In September 2012, I participated in the SuSeDe Erasmus Intensive Program. The program was hosted by out department of the  University of the Aegean in collaboration with Delft University of Technology, Lancaster University and Köln International School of Design. A series of lectures and a group project were set up with service design and sustainability as their core themes.

The program offered a unique look into the similarities and differences of the participating design schools, and their students and professors, debate and discussion on service design and sustainability, as well as close collaboration in the projects.

In a team of six we worked on a one week project concerning creating a sustainable culture with the theme: ''Being Sustainability''  for Sustainability is not a goal. Sustainability is a way – a way of being and acting in the world – at this moment, we had to take under consideration the fact that in order to stop climate change, individuals in developed countries will need to reduce their current carbon emissions by c.90% by the year 2050 (Berners-Lee, 2010).

 

Focussing on one area (e.g. food, clothes, product, travel, tourism) we had to consider the implications of sustainability and a c.90% reduction in the per capita emissions by 2050, what this would imply for the way we might live then, and the steps to get there.

 

The designed vision of life on the island dealt with the issue of bottled water consumption and excess plastic waste disposed by residents and visitors of the island, as the water on the islands on the Cyclades is not potable.

 

Team members were: Celestine Thanopoulou, Debie Loizou, Edward Nasrawi, Hazal  Gümüş, Jennifer Bagehorn and Ines Rütrich.

We made a little act for explaining the storyboard - the way the visioned system would work in the future, which we presented at the Apollo Theatre in Hermoupolis Syros.