Context

With oil prices well above $100 a barrel, climate change nearing the point of no return, the rise of massive new energy consumers like China and India, and alarming food shortages showing up around the world due to biofuels being made from food stocks, developing new designs for our global and local energy systems is of critical importance to the survival and well being of Spaceship Earth and everyone on board.

The 2008 Design Science Lab will develop strategies to address these real and present problems, envision new energy futures, and chart critical paths towards success and abundance for all humanity.

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 Lab will take place for seven intensive days from June 16th to June 23rd at beautiful Chestnut Hill College in suburban Philadelphia and the United Nations in New York City, NY.

Immediately following the Philadelphia/NY-based Lab, there will be an online extension of the Lab that will run to June 24 - August 29. (See below for more details.)

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 energy issues, climate change, design science methodology and its practical applications, the $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge and other contests 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 energy systems.
Day 7: Presentations of work at the United Nations; wrap up and closing event.

OPTIONAL ONLINE LAB EXTENSION

This year the Design Science Lab will run all summer!

The week-long DSL described above is a stand-alone event, but those who wish to take the work that emerges from the Lab further are encouraged to enroll in the Design Science Lab Extension. This online program allows you to participate from your home or office. It will extend, deepen, and enrich your understanding and practical use of design science. The intention of the DSL Extension is to help you refine the strategy you develop during the Design Science Lab in June and work towards its implementation.

The additional focused time of the DSL Extension will enable you (and your team, if that is the case) to add the depth, breath, specifics, and documentation that will better enable your design science strategy to enter the $100,000 Buckminster Fuller Challenge— as well as be better prepared to seek funding from foundation, government, investor, or business partners. A proposal for funding and/or business plan that takes your design to the next stage is one of the goals of this June 24 - August 29 lab extension.

Past Design Science Lab participants and past and future entrants in the Buckminster Fuller Challenge wishing to improve their strategies are encouraged to apply. For more information on this program contact Medard Gabel at

DESIGN SCIENCE LAB EXTENSION

Day 8 – Day 68 (June 24 – Aug. 29)
Extend, deepen, and enrich your understanding and practical use of design science. Add the depth, breath, specifics, and documentation that will better enable your design strategy to be implemented in the real world.

“The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution.”

—Albert Einstein