Cubic Journal, as an academic platform aimed at the dissemination of design related research, is published in conjunction with Cubic Society and the Cubic Research Network.
Currently, the role of design and its significance is being drowned in gimmicks, as digital technologies Philosophical Grounding – Beyond Digital Gimmickry now play a significant role in shaping the behaviours, performances and standards of societies, communi- ties, organizations and individuals (Denning & Tedre, 2019). That stark observation, opening the call for Cubic Journal Issue #8, frames the dilemma of twenty-first-century computation. Digital technologies have woven themselves so completely into contemporary practice that it is now possible, and alarmingly common, for the craft of design to be mistaken for a talent show of software tricks (Caetano & Leitão, 2020). Parametric engines pump out ever-thicker lattices, immersive headsets allow us to rehearse projects before they exist, and generative models To move out of the above cul-de-sac, the present issue of Cubic Journal proposes that we “search for innocence” inside the very computational milieu that so often corrodes it. Innocence here is not a nostalgic return to drafting tables; rather, it is the discipline of approaching each digital operation as provisional. Every line of code must remain open to revision, every data set negotiable, every interface a two-way conversation instead of a one-way funnel. The ambition is straightforward: let the machine’s plasticity remain a servant to human sense-making rather than an autonomous generator of spectacle. pour shapely novelties onto our screens faster than we can develop opinions about them (LÓpez-LÓpezet al., 2023; Oxman, 2017). Yet the brighter the spectacle, the more easily it obscures the purpose that once animated design: the careful alignment of material possibility, cultural meaning and lived need. Complexity produced first and explained later is the new cliché (Frické, 2009). A script churns overnight, a form appears at dawn, and the day is then spent inventing a story to justify what the algorithm decided while no one was looking. In that moment authorship blurs: is the designed entity the geometry, the code that birthed it, or the opaque commercial platform that still owns the underlying parameters? When the engine is sealed, we are left admiring not insight but vendor capacity. This editorial argues for a refram-ing of computational design—not as a pursuit of spectacle or optimization, but as a relational, ethical, and materially grounded practice. We call this shift Design 3.0. This editorial unfolds in three acts (fig. 1): first, a critique of spectacle and a call to recover ethical authorship; second, ten case studies of compu- tational design in practice that ascend the DIKW ladder—from data, through information and knowledge, to wisdom (Ackoff, 1989); and third, a proposal for Design 3.0—an open, reflexive, recipro- cal paradigm for the future.
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Exploring Photogrammetry for Documentation and Conservation
Photogrammetry, the process of producing detailed 3D models using photographs, is an indispensable tool in heritage conservation and construction due to its capacity for documentation. It can benefit professionals across various fields of design and computation to efficiently generate digital renditions that can be used for documentation, dissemination, education and entertainment. This paper describes a feasible and cost-effective workflow for creating and processing high-quality photogrammetry-based models and a series of workshops that introduce architecture students and researchers to it. The proposed framework strives to document objects and spatial elements by streamlining the terrestrial photogrammetry process in the face of modern challenges, focusing on the necessity of model optimisation for the longevity of documentation. In this spirit, the workshop seeks to empower participants to actively engage in the preservation of cultural heritage.
Integrating Immersive Technology into Micro-Scale Spatial Design for Urban Villages
Rapid urbanisation in China has led to urban villages, presenting challenges in spatial governance and renewal. Advanced digital and parametric methodologies can extend beyond traditional building-focused strategies to address public space vitality and resident demand issues. However, their effectiveness in capturing and responding to intricate spaces and individual needs within urban villages remains underexplored. This study investigates how mixed reality (MR) in experiential design systems can revitalise urban villages. We review existing literature and design projects using digital tools in the survey, analysis, and design phases of urban village regeneration. We then propose a design framework that leverages immersive technology to revitalise public spaces. Using Shenzhen’s Baishizhou as a case site, the research focuses on four types of highly utilised public spaces from the perspective of migrant renters. Integrating MR technology, this multi-port framework effectively bridges the gap inherent in existing digital tools, thereby enhancing designer productivity.
