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Professor Martin Charter has directed The Centre for Sustainable Design ® at UCA since 1999. During this time he has developed a body of research concerning sustainable and eco-innovation, and sustainable and eco-design, with a particular focus on organisational implementation within business. This has led to a widespread programme of dissemination and application to SMEs through funded projects, publications, consultancy and training. The specific beneficiaries of this research are the SMEs through these projects, guidance and training.
The two main impacts resulting from the research concern museum curation in Britain and educational curricula in the USA. The research has influenced museum curatorial practices around collections of 20th Century Design and collection development of the internationally significant Henry Rothschild Study Centre at Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead. The research has provided the basis for curriculum development at the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Museum and Parsons School of Design, New York. This large body of research has had an impact on museum professionals and their fund-raisers, researchers across the UK and US, educators, post-graduate students, practitioners and the general public.
This case study focuses on three Science/Art collaborations Primitive Streak, Wonderland and Catalytic Clothing (CatClo) undertaken since 1997 by Professor Helen Storey. Storey's work is genuinely collaborative, spanning arts, sciences and new technology fields, and produces projects which illuminate aspects of science and well-being in ways that engage with the public, communicate complicated concepts, and demonstrate the potential of science in an innovative and accessible manner. The projects have reached huge audiences and have made a significant contribution to raising public awareness of science and issues faced by society.
Research on sustainability in this unit is helping to extend the lifetime of clothing and other consumer products (durables/ semi-durables) by informing government policy and influencing manufacturers to reduce waste and over-consumption. Our findings on key policy instruments have fed into new government guidelines, prepared in the context of EU legislation, on the potential to reduce waste by increasing product lifetimes. Our clothing sector research has been disseminated to policymakers and industry stakeholders through studies on public understanding of sustainable clothing, clothing behaviour and designing clothes for longevity. Together they have culminated in a Government-funded initiative to create an industry-supported Clothing Longevity Protocol.
CHAPMAN's research into emotionally durable design has radically shifted the values and practices of global businesses, helping them to cut waste and to enhance product, material and brand value. Through publications, exhibitions, master-classes and films, this research has transformed understanding of sustainable design in professional (Puma, Sony), policy (House of Lords, UN) and cultural (Design Museum, New Scientist) settings, propelling the field beyond its focus on energy and materials, towards deeper engagements that link psychosocial phenomena with ideas about consumption and waste. Furthermore, it has contributed to public debate and policy with the effect that the term `emotional durability' has now entered the international design lexicon, providing valuable shorthand for complex phenomena influencing product longevity.
This case study covers the work of five researchers at University of the Arts London (UAL), who have played a role in establishing a field of academically rigorous fashion research with a new relevance for industry and society. This has been achieved through innovative curatorial practices, publications, collaboration with practitioners, and interaction with broadcast, print and new media. The work of this group of academics has influenced the way fashion is presented and communicated within the museum, gallery and publishing sector, and in the fashion industry itself, both nationally and internationally.
Design thinking has benefited the economic performance of business and particularly the creative industries, changed awareness of design in everyday life, and informed public policy. Users and consumers have benefited from wider understanding of the genesis of products and services and effects on their quality of life. Design thinking research has been instrumental in forming a new business sector that provides design thinking expertise as consultancy. It has changed the processes of designers and design practices, and fed into UK design education policy. Design thinking has crossed discipline boundaries; for example framing new methods and processes in software engineering.
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) has researched the extent and effectiveness of design management in companies for over 15 years. The research has combined an academic analysis with a practice based approach where findings have been implemented through a succession of industry-facing, large-scale, externally funded projects.
Through this sustained activity, design tools, methods and support strategies have been developed, delivered, tested and disseminated internationally. Additionally, the experiences are fed back into the continuing research that underpins the practical activity.
Since 2008, BIAD's business-facing projects have:
The i~design research programme, which has been running in the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) since 2000, sought to understand population diversity in order to better inform design decisions for mainstream everyday products and services. Impact from this programme, since 2008, includes: skills embedded in companies through direct training of over 280 designers and design managers from industry; direct involvement in the improved design of more than 10 new products and services that have gone into production; educational resources for teaching Design and Technology trialled in nine secondary schools; over 800 wearable impairment simulators sold; and extensive web-based guidance, methods and tools for inclusive design accessed in over 170 countries.
Since 1989, Birmingham Institute of Art and Design (BIAD) has spearheaded a comprehensive seating design research programme that has resulted in specific and recognisable outputs and impacts.
Key areas of knowledge have been developed through:
The research has resulted in multiple innovations demonstrated through registered designs. All designs have been licensed to UK companies for the purposes of manufacture and distribution. From January 2008 to end June 2013, sales have comprised more than 30,000 seating units across three continents.