How can slow design help us to create a sustainable world? Reflect on the principles below as presented by Carolyn Strauss and Alastair Fuad-Luke at Changing the Change: Design Visions, Proposals and Tools, an international conference on the role and potential of design research in the transition towards sustainability, held in Turin, July 10th to 12th, 2008.
Slow design principles
Principle 1: Slow design reveals experiences in everyday life that are often missed or forgotten, including the materials and processes that can be easily overlooked in an artifact’s existence or creation.
Principle 2: Slow design considers the real and potential "expressions" of artifacts and environments beyond their perceived functionalities, physical attributes and lifespans.
Principle 3: Slow Design artifacts/environments/experiences induce contemplation and what slowLab has coined 'reflective consumption.'
Principle 4: Slow Design processes are open-source and collaborative, relying on sharing, co-operation and transparency of information so that designs may continue to evolve into the future.
Principle 5: Slow Design encourages users to become active participants in the design process, embracing ideas of conviviality and exchange to foster social accountability and enhance communities.
Principle 6: Slow Design recognizes that richer experiences can emerge from the dynamic maturation of artifacts, environments and systems over time. Looking beyond the needs and circumstances of the present day, slow designs are (behavioural) change agents.
