Context
With the U.S. and global economy continuing to sputter;
with unemployment and under-employment continuing to increase; with
the Gulf of Mexico and other oil spills around the world undermining
the environment, economy and ways of life; with climate change nearing
the point of no return; the rise of massive new energy consumers
like China and India; with basic human needs going unmet for over
a billion people; and with alarming floods, droughts, heat waves
and natural and unnatural disasters showing up with increasing and
alarming frequency throughout the world— 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 2011 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 world would look like—
and how we can get there.
The 2011 Design Science Lab will
focus on:
1. Meeting Needs With Cell Phone Tech: The
possibilities of using cell phones (and the 200,000+ apps developed
for them so far) to meet education, health care, security, financial
services and other basic human needs in developing regions of the
world offers great promise. More people have Internet access thorough
their cell phone than through computers. What are the apps that
would be ideal for meeting needs in the developing world? Which
ones need to be designed, from the point of view of making the world
work for everyone?
2. 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 2011 Lab will take place for seven intensive days
from June 19 to June 27, 2011 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 both programs.
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 |