Designers On The Climate Crisis

How the world's leading designers are thinking about the climate crisis

Aileen Kwun, May 15, 2019 (CNN via the Philadelphia Tribune)

“Transgenic silk garments that emit a neon glow, sartorial burial suits embedded with flesh-eating microbes, and a bouquet of perfume notes derived from the DNA of extinct flora are just a few of the mind-bending works of design presented in ‘Nature,’ this year’s Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial program…[It] looks at how designers are responding to human-induced climate change and the impending environmental crisis…Last year was the world’s fourth hottest since records started in 1880, according to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)…[More than 60 projects from scientists, to engineers, farmers, programmers, artists, philosophers, and others from 22 countries] are placed into one of seven categories based on strategy, rather than medium — Understand, Simulate, Remediate, Salvage, Facilitate, Augment, and Nurture…

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Clothing has been cited as among the top contributors of pollution and waste globally. In 2018, Quantis found that the footwear and apparel industries account for more than 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while, according to a 2016 McKinsey study, nearly 60% of all clothing ends up in landfills or incinerators within a year of its production…The selected works — all contemporary, and in several instances, prototypes of ideas yet to be realized — display an ingenuity of material innovation, suggesting products that drastically reduce environmental harm, or novel ways of responsibly tapping into overlooked resources…” click here for more

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