Con-Syn-Sys : Contributing Synthesised Systems

I) The Way I Think

I think through Pattern recognition. I construct thoughts in replicable patterns and learn through connecting dots between patterns. This is great for geometry and geography, but also for understanding complex ideas very quickly. I therefore design with and through patterns in all forms.

I also design with my own ethics in mind. Unlike some designers, I recognise that the garbage crisis, or climate change, will not be changed by small boutique artisan design, instead by a system change. By redesigning part of the global system itself. This is probably why I study Sustainable Systems Engineering. It has a unique approach to design within Engineering, that both aligns with and informs my way of designing. Because it considers the skills of the design process so closely, it is a snug academic fit to Industrial Design as a double degree.

II) What’s the Tactic: Designed Systems

Consensus is three different fields of thought:

Systems Design: The design of a system’s architecture. Wholistic Product design. Design of product at all stages, including manufacture. Design for disassembly but design for Assembly.

Systems Engineering: Soft Skills – Reliability, team coordination, logistics, risk management. Determining and then evaluating requirements. Rather than repetition and manufacture, seeks to understand a whole project or system, identify “real problems”, and then seeks the best way to resolve them. Systems Engineering also considers the effectiveness of components together, rather than as individuals. The best part A and the best part B may not actually yield the most effective system when coupled together. There are a lot of patterns in Systems Engineering

Sustainable Design: Social, Economic and Environmental Sustainability – the Triple Bottom Line

• Insist on the right of humanity and nature to co-exist in a healthy, supportive, diverse and sustainable condition.
• Recognize interdependence.
• Respect relationships between spirit and matter.
• Accept responsibility for the consequences of design decisions upon human well-being, the viability of natural systems and their right to co-exist.
• Create safe objects of long-term value.
• Eliminate the concept of waste.
• Rely on natural energy flows.
• Understand the limitations of design
• Seek constant improvement by the sharing of knowledge.

“eliminate negative environmental impact completely through skilful, sensitive design“.

“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainability models: idealistic Good (left) and realistic/present Bad (right)

III) combining the three

Plan from the outset to have specific design goals (both functional customer requirements, as well as sustainable goals), and then intend to revisit those goals during and after the design is complete. It is the only way to know whether the design was truly successful. Start designing with the end in mind. Study the impacts of the system and target optimisations at the highest contributing factors with the most potential for improvement. Their savings will cascade into additional savings in other areas (eg the graphic below, a small saving downstream will have massive savings in energy use upstream because of cascading losses, especially in the energy used in initial production!)

Spending additional time in conceptional design and system design instead of implementation also reduces risk of problems later in the design process. Since the cost of fixing mistakes gets exponentially higher further in the production process (eg into tooling and manufacture, if a change must be made, or a recall), eliminating those mistakes early on when changes are cheap are an effective way to save time, money and damage.

Therefore, ContributingSynthesised Systems

Parts of a system are combined together (synthesised) under the right pretences and considerations to contribute to the betterment of the whole system. Systems thinking has a larger impact on the economy and ecology than product thinking because of the interconnections and scope.

This design tactic drives Consensus in design, to reach effective, measurable and significant impacts on the design world.