(Re)designing a liveable future

This year alone blistering heat waves, floods and famines have proven that catastrophic climate change is the single greatest challenge of our time. A climate emergency means that it is time for business as usual to halt, for priorities to shift and to recognize obligations and responsibilities to those most affected by the crisis. What Design Can Do (WDCD) believes that creative innovators are fundamental in rethinking and actioning systemic and sustainable transitions and change. However, designers are often not included in policymaking and the implementation of solutions and great ideas are not being put into action due to a system that has been designed to draw profit above everything else. It is time to join forces and (re)design a liveable future.

Creative Climate Collective

To tackle the climate crisis designers need international collaboration, creativity and a hands-on mentality. That is why What Design Can Do (WDCD) and Creative Industries Fund NL initiated the Creative Climate Collective, a group of 18 creative innovators from Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, the Netherlands and South Africa.

The goal of the Creative Climate Collective at COP27 is to connect to other stakeholders, advocate for design that advances action toward climate justice, exchange knowledge, experiences and ideas and build networks across geographies and disciplines. After all, WDCD’s hope lies in their collective action. In that spirit, they join those around the world who have already declared a climate emergency and invite everyone to join them.

Interviewees

Kevin Kimwelle is a community architect, researcher and social innovator in sustainable development. He researches the use of alternative design and technology as agents towards social change. He does so by merging environmentally-conscious approaches with socio-economic aspects, applying trans-disciplinary and multidisciplinary methods. His work emerges from a people-centered design approach responding to the urgency towards social justice through activism and is accompanied by business, environment and technical studies. It also explores alternatives in both the design and development approach grounding the green agenda in sustainable solutions.

Rania ElKalla is a global award-winning Egyptian designer. She is the founder & CEO of Shell Homage biodegradable materials out of egg and nutshells. The materials look like marble or natural stones, rubber or glass but are made out of egg and nutshells waste. Rania’s aim is to create functional and sustainable products that have a long life span, and at the same time are completely biodegradable. Shell Homage is 100% compostable when it is no longer in use.

Interview

KOOZ What role does architecture or design play in overcoming social and environmental crises?

KEVIN KIMWELLE Architecture “for the people and by the environment” plays an indisputably crucial role in both social and environmental crises in Africa. A green agenda in architecture seems to separate the two issues - the social and the environmental - and tries to fix the two in different silos.

However, they are ever more directly connected. Presently architecture in Africa seems to serve only 10-20% of the population (who can afford architects). The rest of the population is dependent on what they can afford, have access to and know (or are familiar with). Most of them fall victim to cheap designs from draughtsmen, builders and contractors and the result is a mess and is usually more expensive to fix. Even though most of modern African cities are young (compared to other global counterparts), the opportunity to leap and create better cities with lessons learnt from the others is lost. Architecture in Africa has the role to serve its population, to educate it and provide them with solutions that advance the continent more so towards the green agenda and Sustainable Development goals (SDG). However, architecture in Africa is not equipped with the tools that serve that 80% of the population that can not afford architects. Hence, the need and emergence of community and social architects. This type of architecture in Africa struggles with the ever voracious colonial cycle of influx by European architects who see a business opportunity and are disguised (intentionally or unintentionally) under the umbrella of NGOs. We should concentrate on an architecture that isless about the money and more about service to people in the African spirit of ubuntu. However, there is little space for it to prosper and compete with the Eurocentric architectural practices.

RANIA ELKALLA It is time to set standards and take action by developing sustainable strategies in the design field because the future belongs to those who implement sustainable ideas with conviction and consequence. The Carbon emission reduction is a first, important step – yet sustainable development requires innovation and recognizing and understanding ecological aspects of product development, in understanding the consequences of technological developments. Together we can explore sustainable processes and product evolution possibilities and develop practical solutions. For instance, we can rethink sustainable design processes, search for alternative technologies, renewable raw materials, reshape material and product developments. As designers of the future we should educate, co-create, make an impact and motivate towards finding solutions towards sustainable developments.

Design nowadays is much more than shaping, we have to consider the product’s life cycle. A designer has to decide which material he or she is going to use and what the material source is. There are much more possibilities today and much more problems to care about than ever before. Designers are indeed presented with numerous options when creating their own designs and preparing it for manufacturing. They have to be both completely informed and knowledgeable about how their designs can be produced efficiently, effectively and in an environmentally sensitive way.

