This guide refers you to library resources for Sustainable Materials, Methods and Product Design Practices. Here you will find relevant books, magazines, databases, and online resources that the Librarian recommends.
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The Databases at Otis College have literally MILLIONS of articles. Below some recommendations.
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Material Connexion is no longer available for searching.
The books below are just a sampling of what you will find here.
There are also many e-books available on the subject. If you find an e-book, you will be able to access it fully online with your login credentials.
Sustainable Materials, Processes and Production by
This book is an essential reference for understanding the environmental impact of materials, manufacturing processes, and product life cycles, and is also a guide on how to select and use them in an intelligent way. It includes in-depth analysis of fifteen materials, fourteen processes, and six production life cycles, supplemented by specially commissioned photographs and diagrams.
Ultra Materials by
Smart substances, intelligent interfaces, and sensory surfaces are redefining the world we live in, from self-cleaning materials based on the surface morphology of a lotus leaf to outdoor pavilions made from inflatable membrane exteriors to temperature-regulated clothing.The people at Material ConneXion are uniquely placed to explain these developments:the context and key tools for innovation, including biomimicry, nanotechnology, and sustainability;the application of new materials in interior, fashion, textiles, product, and vehicle design;where current developments are leading, along with the implications for educators, professionals, and society as a whole.
1000 New Eco Designs and Where to Find Them by
As we become only too aware of the damage man has caused to the planet, more of us want to furnish and decorate our homes with products that do not harm the environment. But being sensitive to the environment does not mean you have to sacrifice good design. More and more designers are creating products that are both beautiful and ethical. 1000 New Eco Designs is a showcase of contemporary product design and interior products that are ecologically sound. Informative and visually inspirational, the book acts as a handbook, guiding readers through the complex issues involved in creating and choosing eco-friendly designs for the home. A series of icons show each product's "green" credentials; highlighting the use of recycled, sustainable, and locally-sourced materials as well as non-toxic, low-energy, and low-waste manufacturing processes, so that readers can see at a glance the individual characteristics of each design. The book also provides full information on where to source and buy the products featured.
Product Design in the Sustainable Era by
Sustainability is not a passing fashion, and people are constantly searching for more information, products and innovations in this area. Designers, in turn, are responding with elegant, efficient, low-impact products that look towards a sustainable future.
Total Beauty of Sustainable Products by
"This book provides an insight into the hidden world of product design, the side often hidden from designers themselves, and certainly from consumers. By establishing a key based on five basic principals for identifying the unsustainable qualities in a product, it enables designers and manufacturers to make decisions affecting a product's materials, production and waste. Unsustainable factors can be designed out; it's just a matter of asking the right questions." "The book also contains many examples of products that have made a move towards sustainability including the Ameco chair, the Patagonia fleece, the VW Lupo, the Mondaine Ecomatic watch, the radius toothbrush, Foxfibre socks, Trippen shoes, the IZ Zanussi washing machine, the Emeco Hudson chair and the Millenium II Spacepen."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Designer's Atlas of Sustainability by
Designing for sustainability is an innovation shaping both the design industry and design education today.Yet architects, product designers, and other key professionals in this new field have so far lacked a resource that addresses their sensibilities and concerns. The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability now explores the basic principles, concepts, and practice of sustainable design in a visually sophisticated and engaging style. The book tackles not only the ecological aspects of sustainable design-designers' choice of materials and manufacturing processes have a tremendous impact on the natural world-but also the economic and cultural elements involved. The Atlas is neither a how-to manual nor collection of recipes for sustainable design, but a compendium of fresh approaches to sustainability that designers can incorporate into daily thinking and practice. Illuminating many facets of this exciting field, the book offers ideas on how to harmonize human and natural systems, and then explores practical options for making the business of design more supportive of long-term sustainability. An examination of the ethical dimensions of sustainable development in our public and private lives is the theme present throughout. Like other kinds of atlases, The Designer's Atlas of Sustainability illustrates its subject, but it goes far beyond its visual appeal, stimulating design solutions for "development that cultivates environmental and social conditions that will support human well-being indefinitely."
Sustainable by Design by
To advance the subject of design one has to engage in the activity of designing. Sustainable by Design offers a compelling and innovative, design-centred approach that explores both the meaning and practice of sustainable design. Walker explores the design process in the context of sustainability, and challenges conventional ways of defining, designing and producing functional objects. He discusses the personal design process, tacit knowledge, ephemeral design, experimental design, and the relationship between intellectual design criteria, physical expression and aesthetic experience.This book will introduce vital concepts to students and will inspire designers by providing a well-articulated basis for understanding the complexity and potential of sustainable design, and extolling the contribution of design to the creation of a more meaningful material culture.
Sustainable Design for Interior Environments by
Sustainable Design for Interior Environments, 2nd Edition, builds on the first edition's premise that the interior design profession has a social and moral responsibility to protect the health, safety, and welfare of people and the environment. The text equips professors, students, and practitioners to design sustainable interiors by addressing LEED certification, environmental concerns, ecosystems, ethics, values, worldviews, and the ways in which science and technology can be used to address environmental challenges. Through content, organization, and pedagogical features, the book integrates complex sustainability topics directly into the design process, thereby enabling readers to apply the concepts of sustainability with the same ease as they do the elements and principles of design.
