Sustainable Furniture for the Future
- Pat Metherell
Project Proposal Draft 2 (original text from draft 1 in red)
Background
Over-consumption, waste, toxic emissions are huge problems in todays
society. As sustainable designers we would begin so focus on and possibly
solve some of these problems. This project is not so much the response to a
single percieved problem but more a personal response and choice of
direction as a designer. How do I plan to go about it?
(This is your BANG! Opener – clean it up and make it provocative!)
My proposition is this; to immerse and work in the area of furniture design,
both commercial and household (but with more emphasis on the commercial
side). To learn, explore and then with that knowledge explore my own ideas.
The project would be very much based around and open to an industry
partner/mentor. Its structure would be flexible to move around 'live' projects,
as this kind of work would give invalualbe research into this area.
Secondly to this over the past year I have become greatly interested in
sustainable design and how it will affect the way we design in the future.
Sustainable design is the new ‘sell’ word for many design and manufacturing
companies in the industry and through government policies and green
legislation companies are being forced to focus on being more
environmentally friendly in the thinking and design of their products.
Personally I have chosen furniture design as it is an area that I would ideally
like to end up in as a designer. Up till now I have not had a huge experience
in furniture with only a few projects here and there and with this project I
hope to further my knowledge and skill base. I also hope that through this
project to make extensive contacts out there in the furniture industry and also
in the sustainable design area in general. Theses contacts would be
invaluable in future job prospects and through this current project I would
hope to show my skill and potential in this area.
The commercial furniture design industry is where the action is happening. As
mentioned above government policies such as Green Star (currently all new
fitouts and government buildings have to adhere to a Green Star rating of at
least 5) are pushing Australian companies to design in a sustainable ecofriendly way. Projects such as R.A.T. by the CFD (Centre for Design) at RMIT
are creating systems to anaylse sustainability and give feedback and ratings
for companies on their products.
To an outsider many of these companies seem to only tackle part of the
sustainable problem, however with further insight it becomes apparent that a
great part of this is because of the bottom line. Commercial companies are
there to make money and keep their shareholders happy, this is the simple
truth and it wont be changing anytime soon. For many companies in the
forefront of sustainable commercial furniture they continually try and find a
balance between being sustainable and being cost effective. This may mean
sourcing stainless steel mobile workstations from china, and using the saved
money on r & d of a new sustainable material.
( To improve the above text – this is the place where you are selling the idea
which can do three things – hey look there is an opportunity for better sus
practice, it is this area, and the design opportunites in this are really
exciting)Hope this helps you restructure your text and make is sing!! Aim for
a work count of 350 words!
Objectives/ Aim
To do a furniture design project with sustainability as its primary focus with
the physical outcome being:
1. A piece of commercial furniture &
2. The formulation of a design 'manual' for sustainable furniture/ design
practice.
Approach
I feel my project has great significance in our current situation as designers.
More and more we have to incorporate ‘sustainable design’ into our briefs and
projects. It is a major growth area for the future and it is the young up and
coming designers that will bring fresh new ideas into the mix, I hope to be
one of them.
There are many ‘sustainable’ templates that are being applied to design in its
many forms with the general idea that one size fits all. As I research the
different methodologies that are out there over and over I find people saying
that the way we approach design needs to be completely rethought. Rather
than try and fit a set of principles onto our current design methods we need
to take design and rethink it with these ‘sustainable’ principles in mind. Now
with that huge statement out of the way, I would like to say I do not aim to
recreate design overnight. It is a process that may take many years, what I
do hope is to start myself down this path and see where it leads me.
As the area of sustainability is expansive I will focus my efforts primarily into
furniture design and as I pointed out above furniture design is something that
everyone can relate to including the general populas. This would mean my
ideas would be easily translatable to everyday people which I think is
important as sustainability is something that concerns everyone, not just us
as designers. It is also through action by consumers that the real changes will
be made and without the initial education how will there change?
Through my project I want to create an informed sustainable design ‘policy’
for myself that tackles the whole problem looking at all aspects of a product,
from its initial ideation to use of the product to the final rebirth of the
product. This is of course a huge topic but what I will try to do is tackle as
much of the problem as I can and definitely will not be ignoring specific areas
as I have no care for the 'bottom line' which seems to be the shortcoming of
many sustainable models in current use. The above mentioned project would
then inform a manual that would in affect act as a design philosphy for myself
as a sustainable designer. While parts of it could be published as a 'guide to
the sustainable designer' its true value would be in how it encourages my
own personal development in design and what this leads to.
During the creation of this sustainable philosophy I would be running a
furniture project that tests these ideas and gives a tangible outcome at the
end of the project. Apart from being something that interests me I feel that
furniture is a great area to start in when talking about sustainability. Firstly
there are already other designers out there working in this area and trying to
create sustainable projects and products. Secondly furniture is product that
nearly everyone can relate to and through this people will be able to gain a
better understanding and awareness of sustainability. For example a
sustainable armchair design, everyone knows how to use it, therefore no
explanation is needed, and once you educate him or her on how the product
is sustainable they gain a simple understanding of overall sustainability thus
creating and spreading awareness.
The initial phase would be to immerse myself in the sustainable design
industry to gain as much knowledge and experience during this period as I
can. This would act as research, these gained ideas and principals would
direct the final project and would also set the groundwork and basis for the
'manual'. For this project I would look at who is doing what in sustainable
furniture design, what is working and what is not working and from this
construct the basis for my sustainable way of designing. Through an
emergence into the sustainable design world, through research and real-time
experience I would be able to gain an in-depth sustainable viewpoint. This
viewpoint and realised views would act as a springboard and a way of
thinking for myself for the future.
The physical being the furniture that I will create, this will have a definite end
with the final commercial piece/pieces whatever they may be being the
outcome. At this early stage of the project I obviously have no idea what
these final pieces may be. The ideal situation would be that it is a ‘live’
project, with real industry partners, timelines, restraints and results. This said
it is not imperative for the project as these kinds of parameters could easily
be created internally at university.
The other, the philosopical, would not have such a definitive end and
outcome. I feel this is something that I will continually develop, refine and
add to during my time as a designer and in all truth there will probably never
be an end to it. The outcome of the this side of the project will what I have
learnt being embodied in to the final outcome of the furniture. The ideas
become tangible and people are easily able to see my sustainable philosophy
in physical form.
The cullmination of the project would be a end of year product prototype
launch of the line that I have created in collaboration with the company. This
would probably follow a 'exhibition' type template and would act as a way of
showing my final outcomes for the project.
(Have taken out significance and merged it with Approach – as your initial
argument is quite punchy!)
Method
In approach you have spelled out the parts of your project – here is the place to detail
them out.
 First the project is in two parts – premajor and major. Two end points
 Then you have 13 weeks in each sem – so a plan for that would be good
 You then need a list of work plan tasks to disctribute into the different
semesters and months.
I am going to spend my time over the year in this fashion .... make a plan
month wise and see where you get.
Can you make a section that talks about the technical aspects/ material aspects: Like a
plan of making things? It would add tremendously to your proposal.
Outcomes
At the end of this project I want to achieve these things ...
( have seen the earlier draft – and have gone with this)