KOOZ COP27 will tackle the fundamental aspects of circularity and decarbonization for a more sustainable and efficient use of our resources, including water and our oceans. What is your position towards these global challenges?

KEVIN KIMWELLE In the African context one cannot tackle circularity and decarbonization without engaging the 80% of the population that is left out. The main stage and agenda in the COPs is still driven by the Global North. We need to bring the rest of the 80% onto the stage too - give them a voice at the table away from the old-school “World Bank developmental approach” (which is North-dependant and -reliant) that, unfortunately, creates space for the perpetuation of greenwashing businesses and really dig into solutions that are already in the villages and communities in Africa.

I just presented at the GBCSA 2022 conference in South Africa and I observed that a large section of it unfortunately (and ironically) seemed to showcase European solutions for the African continent and very little celebration of modest African ingenuity. To be fair it is difficult to dig into the local solutions as they struggle to have the support and funding in such showcasing, and the GBCSA audience seems to be composed of both industry and practice. The loud voices in the room are those of sponsors and exhibitions whose main focus may not be the people (despite all the advertising that it is people-driven).

We can better include that 80% into the global challenges by building an education and knowledge that is more locally-based. This happens by supporting and promoting local ingenuity (beyond business interests) - beyond creating awareness - and by providing the capacity for the potential of the 80% to be activated.

RANIA ELKALLA My expectation is to collaborate with other designers, share knowledge, create new projects that give hope and boost the users towards circular economies globally, along with conscious sustainable living for a better future. Design does not always have to generate an instant solution, it can also describe a set of issues and raise their visibility. Our task as designers is to formulate positive prospects for change.Through COP27 I wish to learn and contribute towards a different approach to strategic problem solving so that we create beneficial experiences,. to practise sustainable design thinking on a real-life project and equip ourselves with a powerful set of tools to become more collaborative, innovative and effective.

I would like to discuss how we can focus on the big picture and examine how the current business strategy integrates with sustainability, define the steps that need to be taken in order to make sustainable business practices the new normal.When it comes to sustainability we all play an important role – especially as industrial designers. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals validate the objectives of a new economy and the future of work. We all grasp the urgency of the current situation of the climate change crises, while regulations are slowly changing, industries set the pace of innovation.

KOOZ Have you tackled or will you tackle any of these issues in your career? If so, how? What was the main scope of your project(s) and what did you achieve? How do you intend to address these issues in the future?

KEVIN KIMWELLE Yes we have. Indalo World is an NGO that is based on a glocal (global + local) approach. This is based on Research Development and Innovation (RDI) that understands local needs, uses global intelligence but localises the solutions to create capacity within the local communities. This means co-creating solutions with locals then collaborating with the international communities to create better capacity within local communities that strengthen local communities to partake. With this in place, the local environment is almost automatically taken care of as it is inert for Africans to take care of nature. This takes away a patronising Eurocentric approach and replaces it with an Africa approach, placing Africa in the driving seat.

Our project ranges from waste carts and waste bikes to community waste collection centres, community centres and education centres, up to early childhood developments (ECD). We have also realised the need to compete with mainstream business and our latest project in Cape Town for the V&A waterfront uses the approach of recycling to create awareness within property development to look more to low-tech solutions therefore offering more opportunity to be more inclusive.

We have been able to create an a Kujenga Makerspace for global cooperation with colleagues and friends from all over there world with ambitious RDI work engaging several academic institutions such as Nelson Mandela University, Cape Peninsula University of Technology and University of Cape Town locally while internationally working with Wismar University (Germany) and Lawrence Technological University (USA) and students from Politecnico of Milan, Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon and Fontys University in Netherlands.

The NGOs work is moving from charity towards the mainstream. This was possible thanks to the lessons learnt in promoting education and practice (in the building environment and development that is better cognisance of authentic co-creation and collaboration with locals), where co-creating space for the voice of the locals in both building industries is possible. The RDI aims at design and architectural education and practice by mainstreaming local alternative innovations. This system needs to impact the present developmental approach, a very difficult issue, and it is best to start the conversation among the global leaders at COP27 right here, in Africa.