y responsables de formular políticas a nivel regional, así como también a makers y asociaciones de makers y organizaciones relacionadas del sector terciario como el Programa de Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la UNESCO y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible de la ONU.

This paper considers the contemporary position of traditional maker practices and their relationship to sustainability. It outlines the basis of the approach and insights from the field, and offers a range of initiatives where design can make a positive contribution to traditional production. Traditional maker practices are in steep decline in the UK and internationally; the kinds of knowledge promoted and valued in contemporary society tend to be at odds with those inherent to these kinds of practices. The paper considers the inadequacy of purely theoretical forms of knowledge and demonstrates the importance of values-guided practice, experience, skills, and tacit and situated knowledge. It shows the important links between traditional practices, sustainability and place, and, by citing a range of initiatives around the world, proposes directions for a more constructive way forward for small maker practices rooted in tradition.