Context
The global economy continues to sputter; unemployment
and under-employment continue to increase; the gap between the rich
and poor continues to widen. Climate change continues unabated despite
politicians denial and the march of environmental and natural disasters
has reached a new high. The rise of massive new energy consumers
like China and India, along with the unmet basic human needs of
over a billion people, means that developing new designs that meet
the word's basic human needs while not destroying the environment
is of critical importance to the survival and well being of Spaceship
Earth and everyone on board.
The 2013 Design Science Lab will
develop designs and strategies that addresses these real and present
problems, envisions a global society where basic human needs are
met, and develops a blueprint of what such a world would look like—
and how we can get there.
The 2013 Design Science Lab will
focus on:
Regenerating Cities: More than
half the world lives in cities, and the percentage is growing rapidly.
100 cities account for 30 percent of the world's economy, and almost
all its innovation. New York City's economy alone is larger than
46 of sub-Saharan Africa's economies combined. Hong Kong receives
more tourists annually than all of India. Cities are the engines
of globalization but they harbor unprecedented human misery and
the unmet human needs of close to a billion people. How can cities
be regenerated so they are sources of energy, food and water— instead
of sinks? And how can all the people living within the world's cities
have a high standard of living?
The Lab is not an academic exercise. Real world
solutions will be developed. Every effort will be made to get the
most viable solutions implemented.
Read more about what Design Science is here.
WHAT/WHERE
The 2013 Lab will take place for seven intensive days
from June 16 to June 24, 2013 at beautiful Chestnut Hill College
in suburban Philadelphia and the United Nations in New York City,
NY.
Medard
Gabel, who worked with Buckminster
Fuller for over twelve years, directs the program.
LAB FORMAT AND SCHEDULE
Day 1: Registration; orientation; state of the world; introduction
to design science, the UN's Millennium Development Goals, in-depth
briefings by UN staff from UNDP, UNEP, UNICEF, and other UN agencies.
Day 2: Briefings on global and local economic issues, strategic
design, design science methodology and its practical applications,
contests, grants and sources of funding that can take your work
to the implementation stage.
Day 3–6: Design and development of strategies for transforming
global and local economies.
Day 7: Presentations of work at the United Nations; wrap
up and closing event.
“The formulation of the problem is often more essential
than its solution.”
—Albert Einstein |