1) What do you think of the ten Long Life design criteria overall ? Which criteria in particular might assist in meeting the challenges created by climate change and how? What criteria would you add or how would you update the current list to account for specific design challenges presented by the Anthropocene?
I think the ten criteria are pretty thorough. When I first read, there were certain criteria that surprised me, because I didn’t think that far. They cover not only the design itself, but also the whole system. A design is not just the final object, but also the whole process from the source of the material and where the material will finally go.
Both Repair and Environment help conquer the challenges created by climate change. If a material that is needed for a design in present times will no longer exist in the future, at least we can repair the broken ones and keep them longer. This will be last plan we have, but if the designer could think ahead that have consideration of the environment in any age, we won’t need to worry too much that the design will distinct.
In order to suit in Anthropocene, it will be ideal if a design could have alternative material. It is like a Plan B. In Anthropocene, nobody knows what will happen in the next ten years. Some common materials we have today in our daily life may become rare in the near future due to some unpredictable factors. Having an alternative material choice makes a design more reliable.
2) Analyze the design from your home country (in production for longer than 50 years) that you shared in class this week according to the 10 Long Life Design criteria. In what ways does this object/product meet the criteria and in what ways does it not meet them? Address all ten criteria.
The design I choose from China is a Chinese cooker Wok. It has a very long history that more that one thousand years.
Repair: In ancient times, a smith is the one who can fix the wok. However, in modern times, we lose a lot of these craftsmen. The repair is almost impossible now, especially in bigger cities. A wok is not easy to break, so if it is broken, it means the wok is very old. People won’t keep something that old, so they just buy a new one.
Cost: As the techniques develop, designers put more effort on the wok that raise the original price of a wok. Therefore, the wok can keep being produced.
Sales: The wok has closely tied with Chinese food culture, so no word is needed for convincing people to buy it. For this criterion, there is nothing about long-life—-a wok is our life.
Manufacturing: I think it is very difficult for the manufacturers to keep passion on a design that has more than one thousand years’ history. Producing woks have already become their daily agenda.
Function: A wok’s function is the ultimate reason why it can exist for millennium.
Safety: Honestly speaking, the way Chinese people cook is not very safe, at least for me. The process of tossing the wok and let the food stirred in the wok requires skills. It is easy to burn yourself, but if you don’t use those fancy skills and just use the spatula, it is very safe.
Planned Production: The wok is produced in planned and foreseeable volumes. Like all other cookers, a wok’s life is pretty fixed. The rate of producing versus consuming is predictable.
User: The wok doesn’t apply to this criterion. The invention at first was not designed to be long-life. Most people see the wok more as a practical tool than a design. Therefore, people usually don’t think deep about the wok.
Environment: A tradition wok is made of iron. Iron is the very basic natural element that can be recycled and melt.
Design: A wok is originally used for cooking, so it’s hard to use “beautiful” to describe it. Nevertheless, because of the life quality promotion, designers are trying to make the wok more into beautiful design.
3) Next week we will visit Tea Drunk NYC, a Chinese tea shop founded by Shunan Teng. Please visit and learn about her work and pop-up shop at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
How does this business seem related to Long Life Design? Despite being a new business, which of the Long Life Design criteria do you think it might be able to fulfill over the next 50 years, and why? What are two questions you have for the owner, Shunan Teng, related to long-life design and sustainability?
Tea drunk has relation with the “heritage farmers” and tries to preserve the original system of producing the tea that has been passed down for many years. There is an excerpt from Tea Drunk’s website that points out directly their philosophy: “We aim to create a healthy market to sustain the incredible artistry of authentic tea.” They are willing to keep the tradition in this modern society and protect it, so that it will never disappear.
It will fulfill the criteria of Function, Manufacturing, and Design. Growing and drinking tea has such a long tradition that rooted in Chinese people’s life. Drinking tea is like drinking coffee. It can be very complicated if it is for an expert. For normal people, it is very simple that a person doesn’t need to be trained to make tea. The farmers, especially heritage farmers often feel the responsibility that lay on their family, so they are very serious about growing tea. Drinking tea is seen as an elegant art. Not only the tea, but also the teapots are art. Teapots require delicate design and making process, because it not only needs to be beautiful, but also needs to make sure that the tea can come out fluently.
Although I believe that preserving the authentic of tea is a good long-life design, there is one thing that I have doubt. From my knowledge, because of the profit of growing tea plants, farmers knock down the forest and turn them into land for tea plants. My question for Shunan Teng is: How would the company or the farmers balance the yield of tea and the customers’ demand for tea and the tea trees’ land?
4) Please watch this video and answer the following seven questions on your LP.
– At the start of the program Industrial Designer Fumikazu Masuda says, “we cannot continue like this, there is no future in mass production and consumption.” Do you agree?
I can’t agree more. I like to keep my old stuffs and never throw them away. Sometimes when I look at the home I lived for fifteen years in China, I didn’t know what to do with all my old stuffs. Especially that I live in NY for most of the time, my old stuffs are completely trash. And I keep buying new stuffs.
– What was the transformative experience that made Matsuda realize he had a responsibility for what he designed?
In 1990s, he walked along a river in Kyoto. Suddenly, he saw a trash in the river, so he was very annoyed. And later he found out that it was actually a washing machine he designed. This is very ironic and made him think about his responsibility as a designer.
- Do you think you would take better care of objects if you had to repair them?
Yes, definitely will. As I said, I don’t like throwing away my stuffs. When I had something broken, I tried to repair it first. And I realize my limits on either skills or strength, so I treasure my belongings more. I use them carefully, because I know that I may not able to repair them.
- What are examples of materials that you could design with today, that could later return to the “natural cycle” (such as the bamboo that Masuda mentions)?
I think most metals are natural materials that can return to the “natural cycle”. Therefore, jewelry is long-life design.
- Masuda says, “nobody wants to leave the next generation with nothing but trash.” Do you think designers should consider the ability for their designs to be repaired, as part of their initial design process? What else might help create less waste?
I do think people in ancient times were doing better jobs than us on considering repair when they design, because producing new products were not as easy as it is today. Sometimes, evolution is not a good thing. If we could return to the old way of designing, there won’t be so much trash.
To help create less waste, I do have a very childish, maybe be useless suggestion. All designers should watch the movie Wall-E. We should all have a clear vision on how our planet would be if we don’t aware of the trash we make.
- What are the two things that Masuda says designers should be mindful of when designing (see timecode 20:00)? Why does he say this is important? Do you agree?
First, to design something simple that doesn’t need a lot of resource, so there won’t be a lot od resource being waste. Second, using nature materials so that no extra effort to recycling. I agree that designs can come down to a very basic level. A simple design doesn’t mean that it is not a good design. It even needs more intelligence to manage the limited materials and make them functional.
– What are you overall thoughts on this video? Did you enjoy it?
This video covers a lot about long-life design. I enjoy this one, and also the one we watched last week.
