New perspectives on social and organizational issues are urgently needed. While we explore the possible figurations of the new social landscape we meet people who are committed to work together to find answers to complex societal issues. Along with these creative thinkers and do-ers, we aim to discover new routes by executing programmes that focus on media & crafts, food & landscape and on redefining social design. Designing situations that allow for the shaping of new meanings and new connections; and the organisation of active participation is at the core of what we do.
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What Design Can Do
16th and 17th of May @ Stadsschouwburg, Amsterdam
What Design Can Do celebrates the power of design and its problem-solving abilities. This two-day event in Amsterdam exposes design as a catalyst of change and renewal and a way of addressing the societal questions of our time. Too often design is associated only with aesthetics, trends and luxury, but design can mean so much more.
Find the programme here.
What Sustainism Can Do for Design?
Afternoon Fri 17th May, 14-15.30 hrs
BREAKOUT SESSION HOSTED BY THE BEACH
Designers are facing new opportunities at a time where the world is experiencing a new wave of social initiatives. This cultural movement, that has been called “sustainism,” is emerging around sharing, connectivity, sustainability and a resurgence of localism. We debate what this new perspective implies for the social design agenda and the “responsible designer”. What does the future for “sustainist design” look like?
In this breakout, an open exchange and discussion, sparked off by the just-published Sustainist Design Guide (WDCD sees its first public appearance). With project M initiator John Bielenberg, social designer and Master student at Design Academy Eindhoven Ben Landau and co-creator of the Sustainism manifesto Michiel Schwarz. Moderated by Saskia van Stein (artistic director of NAiM/Bureau Europa).
Sustainist Design Guide
How sharing, localism, connectedness and proportionality
are creating a new agenda for social design
This guide by Michiel Schwarz and Diana Krabbendam with The Beach network will be published in May 2013 (BIS Publishers, Amsterdam).
“In the era of ‘sustainism’ it is no longer a matter of designing for society, but within it,” say the authors of Sustainist Design Guide. Michiel Schwarz and Diana Krabbendam observe a wave of new social initiatives that is emerging locally and globally: millions of dedicated people are beginning to ‘design’ different kinds of living environments that are more collaborative, more socially just, and more sustainable. This movement, and how we can all become “social designers” is what the Sustainist Design Guide is all about.
This exploratory guide travels the new “landscape” of social design thinking and practice, viewed through the “lens” of “sustainism.” The Sustainist Design Guide is co-authored by Michiel Schwarz, who together with Joost Elffers co-created the widely-discussed Sustainism manifesto. It is the first to take the idea of sustainism as cultural driver into into the realm of design for social innovation.
The Sustainist Design Guide presents a new agenda for design, based on values such as sharing, connectedness, localism, and proportionality, as well as sustainability. It challenges us to transform these and other sustainist qualities into design criteria and include them in our design briefs. The guide maps out best practices and explores how designers can become more socially and ecologically responsible. It opens the debate on what it means to be “sustainist designers.”
Pow! Industry
Fri 24th of May 2013
Bas Ruyssenaars is guest speaker on Pow! Industry, a creative industry conference in Lisbon. Theme of the conference: Creative Discomfort as a agent of change and a drive for the economy.
A new dawn, Artez Studium Generale
Join the Future Now: Sustainist Design!
Fri 24th of may 2013
Diana Krabbendam and Michiel Schwarz will give a workout at Artez Studium Generale about Sustainist Design.
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