After an era of rapid development, Hong Kong has reached a critical juncture at which urbanisation is saturated and in urgent need of transition. Hong Kong’s freshwater resources are in a state of scarcity due to its small geographical size, limited surface watersheds, ageing building services and extensive reclamation. Under the guidance of the Sustainable Development Goals, planning for the utilisation of Hong Kong’s existing resources and the introduction of emerging technological tools provide development opportunities for the experimental remodelling of Hong Kong’s freshwater system. The concept for a shelter is based on the ageing infrastructure and impending collapse of the freshwater system in the To Kwa Wan area of Hong Kong. The objective of this paper is to experimentally reconfigure a freshwater system in a densely populated area through novel bio-building materials, modular design systems and computational modelling. Moreover, this paper provides design concepts for future cities to cope with the complexities of climate change and sudden-onset disasters. The validity of the design results is assessed through experimental modelling and scenario simulations.
Three Creative Methods for High-Rise Building Design
This paper explores three innovative high-rise building design concepts to enrich urban environments by enhancing human perception, integrating cultural heritage and promoting sustainability. Runxin Fu’s ‘The Perceptual Condenser’ disrupts typical spatial experiences through composite wall systems and angled shear walls, encouraging active exploration and improving the human experience in vertical environments through Structuralism. Shiyao Feng’s ‘The Landscape City’ integrates elements of traditional Chinese shanshui gardens and paintings, using masking techniques and spatial contrasts to create a distinctive and culturally enriched spatial experience. Biaoqing Tao’s ‘Arching’ concept employs biomimetic modular methods, emphasising sustainability and reducing carbon emissions through the use of wood and modular construction. These approaches propose a transformative vision for high-rise buildings that aims to break free from homogenised urban architecture and foster diverse, sustainable and culturally rich urban spaces.
Digital Design and Simulation of Knit Panels for Transforming Scissor Structures
As architecture faces demands for adaptability, transformable design offers vital strategies for dynamic spatial configurations. This research explores the integration of knitted textiles with transformable scissor grids to create collapsible architectural walls. By utilising the elasticity of knitted materials, the project optimises expansion and retraction of the surface membranes, enhancing adaptability. Digital simulations are used to predict the textile behaviours and informed he material development and patterning. The final design incorporates two offset scissor grids, adding depth and dynamic interplay between colour and pattern. Using nylon yarns and nylon-covered elastic yarns created a range of elastic responses, enabling the membrane to stretch and contract with the transformable grid whilst maintaining tension. This integration enhanced the visual expression of movement, allowing colours and patterns to shift during transformation. The study demonstrates how knitted membranes can infill scissor grids creating enclosure, providing stability, whilst enabling dynamic, responsive surfaces for adaptive architectural design.
The integration of digital print matrix technologies with traditional printmaking practices presents both opportunities and challenges in contemporary art production. This paper explores the potential and limitations of digital print matrix technology, demonstrating its ability to enable artists to create intricate designs, iterate quickly and blend digital and analogue approaches. Artists can generate innovative forms, patterns and textures by integrating computational design and algorithmic approaches. While these technologies offer new creative possibilities, they also raise important questions about the nature of craftsmanship and artistic authenticity. Using laser cutters or XY pen-plotters adds a distinctive aesthetic dimension, and incorporating the PRINT command in programming bridges digital creations with the materiality of printmaking. The digital print matrix fosters a culture of experimentation, collaboration and conceptual innovation, ultimately reshaping the landscape of creative expression. This evolution in printmaking pushes the boundaries of the medium and encourages artists to reconsider the essence of digital imagery and its connection to the physical realm.
Emotional Resonance and Interactive Experience
This study explores the integration of emotional resonance and interactive experience in design and proposes a systematic framework that combines affective computing, multisensory design and ethical considerations. Grounded in emotional design (Norman 2004) and affective computing (Picard 1997), this framework is validated through case studies in smart home systems, emotional support interfaces and interactive pet care. The findings indicate that emotion-aware design significantly improves user engagement (32% increase in smart plant care interactions) and fosters ethical reflection (41% decrease in support for cosmetic pet surgeries). Despite the potential of emotion-aware design, challenges remain in terms of privacy concerns, cultural adaptation and technological feasibility. This research contributes to empathetic design by offering a structured approach to emotion-driven user interactions, with implications for future developments in AI-driven emotional modulation and cross-cultural applications.
Scenes of Computational Transcoding – or How Technology Listens to a Fish Farm
In South China’s Greater Bay Area, an idiosyncratic low-tech sound emanates, primarily from mechanical impeller aerators – air propellers used in local fish farms. The author’s creative approach integrates audio recording, soundscape mapping, computational analysis and translation across media with performative reinterpretation by singers, resulting in a museum gallery installation. This method, presented as computational transcoding, utilises technology to listen with a difference. An interdisciplinary theoretical framework is applied to demonstrate that computational and vocal transcoding of audio from a fish pond offers new perspectives yet also renders the transcoding process itself audible. The methodological scenes blend an artistic narrative with audio-visual media to offer an original perspective on urban soundscapes. This approach emphasises human vocalists’ role in contrasting computational limitations and algorithmic artefacts in interpreting these environments. Presented in scenes, the piece guides the audience through the outskirts of South China, with a video backdrop available to the reader to provide the soundtrack.
