September 6–7 Designboost presents DesignBoost - Made in [Arnhem] in Arnhem, Holland through a variety of integrated BoostChat (workshops) and BoostTalk (lectures). Designboost will invite Boosters from Holland and all over the world which represent the true frontline within design in its broadest context. All are authorities in their field of expertise and our selection reflects the principle that design is multidisciplinary reaching way beyond the obvious. Our carefully selected Boosters will interact on the theme ”Design for Life” over two days with companies, organisations and institutions.

BoostChat is for invited only while the BoostTalk is open for public as well.

When it comes to sustainable life there are probably many things that needs to be questioned, left could very well be right. The objective of DesignBoost - Made in [Arnhem] is to make everybody question, reach awareness and think in new paths when it comes to creating better lives for lots of people. This is after all the ultimate goal for all design.

DesignBoost - Made in [Arnhem] is a collaboration between Designboost, Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, ArtEZ hogeschool voor de kunsten, Premsela and City of Arnhem.

We thought it could be good timing to remind about our latest in-depth report called Time to Rethink Design the day before the start of the Milan Design Week.

Has Design reached its sell by date?

Have we not fulfilled Design’s 20th Century’s mission to market, style, brand, and added value, to innovate and to experiment through design? Is it not time to pause and rethink, and question why, before we react the same way in the 21st Century?

We are increasingly dwelling in a created world, and for over half the world’s population this is the environment of the designed metropolis. Do we need any more, can we desire much less?

Let’s face it; design is now a major source of pollution, as process and a phenomenon, design has degenerated into a state of aesthetic proliferation that has reached accumulative and destructive levels, in terms of loss of meaning, value, and identity.

The result is a vacancy of purpose, a world full of ‘designer jetsam and flotsam’ that is swilling around or embedded into or above our planet; poorly designed products, unwanted solutions, unfriendly materials, and a mutli-choice of artefacts that are discarded as fast as they were adopted.

A lot of us (David Report included) are going to the Milan Design Week, but still the question is - do we actually need another chair?

Journalist Alice Rawsthorn is touching the subject as well in a New York Times article from yesterday named Furniture Designers are shifting focus.

We are facing a pandemic of  ‘designed stuff’ and we have reached a contamination point, a crisis for Design. Why are we not more pertubed and disturbed, why are we so complacent and tolerant? Should we not be calling for a guerrilla war against ‘designerism’, antiviral campaigns against the design establishment or do we need a revolution to cut the ties with the hero’s of 20th Century Design?

The diagnosis is not making Design better, but making Design matter!

Read the whole story in the new issue of David Report called ”Time to Rethink Design”. Written by David Carlson and Brent Richards.

The BoostTalk on Friday 12 February during DesignBoost Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm was sold out in thirty minutes.

Designboost is now happy to announce that they will stream all lectures, panels and seminar online on Friday 12th between 9.45am and 5.15pm. You can listen to personalities like Karim Rashid, Ross Lovegrove, Ilse Crawford, Stephen Burks, Ineke Hans, Richard Hutten, Katrin Olina, Satyendra Pakale, Monica Förster, Henrik Otto, Bjarke Ingels, James Irvine, Gert Wingårdh, Ilkka Suppanen, Thomas Sandell and Jens Fager.

Simply go to http://www.designboost.se and you will be re-directed to the DesignBoost at Arkitekturmuseet BoostChat “Design for Life”.

If you would like to comment and discuss the BoostChat via Twitter use #designboost.

Please find the complete program below:

Official programme for BoostTalk during DesignBoost at Arkitekturmuseet Friday February 12.

10.00 WELCOME

Inaugural speech by David Carlson and Peer Eriksson from Designboost.

10.15 SESSION ONE

Jens Fager
Richard Hutten
Satyendra Pakhale

2 minute leg stretch

Ilse Crawford
Ross Lovegrove

12.00 LUNCH BREAK

13.00 OFFICIAL OPENING OF BOOSTSHOW (exhibition) ”Design for Life”. Inaugural speech speech by museum director Lena Rahoult.