Design Is the Problem by
Design makes a tremendous impact on the produced world in terms of usability, resources, understanding, and priorities. What we produce, how we serve customers and other stakeholders, and even how we understand how the world works is all affected by the design of models and solutions. Designers have an unprecedented opportunity to use their skills to make meaningful, sustainable change in the world--if they know how to focus their skills, time, and agendas. In Design is the Problem: The Future of Design Must be Sustainable, Nathan Shedroff examines how the endemic culture of design often creates unsustainable solutions, and shows how designers can bake sustainability into their design processes in order to produce more sustainable solutions.
Design Futuring: Sustainability, Ethics, and New Practice by
Sustainability is now a buzzword both among professionals and scholars. However, though climate change and resource depletion are now widely recognized by business as major challenges, and while new practices like "green design" have emerged, efforts towards change remain weak and fragmented. Exposing these limitations, Design Futuring systematically presents ideas and methods for Design as an expanded ethical and professional practice. Design Futuring argues that responding to ethical, political, social and ecological concerns now requires a new type of practice which recognizes design's importance in overcoming a world made unsustainable. Illustrated throughout with international case material, Design Futuring presents the author's ground-breaking ideas in a coherent framework, focusing specifically on the ways in which concerns for ethics and sustainability can change the practice of Design for the twenty-first century. Design Futuring--a pathfinding text for the new era--extends far beyond Design courses and professional practice and will be invaluable also to students and practitioners of Architecture, the Creative Arts, Business and Management.
Deconstructing Product Design by
Deconstructing Product Design engages readers in a process of critically analyzing a diverse collection of 100 innovative products, from well-known classics to contemporary objects of desire. New in paperback, this books aims to support critical thinking about design, facilitate discovery of patterns of success (and failure) across products, and enable designers to apply lessons learned to their own design work. Experts from multiples design disciplines contribute commentary.
Thinking - Objects by
Thinking: Objects: Contemporary Approaches to Product Design discusses influences on modern product design such as globalization, technology, the media and the need for a sustainable future, and demonstrates how readers can incorporate these influences into their own work.
Design for Sustainability by
With radical and innovative design solutions, everyone could be living in buildings and settlements that are more like gardens than cargo containers, and that purify air and water, generate energy, treat sewage and produce food - at lower cost. Birkeland introduces systems design thinking that cuts across academic and professional boundaries and the divide between social and physical sciences to move towards a transdiciplinary approach to environmental and social problem-solving. This sourcebook is useful for teaching, as each topic within the field of environmental management and social change has pairs of short readings providing diverse perspectives to compare, contrast and debate.Design for Sustainability presents examples of integrated systems design based on ecological principles and concepts and drawn from the foremost designers in the fields of industrial design, materials, housing design, urban planning and transport, landscape and permaculture, and energy and resource management.
Heart of Sustainability by
Amidst the doom and gloom that dominates the headlines, a different kind of story is unfolding. The players are activists, visionaries and cultural innovators, the backdrop is the tipping point of our global and environmental challenges, and the narrative is the molding of a new paradigm to shape our collective future. The Heart of Sustainability delves into the human dimension of this burgeoning international movement to build a better world. Author Andres Edwards frames the conversation about consciousness and sustainability by: Explaining how self-development is a key driver for planetary change. Describing how the confluence of the consciousness and technological revolutions provide unique opportunities for balance and fulfillment Exploring how we can move forward individually and collectively to create a thriving, livable future from the inside out. This landmark work illustrates the integration of the four Es: ecology, economy, equity, and education— the bedrock of the current sustainability framework—with the four Cs: conscious, creative, compassionate and connected. Focusing on specific examples and concrete initiatives from around the world, it shows us how to reconnect with ourselves, each other, and nature in order to tackle the challenges we face as a global community. Andres R. Edwards is author of the award-winning Thriving Beyond Sustainability and The Sustainability Revolution. He is founder and president of EduTracks, a firm specializing in designing and developing exhibits, print, and education programs, and offering consulting services on sustainable practices for green building and business initiatives.
Energy Efficient Technologies for Sustainability by
Energy is the major driving force for the economy of any nation. The challenge for continuous generation of power to meet the ever growing demand is a daunting task, especially due to limited resources. This collection of peer reviewed papers contains original research articles in different areas of energy efficient technologies such as: Alternate Energy, Building Technologies, Automotive Technologies, Modeling and Design, Manufacturing Systems and Power Systems. We hope that the novel ideas presented in these papers will trigger more application oriented research in relation with latest technology to conserve and sustain energy.
Eco Design: The Sourcebook, rev. ed. by
For the growing number of people looking to embrace an eco-friendly lifestyle without sacrificing high style,ecoDesignnow fully revised and updatedis the ultimate one-stop shopping resource. The latest edition of this definitive sourcebook includes up-to-the-minute listings for more than seven hundred consumer productsfrom clothing to kitchenware, electronics to furniturethat have a minimal impact on the earth while remaining useful and beautiful. This remarkable compendium also directs readers to little known gems and handcrafted objects from artisanal studios. Detailed, illustrated entries describe the products, while an extensive reference section defines new and hybrid materials and provides information on manufacturers, design studios, and green organizations.ecoDesign remains the total resource guide for the new generation of contemporary design.
