With the increased saturation of the design scene, many might wonder, what truly is good design?
Organised by WhatisDesign, the "The Beauty of Good Design and its Effect on Sustainability" webinar on 19 January 2021 invited two speakers from NUS SDE Division of Industrial Design to discuss about a more objective way to evaluate design, and how good design can play a role in promoting sustainability in our community.
Associate Professor Christian Boucharenc, Head, Division of Industrial Design spoke about the rational analytical approach based on three interrelated dimensions, namely syntactic, pragmatic and semantic (SPS).
"The syntactic, pragmatic and semantic analysis is a holistic way of how good design leads to very sustainable design decisions. This analytical approach from three respective angles could be applied to our entire environment, from a simple object to the most complex building, allowing also some evaluation and highlight some possible design opportunities," shared Prof Christian.
Sharing examples from past student works in Division of Industrial Design, Prof Christian illustrated the importance of using the SPS analysis to evaluate a good design.
Associate Professor Hans Tan, Deputy Head (Academic), shared about the 24 objects exhibited at the National Vending Gallery and how good design has played a role in the sustainability and timelessness of these objects.
The collection of household artefacts that are both sensible and beautiful were sourced from household goods stores in Singapore.
"Although these items have clearly been around for a long time, many of which have been antiquated through time, yet they provide an uncanny perspective to the future of democratic design, and puts to question the definition and authorship of design," said Prof Hans.
The webinar is a part of the National Design Centre's "Sustainability & Design" programme line-up for January 2021.