13.30 SESSION TWO

Stephen Burks
Bjarke Ingels
Karim Rashid

2 minute leg stretch

14.40 SEMINAR ”Space for Life” with Ineke Hans, Karim Rashid, James Irvine, Henrik Otto and Ross Lovegrove. Moderators: David Carlson and Peer Eriksson.

15.40 ENERGIZING BREAK

16.00 PANEL DISCUSSION ”Design for Life” with Katrin Olina, Ilkka Suppanen, Gert Wingårdh, Monica Förster and Thomas Sandell. Moderators: David Carlson and Peer Eriksson.

16.50 WIND-UP: David Carlson and Peer Eriksson

17.00 THE END

The theme of this autumn’s DesignBoost in Malmö was Design for Life. Now the question is once again being posed, how to make design economical, ecological and fair when DesignBoost collaborates with Arkitekturmuseet in Stockholm.

At this DesignBoost people of worldwide reputation such as Stephen Burkes, Ineke Hans, Katrin Olina, Ilkka Suppanen, James Irvine, Richard Hutten, Bjarke Ingels, Gert Wingårdh and Thomas Sandell will participate. Additional participants will be announced.

Design for Life is about how we shall shape our way of life. How we plan, produce, deliver and consume everything from cities, transportation and infrastructure as well as food, entertainment, products and brands. Over the years design unfortunately has developed more and more into an exceedingly contributing source of pollution and over consumption. Therefore some of the biggest names in the world of design will once again meet, to show how design and architecture may be used to create better conditions for people as well as for the environment.

One of the speakers is Stephen Burks, known among other things for his border breaking collaborations with artisans in South Africa and Peru.

We need to redefine design and focus on people’s needs, rather than just surface. When design is put in a humanistic perspective one understands the tremendous ability it has to make change happen, socially as well as economically and ecologically. With knowledge of design, we can solve and improve everyday life of people both in Sweden and globally, says Peer Eriksson.

DesignBoost at Arkitekturmuseeum in Stockholm will take place on the 11-12th of February with around seventy especially invited participants. During two days BoostChats (workshops) and BoostTalks (lectures) on the theme Design for Life will be held. BoostChat on the 11th is exclusively open to those especially invited guests while the talks on the 12th will be open to the public.

As a part of this a BoostShow (exhibition) with examples of holistic sustainable design will be open until the 7th of March.

DesignBoost invites the most pioneering thinkers. Stephen Burks is established as one of the worlds greatest designers but other brilliant talents will also attend, such as Bjarke Ingels, architect and maker of Denmark’s pavilion on the world exhibition in Shanghai later this year, David Carlson tells us. He, along with Peer Eriksson is the initiative behind DesignBoost.

Ping Intressant.se

100 Places to Remember Before they Disappear features 100 photographs from one hundred different places around the world in risk of disappearing or seriously threatened by climate change.

The pictures are taken by some of the world’s best photographers and all the places are based on reports from UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

On their website you can see the photographs and find further information and news about climate change and the project.

“100 Places to Remember…” is also an outdoor exhibition that among other places was exhibited in Copenhagen during the COP 15 climate meeting.

The magazine from the event DesignBoost 2009 - Design for Life has just been published online. You can view it in fullscreen by clicking on it above. Among the contributing writers are Jennifer Leonard, Kristina Dryza, Martin Hoenle, Brent Richards, Kristina Börjesson and Katarina Graffman, Vanessa Gandy, Magnus Lindkvist and Kristin Heinonen. The BoostChat and BoostTalk of the event took place October 14-15. The BoostShow is open until November 14.

This is the manifest for the event:

It’s time to rethink design. To create long time value instead of short time profit. To build the future on generosity instead of greed. We need optimism, new spirit and change! We need Design for Life.

Design for Life is all about how we can create better lives for the many. How we plan, produce, deliver and consume everything from cities, transportation and infrastructure to food, entertainment, products and brands. Together we have a joint responsibility. We can all make a difference.

