Sustainable everydays
As the era of mindless resource consumption is coming to an end. There is a common belief that lowering consumption implies lowering living standards. We think that dealing with environmental concerns whilst keeping the levels of living standards stable is something interaction designers should aim for. We want to look at a possible future where using sustainable services has become an everyday routine, and not something you worry about. With this premise we want to imagine an ideology based on sustainable principles, that will be reflected in our everyday lives.
By using design fiction, we will create an ideology as a context to design our solution. This ideology will put sustainability as a natural way of life. To do this we are imagining a scenario where Norway has gone through an economic crisis that resulted in limited resources, creating a need to think different in the way we consume. Our society can no longer afford to import goods in the scale we did, and we are forced to become a more self sufficient and sustainable society. With this shift in focus, people have changed their consumption habits through innovative services, up to the point that it has become a religious and unifying experience.
In this imagined future we want to look at the re-usage of products because we think that this domain will play an important role in creating a sustainable society. How is the product’s life cycle extended? How has products been redesigned to make them fit into another context? How is recycling organised? How are we going to deal with redundant products? These are the kind of questions we want to explore. Eventually we will come up with a solution that will fit into this imagined future, and maybe even become a part of our future.
Design tasks:
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How is reuse incorporated in a society where sustainability has become an ideology?
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What reuse-services are provided in such a society?
