Future Currents
Red Unit, Design Council UK, Matthew Lockwood, Haiyan Zhang, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino, Arup Engineering, live|work, Matt&George, more associates, National Energy Services & Stroma Technology
For six weeks in 2005 the project team spent time in a terraced house in Lewisham to explore how people might be encouraged to use less energy. The project was run by the UK Design Council's Red Unit and created a range to concepts to demonstrate how reducing energy consumption; cutting CO2 levels and bills can be made easier. The design team worked with householders and energy experts to understand domestic energy practices and to understand how to make design interventions into such practices.
Creative Contribution
What was the significant innovation in approach or thinking behind the project/artwork? How can this be recognisably attributed to the involvement of creative practice?
Future Currents brought together designers, householders, energy experts and policy makers to stimulate debate around domestic energy practices. Two significant innovations can be understood: first, the use of a terraced house to encourage project members to experience, first hand, the material conditions of domestic energy. Second, the use of design scenarios and concepts to resource policy interventions. Here, the Red Unit are acknowledging that domestic energy practices are not only the responsibility of individuals home dwellers but also rely upon energy service provides, public policy and the design of artefacts and services. Additionally, in terms of design, an important innovation is the recognition and design of energy services. Here, creative practice is understood to require a diverse range of energy related actors from those involved in public policy to energy suppliers and individuals. Creative practice, in this sense, can be understood as the management, by designers, of different collaborators leading to design concepts that resource policy assertions and recommendations.
Collaboration
What were the disciplinary contributors to the project? What model of research / development was followed? What were factors leading to success / problems?
Future currents included various sub-disciplines of design including product design, interaction design and most significantly service design. Thus, design outcomes were not limited to the design of physical artefacts, for example. Loosely speaking, the model of research can be understood as user-centered design in that twelve homeowners were consulted. On the other hand, the use of a terraced house to provide a situated context for creative practice demonstrates a novel approach to how creative practices can be sited and managed around relevant locations.
Values
What were the outcomes of the project? How were these disseminated to outside stakeholders? What models of value are implied by this project? What was the Impact of the work?
Design outcomes included:
1. Home monitoring tools to allow people to compare their energy usage with previous year’s energy consumption and averages of other UK households. This included the design of a kitchen-based information display of energy usage.
2. A proposed energy rating and labelling standard for homes on the property market.
3. An energy pension in which contributions to energy saving in the home would also contribute to an energy pension which would pay out in energy in later life.
4. A scheme to encourage people to produce energy by roof based wind turbines.
5. A Home Energy Trading Scheme (HETS) that allows energy producing home owners to supply electricity to other sites, for example local schools.
Given the emphasis on policy intervention, the model of values implied by Future Currents is that creative practices led by design can have policy relevance and that design led project should inform policy and agenda setting.
The success and or failures of the project are difficult to gauge as is the impact of the work which is undocumented by the Future Currents team.
Links and Resources
http://www.designcouncil.org.uk/en/Case-Studies/All-Case-Studies/RED-Energy/ http://www.designcouncil.info/futurecurrents/
Full list of participants
Red Unit, Design Council UK including the members: Colin Burns, Jude Codner, Kirstie Edmunds, Nick Morton, Robin Murray, Chloe Myers, Chris Vanstone and Jennie Winhall. Matthew Lockwood advised the team and jointly wrote the policy paper. The team were also joined by Haiyan Zhang and Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino from Interaction Design Institute Ivrea who participated as part of their Masters Program in Interaction Design. The team was assisted by the following organisations: Arup Engineering, live|work, Matt&George, more associates, National Energy Services & Stroma Technology.