Intelligent Shelter System Designed to Prevent Crime and Recidivism among Rural Women
Currently, most crime prevention efforts focus on social services, such as behaviour correction and resocialisation, with limited emphasis on the role of social support systems for rural women. Although the proportion of crimes committed by women is not significantly high, such crimes inflict deep harm on families and society. This paper aims to design and study an intelligent shelter system for rural women to address their support needs in the face of family and social problems and to indirectly prevent the occurrence of crime. Based on case studies of rural women offenders and an analysis of existing shelters, this research employs stakeholder mapping, user journey mapping and service blueprints to examine interaction dynamics. In addition, the addition of speech emotion recognition technology facilitates long-term support and crime prevention strategies. This approach enables the organic integration of resources and network connectivity for the prevention of crime by rural women and provides immediate guidance to them.
Supporting Creative Design for 3D Cinematic Composition with Generative Artificial Intelligence
Cinematic composition plays a pivotal role in creating compelling visual storytelling and evoking emotional impact in filmmaking. With the emergence of game-engine-based filmmaking, directors can now explore and evaluate cinematic designs within a real-time 3D virtual environment. However, achieving creative outcomes remains a challenging task, as filmmakers must navigate vast 3D spaces and carefully manipulate virtual cameras to achieve their vision.Existing automated systems often fall short, producing either context-insensitive results or overly conventional designs that fail to inspire creativity. In response to these challenges, my PhD study introduces Cinemassist, a generative AI- based creativity support tool (CST) designed to facilitate creative cinematic composition in game-engine-based filmmaking (He et al., 2024a). Informed by a formative study conducted with professional filmmakers, the system provides a diverse range of real-time cinematic composition suggestions that transcend conventional paradigms. These suggestions operate at two levels of storytelling granularity: the frame level (the smallest unit of film production and display) and the scene level (a continuous sequence of frames depicting a single story event within a film). By offering design possibilities across these levels, Cinemassist empowers filmmakers to explore and experiment with innovative cinematic compositions. Figure 1 illustrates the user interface of the CST system. Despite the potential of assistive tools, present rule-based and generative AI–based applications were often implemented as black boxes and struggled to adapt to the unique needs of creative cinematic design tasks. As such, this research explored the technical affordances of existing AI techniques—as design materials—and developed a technically viable solution, ensuring the technical feasibility of the system’s functionality and interaction design. Particularly, a machine learning model was constructed by integrating multiple AI techniques appropriately (He et al., 2024b). The model was trained on a diverse dataset of real film footage spanning various genres and emotional contexts. This approach enables the system to generate camera poses and sequences conditioned on animations and input semantics, affording the core functionality of the Cinemassist system. A summative user study evaluated the effectiveness of the CST system and its impact on filmmakers’ creative thinking. This led to the development of the novel AISEE (pronounced “I see”) model, shown in Figure 2. The AISEE model introduces a novel creative thinking workflow assisted by AI that emphasizes user performance, system feedback, and previously unidentified needs in AI-assisted filmmaking. It also offers three key design implications for generative AI-based CST systems: (1) addressing the domain knowledge disparity between users of different expertise levels through coach mode and assistant mode, (2) enabling communication of vague design requirements through multi-modal inputs, and (3) supporting divergent exploration by allowing users to refine AI suggestions within a real-time spatial adjustment space.
Architecture is undergoing a new digital turn prompted by the use of artificial intelligence, which has sparked both enthusiasm and concern—particularly regarding the notion that computers may replace architects. However, the repositioning of architects provides an opportunity to incorporate a new modus operandi with new forms of production. This paper proposes an alternative approach for human–computer interaction within the framework of discrete architecture – a topical production model for building components. The study relies on a collaborative and forward-thinking approach rather than artificiality, which often distances actors in the architecture field from emerging concepts, terminologies, and methods. It introduces the concept of synergistic design intelligence based on an improvised approach applied to a design studio experiment. The results signify a transition to a hyperspatial paradigm while demonstrating how heterogeneous computational strategies can enhance designers’ engagement with new concepts of computational thinking in architecture.
