The Institute without Boundaries visits Dublin
Author: Barry Mac Devitt, Design21C
Dublin has invited The Institute without Boundaries (IwB), a Toronto-based studio that runs a post-graduate program in Interdisciplinary Design Strategy to the city to discuss the potential for a future collaboration.
The IwB was founded in 2003 by the School of Design at George Brown College, in consultation with Bruce Mau. It runs a unique academic and research and development program focused on collaborative design practice with the objectives of social, ecological and economic innovation.
In today’s world of complexity there is an increasing demand for a certain kind of designer, one who, in the words of Buckminister Fuller, “is an emerging synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist.” The IwB aims to develop this new breed of designer.
‘Massive Change: The Future of Global Design’ was the Institute’s first project which sparked a huge discourse around the potential of design to leverage positive change for the future. It featured a 20,000 foot exhibition which premiered at the Vancouver Art Gallery and later the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, the Massive Change book published by Phaidon, a website, a radio show and a product line by the retailer Umbra. It continues to grow today and has evolved into The Massive Change Network.
The IwB are now focused on a 4 year project called City Systems. This project recognizes that much of the hard and soft infrastructure we have built in our cities to distribute and support an industrialized lifestyle is in need of repair, renovation, restructuring or replacement. Against this backdrop is the urgent need for us to find more sustainable ways of living which will ultimately require us to reinvent our cities for the future. City Systems explores new ways of living that will affect this kind of positive change for humanity.
With an increasing awareness here of the long term benefits that design can bring, working with an international partner like IwB would be a terrific opportunity to build out further the work and great momentum already created by Dublin’s ambition to be a World Design Capital.
There are no comments for this entry yet.