Upcoming event
Systems + Design 2
Friday 24th June 2005
from 2:00pm to 5:30pm
Nottingham Trent University
DICE Building - Seminar Room 3
Off Clarendon Street
See map (number 10)
Free public event. No booking required.
- Invited speakers
- Prof. Maxine Naylor
- Prof. Julian Vincent
- George Michaelides
- Michael Hensel
- Philip Brabazon
How could or should design problems be approached? In what ways is the role of designers changing? In an attempt to explore such fundamental questions, we have invited a selected group of speakers from a variety of disciplines to present their views and to show examples of their practice. The presentations will be followed by a general discussion involving the public.
The event will be of particular relevance to architects, product designers and engineers, but should also be inspiring to anyone involved with problem solving and/or interested in the creative disciplines.
Systems + Design 2 is an Architecture Week event funded by the Arts Council of England with additional support from the Cross Disciplinary and the Architectural History & Theory Research Groups of the University of Nottingham, the Faculty of Design from the University of Lincoln and the School of Built Environment of Nottingham Trent University
Programme
Form follows Idea - Design Poetics
Maxine Naylor is Professor at the Faculty of Design of the University of Lincoln. Her award-winning and influential furniture and lighting design work has been exhibited widely in the UK, the USA and Europe. Her research is concerned with the visual/cultural associations and implications of materials, the design process and outcome. Graduating with an MA in Furniture Design in the early eighties her work was soon exhibited in two groundbreaking exhibitions at the Crafts Council and Contemporary Applied Arts in London. Naylor has won design awards from the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA); the Best Lamp Award from Table Lamp and Chair in the USA; and has received a prestigious Gold Award from International Design magazine's Design Review. Naylor has received numerous commissions including IBM, Crafts Council UK, Design Centre UK and Harrods. She has also won several significant research awards. Professor Naylor has taught at a number of highly distinguished universities in Europe and the United States. These include Goldsmiths and the Royal College of Art where she was Course Leader of Furniture in the School of Architecture and Design.
Stealing design from Nature
Prof. Vincent is director of the Centre for Biomimetic and Natural Technologies at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath. He had spent most of his research career in the Zoology Department at the University of Reading, studying the mechanical design of organisms and working out ways in which aspects of the design can be used in technology. At the same time he taught himself practical engineering by stripping and rebuilding old cars and motorcycles, sometimes by the side of the road. He only once failed to get home. His research interests are very wide, covering aspects of the mechanical design of plants and animals, fracture mechanics, texture of food, design of composite materials, use of natural materials in technology, advanced textiles, deployable structures in architecture and biological robotics.
Designing communities that design software: Understanding Open Source Software development
G. Michaelides is currently completing his doctorate research on knowledge sharing in Open Source Communities at Nottingham University Business School. Some of the questions that puzzle him in his research include how knowledge emerges through individuals' interactions on a mailing list, what are the processes through which fragments of individual learning and knowledge become organizational learning and organizational knowledge, and how a group of individuals that interact on a mailing list transform into a self-organized complex social system. His research interests include group dynamics, knowledge management, organizational psychology, and advanced methodological and data analysis approaches.
Multi-performance Systems, A new Paradigm for Design and Sustainability
M. U. Hensel is an architect, urban designer, writer and cultural organiser. He is a founding member of the OCEAN net and the do-group, and a partner in OCEAN NORTH, the differentiated Structures Research Group, and the Emergence and Design Group. He has taught and lectured in Europe, the Americas, the Middle- and Far East. Currently he is director of the Emergent Technologies and Design Program at the Architectural Association in London. Recent publications include Emergence – Morphogenetic Design Strategies, AD Wiley, London, 2004.
Mass-Customization: Design issues
P. Brabazon is a Research Fellow at Nottingham University Business School. Philip is a graduate Mechanical Engineer and started his career as a project engineer in the manufacturing development team of a multi-national automotive component manufacturer. Philip became interested in organisational issues and moved into risk management, which took him into technical consultancy on the management of industrial hazards. He joined the operations management team at Nottingham in 2000 to research the manufacturing strategy of mass customization and is currently studying and modelling order fulfilment systems.
Discussion chaired by: Jonathan Hale
Jonathan Hale is an architect and Senior Lecturer in Architecture at the School of the Built Environment, University of Nottingham. His research interests include: the theory and philosophy of technology in architecture, and the relationship between architecture and the body. Recent publications: Ends Middles Beginnings: Edward Cullinan Architects (Black Dog Publishing, 2005); Building Ideas: An Introduction to Architectural Theory (Wiley, 2000). Current projects include: Rethinking Technology - A Reader in Architectural Theory (Routledge, forthcoming 2006).
The event will be introduced by Rodrigo Velasco, member of the Architectural Construction Research Group.