Discussions on the PhD in Art and Design with Annotated Bibliography
Motivated by Leonardo Journal (March 2018) call for papers for its PhD in Art and Design three-year symposium, the following discussion and survey of literature were undertaken to explore current international discourse on the PhD in Art and Design (Friedman & Ox, 2017). A discipline that has traditionally been studio-based, design has been experiencing a transformation from a focus on form and aesthetics, often associated with appearance, to solving increasingly complex problems that require multi-disciplinary perspectives and solutions (Davis, 2017). Initial findings show that the debate on what constitutes a Design PhD is in its infancy; there are no set standards among institutions in the US and other countries that award such degrees, creating difficulties in assessment of skills and knowledge (Zeeuw, 2017). Debates on whether students that have traditional art and design degrees are prepared for the demands of a research degree, and questions on whether to offer professional track and academic track advanced degrees, or dissertations that incorporate made artifacts with research and writing are also explored in the literature.
Copyright (c) 2024 Maria del Mar Navarro https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Some Notes on Past and Future of the (Practice) PhD
This article traces the history of the PhD, the rise of the practice PhD and our experiences with implementing a practice-informed PhD programme between Vienna and Zurich, and it concludes with a reflection on some precarious parallels between the research , the methodology of a practice PhD and the decolonisation of research. Accompanying the article are images of our master’s and PhD candidates engaging globally in field research, archive research, creative practice and institutional and noninstitutional collaborations.
Copyright (c) 2024 Thea Brejzek, Lawrence Wallen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Much has been written about practice-based research – and design-based research, speci!cally. In the vast body of literature and growing discussions about PhD studies in design (Durling 2002; Schwarzenbach and Hackett 2015; Vaughan 2017; Vaughan and Morrison 2014), strong arguments have been raised to persuade ‘traditional’ academia to allocate design its proper place and acknowledge design research as a scientific methodology – and accordingly, to provide design researchers with PhDs (Anderson and Shattuck 2012; Goff and Getaenet 2017; LaMere 2012). This paper joins this effort by reframing this discourse’s fundamental assumptions and motivations while offering a theoretical framework that grounds the disciplinary hold in the academic realm.
Copyright (c) 2024 Liat Lavi, Yoav Friedman https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In this article I reflect on the meaning, role and significance of educational designs in PhD studies, with the aim of raising some about ‘taming’ the dragon, as well as inviting readers to reflect on their own experiences of such studies as students and/or supervisors.
Copyright (c) 2024 Magne Espeland https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper reflects on the experience of articulating position and practice in a PhD by Design, from an interdisciplinary perspective in a design for health context. The central motivations to use research through design, drawn from experience of person centred approaches in the context of health, social care, housing and inclusive design that inform the research question are outlined. The benefits of design research as a tool to explore lived experience of people living with dementia on a sensory experiential level is explored. The unique value and relevance of the sensory aspects of disruptive, critical and speculative design approaches to explore aesthetic preferences is identified. Methods of documentation of practice in practice based design and the lack of accessible archives is considered. The potential for the research experience contribute to learning and teaching in design that can influence change are considered.
Copyright (c) 2024 Marney Walker https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Designing Design – Building the Conceptual Framework for a Design-led PhD
This paper discusses the role of the conceptual framework in design-led research. Identifying the conceptual framework as the consolidation of an interdisciplinary positioning merging historical, theoretical and technological, creates a platform from which a research project can contribute new theories and solutions. Taking its point of departure in a series of design-led PhDs undertaken at the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA) at the Royal Danish Academy - Architecture, Design, Conservation, the three discussed PhDs demonstrate how design is used as a driver for material-technological as well as conceptual-spatial contributions. One of the PhDs (Karen Honour’s) conceptual framework is further illuminated through the generation of a conceptual Wunderkammer which activates driving concepts within a tradition of knowledge acquisition, reflection and dissemination. This paper argues that the construction of a conceptual framework empowers the specifics of a design experiment to provide novel contributions to the field of architecture and design.
Copyright (c) 2024 Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, Karen Honour https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Designing for Responsible Innovation in the AI Era
From a cross-disciplinary research perspective, the design discipline has launched a new round of expansion. Design scholars are encountering new challenges in research projects that deeply integrate science, technology and design. With Artificial Intelligence (AI), rapid technological development will change how we think and live in the future, reshaping social protocols and moral ethics and resulting in an immense but immeasurable impact. AI’s implemental nature also provides a means for the possibility of self-correction. Designers’ depth and diversity of understanding and speculation about such a new tool are still far from enough. As important stakeholders of innovation, designers need to actively engage at the forefront of promoting innovation value and design ethics. Responsible design in the context of responsible innovation should formulate more forward-looking goals and tasks as a facilitator, stressing the ignored points in the world.
