ABSTRACT

As a cultivated form of invention, product design is a deeply human phenomenon that enables us to shape, modify and alter the world around us – for better or worse. The recent emergence of the sustainability imperative in product design compels us to recalibrate the parameters of good design in an unsustainable age. Written by designers, for designers, the Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Product Design presents the first systematic overview of the burgeoning field of sustainable product design. Brimming with intelligent viewpoints, critical propositions, practical examples and rich theoretical analyses, this book provides an essential point of reference for scholars and practitioners at the intersection of product design and sustainability. The book takes readers to the depth of our engagements with the designed world to advance the social and ecological purpose of product design as a critical twenty-first-century practice. Comprising 35 chapters across 6 thematic parts, the book’s contributors include the most significant international thinkers in this dynamic and evolving field.

chapter |6 pages

Introduction

part I|90 pages

The made world

chapter 2|16 pages

The half-life of a sustainable emotion

Searching for meaning in product usage

chapter 3|12 pages

A renaissance of animism

A meditation on the relationship between things and their makers

chapter 4|16 pages

The object of nightingales

Design values for a meaningful material culture

chapter 6|14 pages

Sustainable product design

An oxymoron?

part II|95 pages

Agents of change

part III|73 pages

Materials and processes

chapter 15|14 pages

Mediating matters

chapter 16|14 pages

Print to repair

3D printing and product repair

chapter 17|16 pages

Unmaking waste

part IV|92 pages

User experience

chapter 18|11 pages

Emotional sustainability

chapter 20|18 pages

Surprising longevity

chapter 22|14 pages

Hacking the probe-head

Manipulations for social sustainability

part V|106 pages

Systems and services

chapter 27|18 pages

Which way to turn?

Product longevity and business dilemmas in the circular economy

chapter 28|20 pages

How about dinner?

Concepts and methods in designing for sustainable lifestyles

part VI|90 pages

Design futures

chapter 31|15 pages

Plans and speculated actions

Design, behaviour and complexity in sustainable futures

chapter 32|12 pages

From product design to relational design

Adding ‘jeong’ to the metadesigner’s vocabulary