(Press release sent by Cultural Connections on behalf of Hong Kong Design Institute DESIS Lab.)
Designing Daily Life Opening Design for Social Revolution
World Renowned Designers Gathered for the First-ever “Open Design Forum”
(12 Dec 2014) HKDI DESIS Lab held the first ever international ‘Open Design Forum 2014’ in town on 28 and 29 November, together with a series of workshops for students at the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI). Design pioneers gathered in Hong Kong and explored ways of co-creating a better and more open society with the contribution of Hong Kong citizens and HKDI students.
Dining as a co-design experience
Hong Kong cross-media artist Craig Au-yeung has always been a gourmet and expert in food. Prior to the forum, he hosted a series of workshops for HKDI students which aimed to design a dining experience for participants of the forum. During lunch time of the forum day, participants were put in groups of four, each assigned with a specially designed cardboard table, with strips for carrying the tables on their shoulders. Participants had to open up themselves and communicate in order to balance the table, to negotiate with others to exchange food, and to sit down with the table attached to them. Dining was no longer merely a fulfilment of hunger, but was turned into a social and co-designing process.
The whole dining experience was a collaboration of students from different streams. Architecture students designed the dining table with the strip, which could be resembled into a coffee table. Easy and speedy, together with the small holes on the desk top, it also held drinks and food perfectly.
Everyday Objects Turns into Light Cover Molds
Pascal Anson, also Creator-in-Residence of Open Design Forum 2014, hosted an ‘Open Light’ workshop for students. Pascal Anson and students molded the shapes of the most ordinary objects and turned them into chandeliers made of transparent plastic tapes. A light-up ceremony was held on the forum day. Pascal Anson is one of the most well-known DIY masters from the UK, who always gets inspiration from everyday objects. He believes in the mass communication of design thoughts rather than the mass production of design products. After learning from Pascal, students cascaded the skills of making such chandeliers to some old people who also participated in the event, which made students a facilitator of design thoughts.
Environmental Protection: From Product Design to Eco Design
‘Open Design Forum 2014’ invited design pioneers from UK, US, Sweden and Japan. Among them was Fumikazu Masuda, professor in Industrial Design and Sustainable Projects of Tokyo Zokei University. He reckons even if designers are aware of energy saving during the design process and production, it is not enough for an eco life. It is through a redesigning of lifestyle which could lead to a reduction in consumption. He put his words into actions by moving his studio from downtown Tokyo to the country side of Yamaguchi prefecture. Electricity is supplied by solar panels while water is taken from wells. He and his team reduce the use of computers for design and makes use of daylight instead of light bulbs. Products designed by the studio solve problems in everyday life rather than for stimulating unnecessary consumption.
Prevent Crime through Design
Using design to prevent crime has always been the focus of Prof. Lorraine Gamman, Founder and Director of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at University of the Arts London (UAL). She has taken her students to different shops and tried to lower the motivation of stealing through the design of interior space, or increase the difficulty of stealing of bicycles by redesigning parking lots. She has also worked with district police to incorporate students’ design in preventing crimes related to ATM machines. It could be as simple as putting up artistic works on the floor, encouraging people to keep a distance from the machine, which helps lowering the chance of peeping and snatching.
Other participants of the forum included Prof. Roger Coleman, founder of the Helen Hamlyn Centre, Royal College of Art in the UK; Dr. Patricia Moore, industrial designer from US, also well-known as the ‘mother of universal design’; DESIS International chairman Prof. Ezio Manzini and Prof. Pelle Ehn from Malmö University of Sweden. A team of facilitators consisting of local and international talents were also involved in the interactive discussions, with creative citizens from Hong Kong, on the possibilities of co-creating an open society.
Principal of HKDI, Mr Leslie Lu, hoped that the forum will bring about a butterfly effect. He said at the forum, “I hope the forum… will be a little butterfly for Hong Kong, for Hong Kong culture, for deign culture, for attitude, for change for the better.” Dr. Yanki Lee, Director of HKDI DESIS Lab, said, “We believe more creative dialogues must happen in order to create our better future.” The forum aimed to create a more open society through the democratization of design and the active involvement of citizens.
Appendix 1: Biography of Speakers and Curator-in-Residence
Prof. Roger Coleman (UK)
Professor Emeritus of Inclusive Design, Founder of the DesignAge programme and Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art (UK)
As an ageing art, design and social activist, Roger Coleman has, throughout his life, retained a strong and guiding belief in making art and design accessible and understandable to all, and above all in the power of creativity to shape a better world through individual and collective action. In 1968, a year when revolution was in the air and he was shortly out of art school and university, he set up a community-based arts/performance/action group with a handful of fellow artists determined to challenge the elitism of the arts and what they saw as the divorce of creativity from everyday life under consumerism.