Copyright (c) 2024 Yun Wang, Yingqing XU https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper constitutes a short reflection on architectural research and knowledge production in the tertiary education sector, with particular reference to the establishment of a ‘creative’ PhD degree in South Africa. It arises from the growing interest in and pressure for the establishment of a practice-led (architecture) PhD. This interest has emerged predominantly from within performance-based disciplines whose application takes the form of practice-based and professionally produced work. In reflecting on the nature of PhDs and on various ‘alternative’ approaches, I conclude that the conventional PhD implicitly infers creativity and is entirely capable of sponsoring any performance-based PhD enquiry – particularly within practice-based disciplines in which theory and method have been critically identified to support appropriate investigations. Concern is therefore raised regarding the emerging predominance of an author’s self-evaluation of their own ‘creative’ production at the level of a PhD enquiry. On the one hand, knowledge remains largely embedded within the performance/production, and on the other hand, the subjectivity intrinsic to autoethnographic studies is noted for its privileging of the self over the other, and its method often follows what may be termed a self-fulfilling prophesy.
Copyright (c) 2024 Iain Low https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This visual research explores processes of mapping, structures, and form as content. A series of maps present processes of time, and research narratives, truths and fictions. From Tolstoy’s use of the present in war and peace, slowing down time, and cinematic conventions, to T. S. Eliot’s ideas of past, present and futures, in Four Quartets. Michail Bakhtin describes a sense of epic time, as a closed, historical past. This research presents research and journeys, as open forms, through poetry, music by Beethoven, and works by Samuel Beckett. A visual essay presents nine images, including original works by the artist in relation to music, and my current project: Recipes for Baking Bread. Colour, forms, closed, and open truths
Copyright (c) 2024 Sara Nesteruk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The call for papers raised a few important questions about the state of the PhD in design. I have worked in a few PhD programmes over the years, supervised well over a dozen students to completion and examined another 35 theses in perhaps seven countries. I have also run at least two programmes and have been on steering groups of, by now, three national and one European programmes. As the editors noted in their call, a PhD has become an entry criterion for academic teaching positions in design. The process has taken less than 20 years and is ongoing. It has had its hiccoughs, but the shift from a practice-based to a research-led occupation has been much faster than I expected 20 years ago. We are in good company with business and engineering schools – just 20 years behind.
Copyright (c) 2024 Ilpo Koskinen https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Unlikely Bridges, Unexpected Circumstances
This article expounds on the chronology of a PhD programme in design hosted by the University of Porto in cooperation with the University of Aveiro since 2011. Scientific, strategic, pedagogical and administrative occurrences and decisions are narrated and substantiated. Various challenges, as well as approaches for their resolution and/or mitigation, are presented. It is argued that an affective component is crucial to the success of the programme, made possible by the development of immersive research environments and working partnerships between student projects and external contexts (research centres, businesses, cultural agents, multidisciplinarity and internationalisation). A focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on course management and narratives is presented. It is argued that, in the post-pandemic era, the core challenges now reside in the maintenance of weak ties and affective components towards a stronger sense of community.
Copyright (c) 2024 Heitor Alvelos https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This text presents the pilot started at Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam for a new 3rd cycle trajectory in artistic research under the title Creator Doctus. It lays out the considerations that led to the pilot and the steps taken so far.
Copyright (c) 2024 Jeroen Boomgaard https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The In, Through and About of the Design PhD
This seventh number Cubic Journal was originally conceived to capture emerging discussions about the contested roles of PhD design and a design PhD and was fuelled by the experiences of COVID-19. On reflection, and in compiling this issue under the title ‘PhD Design and Design PhD: In, Through and About’, it is clear that there are still many valid and important questions about the incremental next steps and the value of the doctoral experience and its outcomes. Through doctoral education and bringing together design researchers and an expanded portfolio of research design opportunities, there is the potential to rebalance and strengthen human capabilities that complement and counteract emerging technologies that can limit our agency and ability to think, wrestle with and give form to ideas as well as balance our capacity to develop both IQ and EQ. This collection of papers is only the beginning of how doctoral studies and design training can evolve, contribute to advancing research and develop the capability, collaboration, compassion, creativity and courage that distinguish and highlight the integrity of research beyond what is invisible, intangible, searchable and discoverable, even if rarely read, understood or impactful.
