How Community Collaborative Design Can Save the World

by Wibowo Sulistio, May 07, 2008

How Community Collaborative Design Can Save the World by Wibowo Sulistio

“For many of us, design is invisible. We live in a world that is so thoroughly configured by human effort that design has become second nature, ever-present, inevitable, taken for granted. And yet, the power of design to transform and affect every aspect of daily life is gaining widespread public awareness.” (Bruce Mau of Massive Change)

“If you keep your focus on the key design criteria — building community resilience and reducing the carbon footprint — you’ll watch as the collective genius of the community enables a feasible, practicable and highly inventive solution to emerge.” (Ben Brangwyn and Rob Hopkins in 12 Key Steps for Transition Towns)

“Collaborative design over the internet is tremendously powerful, and likely the best way forward.”
Omar Yaqub from Nigeria commenting on Open Architecture Network)

“We need the moral resources to expect nothing less than design that will make this world safe for the next generation.” (Jody Boehnert of EcoLabs)

 

If global problems like the inevitable peak oil, ongoing climate change, crumbling global economy, business as usual worries you, and you wish to do something about it from the local, or the cyber-global, Jody Boehnert pointed us to the solution: community collaborative design, which is based on systems thinking and the democratization of design.

In his paper, Should Change be Radical?, he explores three projects that tries to address the problems of the world by harnessing the collective genius of the community in designing and implementing solutions themselves.

Read the full paper at EcoLabs >>

 

Further readings

Here’s a list of further readings for each of the projects featured in the paper:

Open Architecture Network

  1. About Open Architecture Network | Read >>
  2. What Housing Crisis? at ArchitectureForHumanity.com | Read >>
  3. A TED Talk Video about Open Architecture Network | Watch >>

Massive Change

  1. About Massive Change | Read >>
  2. Stories from Massive Change in Action | Read >>
  3. A Bicycle for Life. How a custom bicycle design is used to save lives in Africa | Read >>

Transition Towns

  1. Natural Born Survivors by Harriet Green at The Guardian | Read >>
  2. How to Wean a Town Off Fossil Fuels by Hana Loftus at WorldChanging.com | Read >>
  3. 12 Key Steps to Embarking on Your Transition Journey at TransitionTowns.org | Read >>
  4. Transition Initiatives Primer at TransitionTowns.org | Read >>
  5. Kinsale Energy Descent Action Plan, a detailed plan on transitioning | Read >>

(Photo by by Thomas Hawk. Some rights reserved)


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