The Design Challenge that Endeavours to Improve Life
INDEX: intelligent design that addresses sustainability, resources, production conditions and distribution. In May 2008 INDEX: held its first designshop to collectively define future strategies. What follows is a short, but personal, commentary from participants
Federico De Giuli
SPACESAFE, designed by Christian Dalsgaard, Chr. Dalsgaard Projektudvikling Aps Niels Henrik Eisum, DHI Water & Environment Michael Schultz Rasmussen
Design to improve life is not the kind that ends up in the glossies, but the projects that address social needs, helping the poor and the excluded: the $100 computer; the $8 artificial limb. This kind of design, an eye-opener for architects and designers, takes into account the changing face of contemporary society and its critical issues, and is involved at all stages of the design process, from planning to production to consumption.
This is what INDEX: – a non-profit making organization based in Copenhagen – is all about. Every two years it stages the INDEX: AWARD, the biggest international design accolade, with total prize money of 500,000 euros, and it has created a global intelligent design network which examines all the new variables associated with sustainability, resources, production conditions and distribution.
Because design, first and foremost, has to be aware of and tackle our genuine needs.
A range of interesting points of view emerged in the intensive three-day ‘design shop’ session, where it was also decided to expand the network, to obtain global coverage and involve as many professionals as possible in design to improve life.
ANTIVIRUS, by Hân Pham
Pamela Hartigan
“Until recently, I was a design ‘neophyte’, and the word ‘design’ conjured up Danish chairs, Architectural Digest and Vogue magazines. INDEX: opened my eyes to see design as a process or product which transforms people’s lives – including the lives of the poor and excluded. And that really excites me. Now, when I think of design, I think of the prosthetic foot, the $100 laptop, and the Life Straw. Without INDEX: to highlight how design brings together innovation, opportunity and resourcefulness to improve people’s lives, I would have still been connecting Design with Danish furniture”.
Pamela Hartigan, Founding Partner and Director, Volans Ventures: Accelerator of Change
Porter Anderson
“All of us may have entertained, in our youth, a romantic notion of resplendent, creative intelligence rescuing the world from its pain, its blunders, its unfairness. In reality, of course, there are few chances to see those fantasies come true. But INDEX: Design to Improve Life, holds out just such hope, and with tantalizing charm. During DesignShop – especially when working in one of the small groups in a sunny room with the window open to Copenhagen’s spring air – I could catch that whiff of hope. It’s the rare scent of potential. You sense it in a wink, a nod, a soft word, a riveting insight, an unspoken agreement among us that the INDEX: mission will unleash the power of the world’s design genius on the problems of the poor, the ill, the uneducated, the overworked, the
crowded, the dispirited, the disabled, the misunderstood and even the wealthy, the prideful and the accomplished. I like the range of our concerns, from Type-A cultures’ manic highway snarls to emerging-societies’ desert-wide needs for water.
I appreciate the Danish location of this high-concept proposition, a network of talent focusing with hearty humility on human problems. And I’m in love with this mix of personalities on the INDEX: staff and Senior Advisory Board. We’re all investing pragmatic, hard-earned professional experience in something sweet, without embarrassment or mushy do-gooder sentimentality. This is good sex. INDEX: is still young, but is swiftly embodying the muscular hunch that we might bend the force of government- and business-will to sponsor the global outreach of smart thinking. Can you imagine?
We are the INDEX: Visionaries, and we embrace this romance. We know we can win this. And we look gorgeous doing it, too”.
Porter Anderson, Senior Producer, cnn.com live
Prof. Soon-in Lee
“For a few days, I reflected on my perception of design, as a designer as well as a leader. I realized how important the quality of life is, and was impressed by the impact of design, improving life for humans rather than its commercial and industrial value.
There is no doubt that design has social effects. Its social power is growing more and more, which offers solutions to many problems.
I am looking forward to seeing the growth and expansion of INDEX: I had a great experience and the opportunity to reconsider my previous way of thinking”.
Prof. Soon-in Lee, President of the Seoul Design Center, South Korea.
Jens Martin
“The workshop was a rare and well orchestrated event that brought together an eclectic group of highly competent people from diverse fields, united mainly by their global outlook, their respect of new approaches and the ambition of real positive change – in this case via INDEX:.
Here is what we were trying to accomplish: the napkin plan for a design renaissance.
To say it crudely, the general design approach today is that of cosmetics or that of problem solving. Problem solving tends to focus on where we are rather than where we should be – cosmetics, on the other hand, doesn’t focus at all.
Rather, I believe we need a kind of paradigm shift to turn design into an expression of leadership or visionary aspiration.
INDEX: seems to have an inspirational ability empowering designers to increase their social impact. Ideally they add a substantial and positive influence on the products by mass, instead of churning them out without afterthoughts.
Another hope of mine is that designers can influence the thinking of world leaders. Arguably, alternative chains of thought and lateral thinking are needed to cope with some of our global issues. This thought ability seems, almost, to be the inherent thought process of some designers – INDEX: taps right into this and seeks to link it into a global need.
Also, I believe INDEX: is addressing a few crucial issues embedded within design today: the audacity to think along visionary lines, in order to allow designers to be engaged in a larger community, leading to a kind of cooperation, which is very rare, and which reshapes aesthetic drivers into ethical ones.
Personally, addressing such meaningful challenges amongst great human capacities was a tremendous and highly gratifying experience. I hope INDEX: will successfully convey these convictions and emotions to the broadest possible community”.
Jens Martin, Designer, Denmark
Patrick Frick
“INDEX: is important as it is an enabler of a much needed global mind-shift; whereas, we as the citizens of this planet, construct our common future by design and not default.”
Through our partnership with INDEX: we expect to raise awareness the fact that design and facilitating collaboration among stakeholders is the key to solving complex, critical and urgent global problems.
As process designers and facilitators, we know that even dreams as big as INDEX:’s can come true”.
Patrick Frick, The Value web
