Response 3 – AndrewG

The Intelligence of Ecological Design:

“The particular skills of ecological design necessary to a future that is sustainable and spiritually sustaining are in turn means to a still larger end of fostering hope in a world of growing despair, and anger, and its offspring, terrorism, whether by individuals, organizations, or governments.”

“We’ve aimed, accordingly, to foster in our students the specific capacities to appraise costs on a life cycle basis, analyze whole systems, and master new tools such as geographic information systems, as well as the practical skills required to harvest sunshine, grow food, design buildings, restore landscapes, and initiate change.”

A Hippocratic Oath for Designers:

“No generation has any right whatsoever to alter the biogeochemical cycles of Earth or impair the stability, integrity, and beauty of natural systems, the consequences of which would be a form of intergenerational tyranny.”

“Looking back on our time from a century or two hence, from the other side of the bottleneck, our descendants will see those small beginnings, perhaps unnoticed by us, that altered the human prospect for the better.“

“Aside from the ongoing threat of nuclear weapons, two converging crises will make the years ahead particularly challenging. The first challenge is climate change, which will raise sea levels by as much as 20 feet, increase the severity of storms, raise the likelihood of severe droughts and heat waves, change ecosystems, increase the number of novel diseases, and disrupt political and economic systems everywhere.”

The Designer’s Challenge: Four Problems You Must Solve:

https://www.ecoliteracy.org/article/designers-challenge-four-problems-you-must-solve

“Hope is a verb with its sleeves rolled up. Hopeful people are actively engaged in defying the odds or changing the odds. But optimism leans back, puts its feet up, and sports a confident look knowing that the deck is stacked.”

“An ecologically literate person would have at least a basic comprehension of ecology, human ecology, and the concepts of sustainability, as well as the wherewithal to solve problems.”

TREEHUGGER:

https://www.treehugger.com/gadgets/speaker-system-designed-deconstruction.html

Project Title: Small Transparent Speaker

Creators: Martin Willers (People People)

Date: December 23, 2016

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Brief Description:

The purpose of this project is to create a speaker to eradicate the need to throw old speakers away and purchase new ones, updating them with the times and decreasing the space that speakers would take up in the landfill.

Questions and Issues:

This solves the important issue of creating less landfill as a result of people’s need to listen to music and watch things on the televisions, etc. and the constant progrogression of technology. I addresses this issue by providing a speaker that can constantly be repaired and updated as technology moves forward. This project solves the ecological issue of constant waste creating by humans by decreasing an individual’s contribution to creating waste.

Human Culture:

This project adds to human culture by providing a greener way to listen to audio and encourages us to fix what is broken, not just throw it away.

The technology this project uses is whatever technology is available. Allowing the user to interact with a modular design whenever they decide to upgrade, or if something breaks.

Ecological Issues:

This product is primarily concerned with how disposable common modern technology is, and the threats that frequent and numerous deposits of tech waste in landfills poses to our ecosystem.

Superficial of Meaningful Response:

The small transparent speaker has a specific intention with its supporters – it wishes to raise awareness and tackle issues regarding the temporarity of common modern technology. Oftentimes the disposability of a product is a significant part of the business model surrounding it – why sell someone a product that lasts forever when you can charge them for new and updated versions? Even when something within the product breaks, it’s much more lucrative to sell a new one than to fix the old one. People people challenges that claim by creating a product with a sole focus on user repairability. Thus it both addresses and tackles the company executives have recognized.

Design Decisions:

With this product, design is everything. Because the sole intent of the speaker is that it can be taken apart and quickly repaired, it must be designed in such a way that allows the owner to easily take it apart and put it back together. On the surface, the speaker is transparent – because you can see the parts, anyone looking at  it already has a better understanding of its functionality. Its physical design allows it to be disassembled and reassembled with hands and light tools. Furthermore, the product comes complete with an app that updates the owner if a part breaks, so they can order and replace it ASAP.

The materials that are used to make the speaker allows for “upcycling”, allowing the original product to be completely restored several times. Instead of buying a whole new speaker, you can send the parts back to be recycled, repaired, and waste no material.

Technology:

This project uses current technology to be retrofitted for the future. It also uses sensors within the speaker to tell you if there’s something wrong, sending a text message to your phone to tell you what’s wrong. It supports the intent in that it is easily replaceable, easy to find out what needs to be fixed, and easy to fix.