My Topic and References

Main topic/Critical perspective. 

Topic: Nature + Sustainability - Sustainable/Eco design.

Thesis: Design should be environmentally sustainable and benefit users.

Idea: Design should be environmentally sustainable. 

Idea: Design should inspire people to see the world in a new way.  

How these sources are going to support my statement. 

1- Cradle to cradle: remaking the way we make things.

What I am taking from this book is the topic of waste equals food. This idea of how waste can be recycled to create better things. There is a good example in this book of how nature is recycling what’s other think are useless. For an example, vegetable oil. At one time, shoes were tanned with vegetable chemicals, which were relatively safe, so the wastes from their manufacture posed no real problem. The shoe could biodegrade after its useful life or be safety burned. This kind of example can back up my statement of how eco design is for the better and not for worse. (How they are biodegradable). There are plenty of examples of environmentally friendly design throughout this book which mostly relate back to nature which will be good to back up certain points in my essay. 

2- The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention.

This book will back up my topic because this book teaches us to look at human design in new ways. How designers need to look at how they are designing and designing with ecology in mind. This book is about starting things, specifically an ecological design revolution that changes how we provide food, energy, and how to deal with waste. An early example of people using a mind of ecology is the hunter-gatherers who lived on current solar income. Feudal barons extracted wealth from sunlight by exploiting serfs who farmed the land. This book also talks about the barriers of eco-design which can be very helpful in my essay with reasons why we do certain designs to help the environment. 

 

3- Bio design: Nature technology creativity.

This is the main book I’ll be referencing in my essay because of the variety of designers that portray good Eco-design such as a this car which with the abundant heat and carbon dioxide generated by conventional combustion engine is harnessed in a car to feed algae and thereby create bio-fuel that powers the vehicle further. This is a prime example of a useful Eco-design that can help users with real life struggles such as petrol. This book will back up my statement very well with multiple good Eco-designs within it and has images to reference into the essay as well.   

My A.P.A reference. 

McDonough, W., & Braungart, M. (2002). Cradle to cradle: Remaking the way we make things. New York: North Point Press.

Orr, D. (1994). The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture and Human Intention. New York: Oxford University Press. 

Meyers, W. Bio design: Nature technology creativity. (2012). Farnborough: Thames & Hudson.