A blog about design at the OU.
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Design Council and the OU Design Group
The Design Council visited the OU last week to talk about their ongoing work on the Design Economy. This work overlaps with our own on design identities and students – rather than asking ‘what is design?’ (and getting into the usual trouble…), it can be useful to ask “What are designers doing?” and “Who is […]
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Additive Manufacturing – helping to reduce waste in aircraft production
If you’ve read all the hype about 3D printing in recent years, you would be forgiven for thinking that we should all be driving around in 3D printed cars and 3D printing our own furniture by now. Of course, in reality any new manufacturing process takes time to move into production, and after the hype […]
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Engaging communities in design decision-making
We live in a time where the role of civil society in dealing with social, economic and environmental issues becomes more and more essential in the face of reduced resources by the local and national government to support and develop innovative solutions to such issues. In our research at the OU we have worked with […]
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Faith buildings and local communities
What is the role of faith buildings in today’s society and how can historic faith buildings be revitalised and re-energised by connecting with their local communities? This is a question we have been exploring for almost 5 years now as part of Empowering Design Practices and in this time we have found many examples of […]
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Design for democracy
Dockland Democracy When design academics at the OU were planning visits with students, without consciously realising it, all of the visits chosen were to statement buildings on the waterside in reclaimed dockland areas. Following the visits to the V&A Dundee and the Riverside Museum Glasgow, the final visit was to the Senedd, Welsh Assembly building […]
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Fostering Sustainable Practices in Fashion
Finally, sustainability in fashion is being noticed. The fast fashion of the last decades has given us cheap clothes of often doubtful quality, which is fast bought and fast disposed. The cheap clothes is often produced in low wage countries and shipped half across the world just to end up in landfill in Europe and […]
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Models
Something on models caught my eye at a conference inspired by the work of Lionel March Professor of Design at the OU 1976-1981. Several people from the OU past and present, Phil Steadman (UCL), George Stiny (MIT), Ramesh Krishnamurthi (CMU) and Iestyn Jowers, joined colleagues from around the world including his former students Helen Couclelis (UC Santa […]
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Making a (political) design statement
The past weekend saw several members of design@open venturing to Scotland to meet up with students for visits to two iconic buildings, the V&A Dundee and the Riverside Museum, Glasgow. Both buildings have a lot in common, they are both designed by prominent architects, situated on the riverside and have a tall sailing ship anchored […]
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Can we design truly ‘zero carbon’ buildings?
At the end of 2018, after repeated advice by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the European Commission called for a climate neutral Europe by 2050. For the construction industry achieving this will be particularly problematic. Not only is it the industry responsible for the highest percentage of global emissions, it already has exceptionally high […]