Emotionally Durable Design by
In today's unsustainable world of goods, where products are desired, purchased, briefly used and then promptly landfilled to make way for more, consumption and waste are rapidly spiralling out of control with truly devastating ecological consequences. Why do we, as a consumer society, have such short-lived and under-stimulating relationships with the objects that we invest such time, thought and money in acquiring, but that will soon be thoughtlessly discarded? Emotionally Durable Design is a call to arms for professionals, students and academic creatives; proposing the emergence of a new genre of sustainable design that reduces consumption and waste by increasing the durability of relationships established between users and products. In this provocative text, Jonathan Chapman pioneers a radical design about-face to reduce the impact of modern consumption without compromising commercial viability or creative edge. The author explores the essential question, why do users discard products that still work? It transports the reader beyond symptom-focused approaches to sustainable design such as design for recycling, biodegradeability and disassembly, to address the actual causes that underpin the environmental crisis we face. The result is a revealing exploration of consumer psychology and the deep motivations that fuel the human condition, and a rich resource of creative strategies and practical tools that will enable designers from a range of disciplines to explore new ways of thinking and of designing objects capable of supporting deeper and more meaningful relationships with their users. This is fresh thinking for a brave new world of creative, durable and sustainable products, buildings, spaces and designed experiences.
Responsible Object. A History of Design Ideology for The Future by
Within the design discipline, calls for sustainability and social responsibility have become some of the most common rallying cries of the past decade, generating countless new products, materials and technologies--all designed to change the course of our future. Adjectives like "sustainable," "green" and "eco" describe this new wave of socially committed design. But though today's conditions are urgent and particular, the ideologies behind these new products are often not totally new, but rather a part of design history. Contemporary sustainable design is just the newest chapter of a story that stretches back throughout the previous centuries. The Responsible Object presents a selected history of socially committed design strategies within the Western design tradition of roughly the last 150 years, from William Morris to Victor Papanek, and from VKhUTEMAS to FabLab. It includes about 20 interstitial mini-posters with slogans from the text, printed on different colored papers.
Sustainable Materials Without the Hot Air by
Materials, transformed from natural resources into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyle, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not sustainable. This optimistic and richly-informed book evaluates all the options and explains how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs. "Instead of the usual ya-boo about sustainability, this is a pragmatic guide to getting more value from less stuff. Researched with long-term co-operation from industry, it emphasizes facts and evidence but is aimed at a popular readership." - BBC News Magazine "A valuable, impartial expert source in an important debate." - Boing Boing
Sustainable Product Innovation by
This important book, designed for academic courses, certifications, and professional training, makes a well-supported business case for sustainable product development, and why human well-being must become the overarching goal of new technology and product development. It presents a holistic systems approach for achieving multi-stakeholder optimization in product life-cycle design in order to meet a firm's objectives, investors' ROI expectations, and regulatory requirements, while protecting the environment and rapidly depleting natural resources. It also provides entrepreneurs and executives the guidance and decision-making tools needed for achieving superior commercial success.
FabLab by
In the course of the digital revolution, FabLabs (short for Fabrication Laboratory) make high-tech production technologies available for small teams or individuals, who can make there "almost everything" themselves. FabLabs are simultaneously workshop and laboratory, equipped with computer controlled tools such as laser cutters, CNC milling machines and 3D printers. Following on from desktop publishing and digital video editing, the production of physical products is now possible for anyone anywhere. In the first section of the publication, various authors provide insight on topics such as the emergence of FabLabs, the philosophy behind them and their commercial aspects as well as the techniques, methods and processes involved. After this, the artistic and production processes in a Dutch FabLab are presented as a real-world example. Around 30 noteworthy products are featured, each over several pages, in the Fab Gallery at the end of the book, thus demonstrating the full diversity of possibilities offered by FabLabs.
Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Product Design by
As a cultivated form of invention, product design is a deeply human phenomenon that enables us to shape, modify and alter the world around us - for better or worse. The recent emergence of the sustainability imperative in product design compels us to recalibrate the parameters of good design in an unsustainable age. Written by designers, for designers,　the Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Product Design presents the first systematic overview of the burgeoning field of sustainable product design. Brimming with intelligent viewpoints, critical propositions, practical examples and rich theoretical analyses, this book provides an essential point of reference for scholars and practitioners at the　intersection of product design and sustainability. The book takes readers to the depth of our engagements with the designed world to advance the social and ecological purpose of product design as a critical twenty-first-century practice. Comprising 35 chapters across 6 thematic parts, the book's contributors include the most significant international thinkers in this dynamic and evolving field.
Archello tells multiple stories around projects, from the manufacturer to the architect, making it the richest and the most complete platform for architecture and design.
Material Lab is a design resource studio and materials library in London.
Matrec is a consulting company specializing in innovation and research on sustainability. They want you to subscribe, but you can get info without doing that.
Core77 Excellent website for all things Product design
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