Prof. Pelle Ehn (Sweden) 
Founder of MEDEA and Professor in Media Design at Malmö University, Sweden
Pelle Ehn has for four decades (!) been involved in the research field of participatory design and in bridging design and information technology. Research projects include DEMOS from the seventies on information technology and work place democracy, UTOPIA from the eighties on user participation and skill based design, ATELIER from the last decade on architecture and technology for creative environments, and during the last years Malmö Living Labs, on open design environments for social innovation.
Prof. Lorraine Gamman (UK) 
Professor of Design; Founder and Director of the Design Against Crime Research Centre (DACRC) at University of the Arts London(UAL) and Co-director of the Socially Responsive Design and Innovation Hub, Central Saint Martins (CSM), (UK).
Lorraine Gamman is Professor of Design at Central Saint Martins (CSM), part of the University of the Arts London (UAL), as well as Visiting Professor/Research Associate with the Designing Out Crime Research Centre at the University of Technology, Sydney. She has written many articles, most recently (2011) as Co Editor of Socially Responsive Design, a special edition of the Co Design journal and Sustainability via Security, a special edition of the Built Environment journal (2009).
Prof. Ezio Manzini (Italy) 
Chair of Design for Social Innovation at the University of the Arts, London (UK), President of DESIS International
For more than two decades Ezio Manzini has been working in the field of design for sustainability. Recently, he focused on social innovation and started DESIS: an international network on this same topic. He collaborates with the Politecnico di Milano and, currently, is guest professor in Shanghai, Wuxi, London and Cape Town.
Prof. Fumikazu Masuda (Japan) 
Professor in Industrial Design & Sustainable Projects at Tokyo Zokei University and President of Open House Inc. (Japan)
For the first half of his career, Fumikazu Masuda has worked mainly on projects for major Japanese industries, including electric home appliances, electronic devices, audio visual equipment, transportations, packages and many other products from various deferent categories. The latter half of his career has been dedicated more to work for local SMEs as a design consultant while studying and teaching at design schools , and as a representative of o2 Global Network, o2 Japan, which is an international network of eco-designers.
Dr. Patricia Moore (US) 
Industrial designer, gerontologist and author; President of MooreDesign Associates (USA)
Patricia Moore is an internationally renowned gerontologist, designer and leading authority on consumer lifespan requirements. Named one of The 40 Most Socially Conscious Designers in the world and one of The 100 Most Important Women in America, ABC World News featured Moore as one of 50 Americans Defining the New Millennium.
CREATOR-IN-RESIDENCE:
Mr. Pascal Anson (UK) 
London-based designer, maker and educator
Pascal Anson studied three-dimensional design at Kingston University. He completed his studies at the Royal College of Art in London in 2000 with an MA in Design Products.
He works across many disciplines in art and design from graphics to clothing to vehicles. Anson runs his own design practice and is a Senior Lecturer in Design at Kingston University in South West London. He is currently developing a book and television series on Design and Making.
Mr. Craig Au-Yeung Ying Chai (Hong Kong)
Creative writer, cartoonist, experienced cross-media artist
Craig Au-Yeung is involved in radio and TV programme production on cultural issues, working actively in graphic design, art direction, comic and illustration. Au-Yeung also offers commentaries on travel, home living and food, his writings and comix works appears extensively in newspapers and magazines in greater China region.
Au-Yeung has authored books and hosted TV programmes on food and loves to cook. Recently, Au-Yeung started the Taste Library at PMQ.
| Appendix 2: About HKDI and HKDI DESIS Lab |
About Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI)
As a leading design education provider in the region, HKDI is committed to offering excellent learning opportunities to keep pace with the growing demand of the creative industries.
The state-of-the-art HKDI campus at Tseung Kwan O is an international award-winning architecture, designed to encourage a dynamic flow of people and ideas, and equipped with the latest learning facilities and exhibition spaces, to enhance the creative learning experience at HKDI.
Our comprehensive design programmes encourage active participation and nurture our students’ creative thinking, cultural sensitivity and global perspective. Active collaborations with industry provide our students with first-hand knowledge of the latest industry trends.
www.hkdi.edu.hk
About HKDI DESIS Lab for Social Design Research (HKDI DESIS Lab)
HKDI DESIS Lab for Social Design Research is a new cross-disciplinary action research group at the Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI). HKDI DESIS Lab is set up as a research platform on social design – an emerging field that advocates a new approach to design: ‘designers as enablers of social change’.
HKDI DESIS Lab is part of the DESIS International Network (Design for Social Innovation and Sustainability) collaborating with over 40 DESIS Labs around the world. The network aims to advance international knowledge in design for the social good and develop social design practice to benefit Hong Kong society.
Officially started in summer 2013 on the behalf ‘Everyone can design’, HKDI DESIS Lab explores new design education modules and projects that respond to social needs. HKDI DESIS Lab brings together staff members and design students as well as creative citizens to explore the possibilities of everyday living through design actions.
www.hkdi.desislab.vtc.edu.hk