Design is always about humans – about satisfying needs, solving problems and attracting us towards new experiences. This implies that great design often is founded on a social and cultural perspective. Unfortunately design has partly turned into a major source of pollution. Just look at everything modish and the hunt for newness. A big part of the industry are focusing on more when we actually need better.

Design for Life is about concern and cooperation. Even a long journey starts with a first step. Doing something is always better than nothing.

Ping Intressant.se

The conclusions from the BoostChat (workshops) at DesignBoost 2009 - Design for Life has been published. In total it was 40 unique BoostChat all concerning the overall theme ‘Design for Life’. The questions touched subjects like “How can design understand our cultures?”, “How can we make real change?”, “How to design for urban life?” and “Who has the responsibility?”. Among the people involved in the BoostChat were designers Ineke Hans, Richard Hutten, Ilse Crawford and Katrin Olina to mention a few. Representatives from the industry included companies like Electrolux, Audi, E.ON, Iittala, Skanska and SAS.

Below are a couple of images as well.

Designboost presents the complete Speaker list for the BoostTalk (lectures) on October 15th:

Ken Yeang, Architect at Llewelyn Davies Yeang
Ilse Crawford, Creative director and Designer at Studio Ilse
Richard Hutten, Designer
Colin Drummond, Director of Cultural & Business Insights at Crispin Porter + Bogusky
Ineke Hans, Designer
Eero Koivisto, Architect and designer
Ary Perez, Engineer and artist.
Katrin Olina, Illustrator and designer
Fernando Gabeira, Politician
Roy Antink, Development Manager, Green Construction at Skanska
Magnus Lindqvist, Futurologist at Pattern Recognition
Jonas Pinzke and Harry MacNeil, Innovators for the greater good at The Good Guys
Mathias Eriksson, Copywriter and founder of Brikulör.
Max Fraser, Director at Spotlight Press
Behrang Miri, Rapper, Actor and Teacher
Katarina Graffman and Kristina Börjesson, Anthropologist respectively Researcher sustainable design
Brent Richards and Philip Allsopp, Founders of Transpolis Global
Filipe Balestra, Architect

WHEN:
BoostTalk (lectures) on October 15th between 9am and 6pm.

WHERE:
Beijerskajen 8 in Malmö, Sweden (former K3 school).

TICKETS:
Tickets for the BoostTalk (lectures) at DesignBoost 2009 on Thursday October 15th are now released. Follow this link for tickets and registration: http://shop.textalk.se/shop.php?id=12396

The price for a ticket is SEK 1900, coffee and lunch included. You will also get an exclusive preview of the DesignBoost 2009 BoostShow (exhibition).

WHY:
It´s time to rethink design. To create long time value instead of short time profit. To build the future on generosity instead of greed. We need optimism, new spirit and change! We need Design for Life.

Design for Life is all about how we can create better lives for the many. How we plan, produce, deliver and consume everything from cities, transportation and infrastructure to food, entertainment, products and brands. Together we have a joint responsibility. We can all make a difference

Design is always about humans - about satisfying needs, solving problems and attracting us towards new experiences. This implies that great design often is founded on a social and cultural perspective. Unfortunately design has partly turned into a major source of pollution. Just look at everything modish and the hunt for newness. I big part of the industry are focusing on more when we actually need better.

Design for Life is about care and cooperation. It´s about taking steps forward regardless of length. Doing anything is always better than nothing.

The goal is that DesignBoost 2009 will be characterised by new insights, new thoughts, new friends and preferably laughter, or as Designboost puts it; right, ah, haha!

PARTNERS:

DesignBoost 2009 - ´Design for Life´ is a junction for curious minds, commercial and industrial life, organisations and institutions. The BoostPartners 2009 include: Electrolux, IKEA, Audi, Iittala, Arena, Skanska, Thule, E.ON, Swedish EU presidency, City of Malmö and Region Skåne.

Further info: www.designboost.se