Learning Network on Sustainability

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LeNS Conference 2010

Sustainability in Design: NOW! Challenges and Opportunities for Design Research, Education and Practice in the XXI Century.

LeNS Conference, Bangalore, 29th September to 1st October 2010

The Sustainability in Design: Now! Conference is a platform for sharing the latest knowledge and experiences in product, service and system design, to promote sustainable systems thinking in design education, research and practice communities.

The conference approach is to look at various stakeholders in this arena - designers, design educators and design researchers - as a unique learning community. The objective is the creation of a new ethos, within such a community, enabling all possible synergies and fruitful processes of knowledge and know-how osmosis and cross-fertilisation.This conference is promoted and organized as the conclusive event of the LeNS project, funded by EU under the Asia-Link program, that aims at the development and diffusion of design for sustainability in design institutions.

The conference is for free.

Aims

  • The scope of the conference is to make a significant contribution to catalyzing the learning and dissemination process of an emergent design knowledge-base, theory and practice, on design for sustainability, within the design community; a contribution to take up the challenge of Sustainability in Design, NOW!
  • The conference approach is to look at various stakeholders in this arena - designers, design educators and design researchers - as a unique and multipolar learning community. This is a design community adopting a new ethos, promoting all possible synergies and processes of learning-by-sharing, enabling effective knowledge base and know-how sharing, osmosis and cross-fertilization in an open and copy left ethos.
  • In this context, the conference aims at offering an understanding of the worldwide challenges and the opportunities so that designer-participants can be more ACTIVE and effective in the transition towards a sustainable society. The conference aims to be both visionary and pragmatic, and to stimulate new ways of thinking.
  • Furthermore, the conference will give the opportunities for the design-learning community to update the agenda for design for sustainability in the XXI century.
  • A Bangalore 2010 Declaration on Sustainability in Design will be discussed, agreed upon and signed.

Venue

J N Tata Auditorium National Science Symposium Complex Sir C.V.Raman Avenue (Across the street from Indian Institute of Science) BANGALORE, INDIA

Keynote Speakers

  • Aguinaldo dos Santos, Head of the Sustainable Design Research Center , Federal University of Paraná , Curitiba, Brazil
  • Ezio Manzini, Director of Unit of Research Design and Innovation for Sustainability, Politecnico di Milano
  • Walter Stahel, Director, Risk management programme ,International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics (The Geneva Association) since 1988
  • Yrjö Sotamaa, Aalto University School of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland
  • Zheng Shuyang, Academy of Arts and design, Tsinghua University, China

Registration/ Call for Papers

Participants are invited to submit papers in the areas related to the conference sub-themes outlined below. The conference is structured around three main themes that include:

1. Design Research for Sustainability (DRfS)

2. Design Education for Sustainability (DEfS)

3. Design Practice for Sustainability (DPfS)

Please visit the LeNS COnference official website for detailed information. (http://www.lensconference.polimi.it/) LeNS, the Learning Network on Sustainability is a project for curricula development and teaching diffusion on Design for Sustainability focused on product-service system innovation. The project is funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropAid, European Commission.

About

LeNS: The Learning Network on Sustainability. Asian-European multi-polar network for curricula development on Design for Sustainability focused on product-service system innovation.

LeNs is a 3 years project (15/12/2007 - 15/12/2010) funded by the Asia Link Programme, EuropAid, European Commission, involving 7 design schools in Europe and Asia.

LeNS aims at contributing to human resources and curriculum development, in a reciprocal understanding of cultures, by promoting a new generation of designers (and design educators) capable to effectively contribute to a transition towards a sustainable society.

LeNS ambitions to promote a new shared disciplinary ground on Design for Sustainability trough a series of exchange activities among the partner institutions. LeNS consortium will jointly produce an open e-learning package (a modular and adaptable package for curriculum development with teaching materials and tools for design educators and guidelines for courses design and implementation In diverse contexts). It will also promote a series of diffusion activities targeting the design community worldwide.

Partners

LeNS has 7 universities from around the world involved in the project.

Politecnico di Milano, INDACO Department, Milan, Italy (Co-ordinator)

Aalto University, School of Art and Design, Department of Design,Helsinki, Finland

Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore, India

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), New Delhi, India

King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, Thailand

Tsinghua University, Academy of Arts & Design, Beijing, China

Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

LeNS Aims

LeNS aims at a worldwide diffusion. Any design school, single teacher or student can become a member by joining the network. Membership of LeNS Network allows: 1. free use of the Open Learning E-Package 2. free use of the project/course facilities.

  • Any designer, design department, person can register and use for free the Open Learning E-Package.
  • Anyone can view all the contents of the LeNS platform.
  • Any design school or single teacher can download the site and then modify it, facilitating the generation of local and regional networks. The LeNS site is for free, in copyleft and open source.