Copyright (c) 2024 Anne Boddington, Gerhard Bruyns https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Bridging Strategy from Both Business Economics and Design Sciences
Consensus on the impact of design on perfor-mance can be said to be evident at all three levels of decision-making in organizations: strategic, tac-tical, operational (Brunswicker et al. 2019; Gemser & Leenders 2001). This impact broadly assumes the following forms: Design impact for strategy in action and customer experience Design impact for business strategy, process, innovation, and performance Design impact for cultural change and organization transformation Despite these revelations, precious little guidance is found in the way of forming a holistic view of the why of design science, core capabilities, theo-ries, and methods in business economics and the ultimate pertinence of the design function in any given organization. Similarly, the how, which would outline the ways in which these capacities could be built and coordinated towards the support of stra-tegic design and forward-looking decision-making processes is at best assumed, yet very rarely articulated. This issue includes both the papers from academia and professionals we received through our Call, as well as the results of a complementary survey con-ducted by the editors with Chief Design Officers. Our editorial foreword uses the model (Figure 1) as the framework for a synthesis, linking strategy in design science and strategy in business science: Part I - The vertical axis of Strategy from Vision to Mission through Value: design strategy versus cor-porate strategy, and business economics in design-driven organizations. Part II - The horizontal axis of Strategic Manage-ment and the Strategic design decision path. From design leadership and strategic positioning to busi-ness strategy and design management to strategy in action and design.
Copyright (c) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
In this paper, we present the findings of a project "Let's take care of the caregivers", an initiative carried out during the COVID-19 health crisis. The paper highlights first, the potential of experience design to identify the empathic, emotional challenges and assaults that caregivers have to cope with, and second, its capacity to design new work solutions and strategies that improve the lives of caregivers themselves. Moreover, the project also helped to structure a research program that will be developed through an academic chair devoted to the study of experience design in relation to transdisciplinary research in the fields of ethnography, medicine and management sciences. The ambition of the chair is to change managerial practices in care institutions (hospitals, nursing homes, hospices) and its potential for performance (Borja de Mozota 2001, 2010, 2014).
How Do We Get Paid for This? The Relationship Between Strategic Design Management and Pricing Power
The belief that strategic design leads to improved firm competitiveness is broadly recognised in contemporary research. However, much less is understood about the precise, concrete mechanisms by which organizations translate their design-based resources and capabilities into higher performance. This paper provides context to this relationship by introducing the variable of pricing power as a potential element of unobserved “dark matter” that clarifies how design-based differentiation results in product performance. Pricing power is described by Stephan Liozu (2019) as “the ability to increase prices without losing demand”. Remarkably, nowhere in the vast literature on pricing is design mentioned, while in parallel pricing has not appeared to be of particular interest to strategic design researchers. In an effort to spur further interest in this variable a case study is provided, illustrating the process footwear and apparel brand Nike employed to leverage design-based differentiation to support the pricing power of a new offering.
The Whole-being © framework was developed as a starting point for a holistic coaching approach, devised in the pursuit of a meaningful way to thrive both in our personal and professional lives. It is only when people are whole that a world based on integrity, freedom, kindness and compassion can materialize. This paper is aligned to the perspective of!experiences, specifically addressing the role design has in helping organisations understand what really drives their employees, while bringing attention to the “whole-being ecosystem” which influences people’s motivation and performance. A whole-system approach is necessary so that executives can thrive without running the risk of burning out. Policies must align themselves in the direction of this purpose, to create the right conditions for “whole-beings” to thrive, but in the midst of all of this self-awareness remains essential for the system to work. The training focuses on optimizing the participant’s energy as well as on developing certain attributes to feel and be whole.
Failures in achieving sustainability are being recognised worldwide. Approaches to tackling sustainability challenges often fail to address the roots of these challenges. This paper contributes to a necessary discussion of an emerging necessity, a research agenda that encompasses the transformative strategic role and value of design in (co-)shaping sustainable and equitable futures. It draws attention to drivers of unsustainability and their complex interplay of design, environmental, economic, societal and individual values that govern our modern society. Richard Buchanan’s four orders of design model is reviewed in the process, with a fifth order being suggested to deal with the change of paradigm that sustainability requires. This comprehensive view is critical to tgetting to grips with global challenges (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals) since the shift towards sustainability needs to address the root causes of systemic and interrelated problems that cannot be overcome by reactive marketing and technocratic approaches. Implications for design value, education, skills, and ways of designing are pointed out.