PreprintArticleVersion 2Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept
Version 1
: Received: 31 July 2020 / Approved: 2 August 2020 / Online: 2 August 2020 (16:58:27 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 4 August 2020 / Approved: 5 August 2020 / Online: 5 August 2020 (04:50:02 CEST)
How to cite:
Ponnambalam, K.; Seifi, A.; Mousavi, J. Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept. Preprints2020, 2020080047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202008.0047.v2
Ponnambalam, K.; Seifi, A.; Mousavi, J. Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept. Preprints 2020, 2020080047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202008.0047.v2
Ponnambalam, K.; Seifi, A.; Mousavi, J. Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept. Preprints2020, 2020080047. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202008.0047.v2
APA Style
Ponnambalam, K., Seifi, A., & Mousavi, J. (2020). Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202008.0047.v2
Chicago/Turabian Style
Ponnambalam, K., Abbas Seifi and Jamshid Mousavi. 2020 "Design Is How We Change the World! Can We Do It in Socially, Environmentally and Economically Acceptable Ways? Synthesizing Design Tools for This Utopian Concept" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202008.0047.v2
Abstract
Since the beginning, humans advanced their civilization by making better tools to improve their lives. Tools and products were designed for better living considering manufacturing issues, cost and time as predominant criteria. It has become clear that not considering environment and society, both at local/global levels, has now become a major impediment affecting living conditions on a large portion of the Earth and in many societies. Design methodologies should lead to creative solutions with consideration to engineering and economics for practicality but also to environmental and social constraints for sustainability. We propose a comprehensive design methodology based on multidisciplinary design to include the knowledge of humanities, environmentalists, science and engineering, and allowing for experts’ inputs from these areas to provide a holistic approach to engineering design . For example, experts in humanities are expected to interact with stakeholders to evaluate their value systems to provide guidance for the design. The methodology that we synthesize is new and combines (i) Societal level impacts at all scales, (ii) Environmental impacts and (iii) Engineering design with economic impacts, including uncertainty considerations. The proposed design methodology is called Social-Environmental-Economical-Engineering Framework (SEEEF). It can utilize concepts and tools such as Circular Design, Doughnut Economics, design based on environmental life cycle analysis, among others. SEEEF is quantity based and provides steps for evaluating any project or product in an objective manner and will help train engineers in design for sustainability. It also provides non-engineers with a significant role in design to increase their understanding of the hard constraints of engineering. Ultimately, SEEEF allows society to take an informed decision considering short/long term and local/global impacts of the design and the pertinent uncertainties.
Keywords
design for society; design for sustainability; design under uncertainty; circular design; donut economics; life cycle analysis
Subject
Social Sciences, Decision Sciences
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Commenter: Kumaraswamy Ponnambalam
Commenter's Conflict of Interests: Author