Innovation Reading Circle
> Innovation Agenda
> Overview
The Innovation Reading Circle aims to help develop theory around innovation through rich, high-level and well-informed public discussion around key and related texts and discourses... [Read on in Objectives]
> Last event
11: Material limits and societal progress
> Titles
 Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (Rodale Press, 2003) [Order from Amazon Marketplace Sellers] [Search Inside] [On LibraryThing] [Suggested by Gill Wildman] |
 Fab: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop – from Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication by Neil Gershenfeld (Basic Books, 2005) [Order from Amazon.co.uk] [On LibraryThing] [Suggested by John Cass] |
The theme of this event is Material limits and societal progress. For some decades there has been a growing concern about limits to ‘natural resources’ and the effects of manufacturing on people and the environment. More recently concern has been expressed about related effects on the climate, which also takes in the impact of distribution logistics. These titles discuss the possibility of new manufacturing models: one embraces the entire product lifecycle, delivering better quality of life without decreasing consumption; the other, localised manufacturing that could deliver greater efficiency along with real benefits for the developing world. You can read one or other of these titles, or both.
William McDonough is an internationally renowned designer and one of the primary proponents and shapers of what he and his partners call ‘The Next Industrial Revolution’. In 1999 Time magazine recognized him as a ‘Hero for the Planet’, stating that "his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that – in demonstrable and practical ways – is changing the design of the world” (The Man Who Wants Buildings to Love Kids, Time, February 15, 1999). His ideas and efforts were also honoured when, in 1996, he was given the [US] Presidential Award for Sustainable Development. He is cofounder and principal of MBDC McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry, LLC, based in Charlottesville, Virginia [BusinessWeek company overview]. He currently serves as the A. D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University, Alumni Research Professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, and professor of Architecture at the University of Virginia. [Full profile] Dr. Michael Braungart is founder of EPEA [Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency] International Umweltforschung GmbH and co-founder of MBDC. He is currently a professor of Process Engineering at the Technical University of Northeast Lower Saxony. [Full profile] McDonough and Braungart co-authored the Hannover Principles of Design: Design for Sustainability [240 KB] [Wikipedia], which served as development guidelines for the City of Hannover’s World’s Fair, EXPO 2000, and subsequently collaborated on the design of a line of compostable commercial fabrics for DesignTex, a division of Steelcase International.
Neil Gershenfeld directs the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He lead the Things That Think industrial consortium, and runs the Physics and Media research group. His books include When Things Start to Think,The Nature of Mathematical Modeling, and The Physics of Information Technology. Full biography and profile on Wikipedia.
Related titles
Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling (The MIT Press, 2005) and In the Bubble: Designing in a Complex World by John Thackara (The MIT Press, 2005) [Discussed at Innovation Reading Circle 01: Sustainability, design and society]
Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins (Back Bay Books, 2000)
Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century by Alex Steffen (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2006) [Suggested by Tobi Schneidler]
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change by Victor Papanek (Thames & Hudson, 1972 [1st edition])
> Takes place
7–9 pm (6:30 pm for drinks), Monday
14 January 2008
You can add this event to your calendar using the Share feature available from the event page on Facebook
> At
Design Council, 34 Bow Street London WC2E 7DL [TBC]
Map on Design Council site Google Maps
If you would like to take part please go to the event page on Facebook and select Attending under ‘Your RSVP’, and order the book(s). If you have not been invited please request an invitation.
> Notices
To find out who is taking part, see the ‘Confirmed Guests’ section of the the event page on Facebook.
We are grateful to the Design Council for supporting and hosting this event.
Points for discussion
Some of the questions that we plan to discuss include:
- Does Cradle to Cradle argue for a development – greater efficiency of resource use and increasing quality of life – that is a product of economic progress which will take place anyway?
- What is the logic for localising manufacturing, considering that economic progress has partly been a product of a greater division of labour?
- To the extent that Fab anticipates ways in which users will be able to create their own physical devices, how does the book inform the discussions around democratising innovation?
Background reading, listening and viewing
Cradle to Cradle entry on Wikipedia
Cradle To Cradle book background on McDonough.com
Foreword to the Chinese Edition of Cradle to Cradle on McDonough.com
Cradle to Cradle Case Studies on McDonough.com
Writings By William McDonough | Talks and Statements on McDonough.com
Designing the Future, Newsweek, May 16, 2005. [McDonough is] not your traditional environmentalist. Others may expend their energy fighting for stricter environmental regulations and repeating the mantra "reduce, reuse, recycle." McDonough’s vision for the future includes factories so safe they need no regulation, and novel, safe materials that can be totally reprocessed into new goods, so there’s no reason to scale back consumption (or lose jobs). [Shared boomkark]
New Clout for Cradle to Cradle Design, BusinessWeek, September 19, 2007. Three leaders in sustainable-design consulting are collaborating to leverage their expertise, stimulate new products, and boost "cradle to cradle" certification.
A Whole New World, Time, Feb. 22, 1999. [A]fter a day of McDonough’s instruction in much more than architecture, one sees that his utopianism is grounded in a unified philosophy that – in demonstrable and practical ways – is changing the design of the world.
Heroes of the Environment: Moguls & Entrepreneurs: William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Time, [undated]
Bespoke manufacturing: I made it my way, Economist.com, Nov 27th 2007 [Shared boomkark]
RSA Canon Lecture: Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way We Make Things by Professor Michael Braungart. [Lecture transcript, 144 KB]
The PARC Forum: Cradle to Cradle: Innovation for the Next Industrial Revolution by Prof. Dr. Michael Braungart, February 16, 2005 [Audio and video of lecture available]
Costing the Earth: Designed for Life, BBC Radio 4, 18 November 2004. Include nterview with Bill McDonough [Audio available via Listen Again]
The Next Industrial Revolution: a 55 minute film, produced by Earthome Productions to communicate the work and vision of William McDonough and Dr. Michael Braungart. [Not available online]
TED2005: William McDonough: The wisdom of designing Cradle to Cradle, Feb 2005, 20m
PICNIC’07: Make – The Revolution in Personal Fabrication, Neil Gershenfeld. Gershenfeld “shows how personal fabrication is possible today and how it’s meeting local needs”. [Video available but incorrect video currently embedded on event page]
More ‘Gershenfeld’ bookmarks on Ma.gnolia
All bookmarks for this session on Ma.gnolia
Reviews
Review of Cradle to Cradle, Time, May. 13, 2002 [Brief]
Cradle to Cradle reviewed by JohnPaul Kusz, Design Issues, Vol. 22, Issue 1, Winter 2006 [not reproduced online]
Review of Fab in Nature 435, 23 (5 May 2005)
Desktop Factories, BusinessWeek, May 2, 2005 [Review of Fab]
Interviews
Natural designs New Scientist, 20 March 2004. Interview with William McDonough [Pay per view]
Talk of the Nation: The Making of a Personal Lab, NPR, November 11, 2005. Interview with Neil Gershenfeld. [Audio available via Listen Now]
If you have queries about the event please email Nico Macdonald