The 'Greenhouse Effect' is an exhibition by Orcadesign exploring the theme of sustainability in conjunction with the Singapore Design Festival 2007.
 
The title 'Greenhouse Effect' is a reflection of the apparent dilemma that designers face. Unfettered and unsustainable consumption behavior has been putting tremendous strain on our natural resources and the ecosystem. Yet, as designers and sculptors of products, we have an inherent role in encouraging demand and consumption.

Orcadesign is however optimistic that they can leverage our positions as designers to effect greener and more sustainable behaviors in our daily lives. Taking the home as a canvas for exploration, the 'Greenhouse Effect' is both a pensive introspection and a tentative exploration for a more sustainable lifestyle.
 
In a terrain with no definite answers, the Orcadesign team wants to probe, to explore and to raise questions. "What could green design be, beyond statistics, technology and sacrifices?" was the question they asked themselves – the concepts shown are some possible answers to that.

It is not their intention to be prescriptive and produce a definitive guide to sustainable design. Instead, they hope visitors would take away a new mindset to examine and raise their own 'green' questions in their daily lives – and perhaps develop answers too!
 
About Orcadesign
Orcadesign is a multidisciplinary design consultancy with extensive experience in product design and development. Since their inception in 1992, they have been working with clients to discover design opportunities and formulate strategies, leading to products that are innovative and successful in their markets. Through research, innovation, design and engineering processes that have been honed over the years, they are able to deliver a comprehensive suite of product design and development services.
 
As one of the leading design consultancies in Asia, Orcadesign has three offices across Asia: in Malaysia, Singapore and China, resulting in a talent pool with a dynamic blend of both local and global perspectives. In testament to the quality of their works, they have been conferred design awards such as the Red Dot Award, Japan G‐Mark Award and iF Award China.  
 
With their belief in establishing a long‐term and committed collaboration, it is no wonder that Orcadesign is strategic partners with many of thier clients. Those at Orcadesign certainly relish this role, as they continue to lead and position their clients for sustainable benefits through design.



Project Approach
It was clear from the start that Orcadesign wanted to do an exploration into green/sustainable design. This is a major (almost too overwhelming) topic in design recently, and very likely will continue to be so. The exploration for a more focused theme soon kicked off ‐ and they reached an agreement of what they are not going for rather quickly. There are some prevalent ’standards’ or approaches in ecodesign:

1. Guilt: "If you do X, you’re destroying the Earth!" Guilt is often a primary psychological emotion to exhort the consumers into alternative actions; this is often coupled with pictures of dilapidated landscape and/or cuddly animals, with the hope that the consumer would link ‘ungreen’ practices to the more invisible destruction caused. In many ways, these scare tactics would lose their effectiveness, especially as consumers become more jaded with overexposure.
2. Statistics: "Every year, we spill X tonnes of Y into Earth; we cut down Z acres of forests just to …" Statistics is yet another tool to back up ‐ to argue (against the user) logically. Statistics may be quite illuminating when analyzing macrotrends ‐ but they seldom connect intimately with the user.
3. Sacrifices: "If we just reduce P per person, as a nation we would have saved Q…" ‐ the argument in this is that if everyone does some green thing, the world can be saved. The person is thus persuaded to make some personal, noble sacrifices for the greater good of humanity. But sacrifices are what they are: sacrifices.
4. Materials/Technology: "The new plastic in this product uses 30% less energy to produce, and does not emit toxic fumes to the air…these appliances uses 50% less electricity". Important as it is, technological and material eco‐innovations are seldom visible or directly appealing to the user. Often also, products stressed their 'all‐natural' origins (e.g. no synthetic materials), leading consumers to assume that 'natural=harmless'. This may or may not be the case ‐ it really depends on how that natural resource is being managed and replenished.
5. Recycle‐bility: "It’s made to be recycled: you can take it apart so easily, and you can recycle all the parts!" Many‐a‐times, recyclability is equated directly to being green. It’s simply not the case ‐ recycling is just a small component of the whole picture of sustainability. It’s often exacerbated by the fact that ‘green‐as‐recyclability’ often turns up in many frivolous products, as much to assuage guilt while encouraging consumption.

It's not that the principles behind those trends are wrong ‐ in fact, those are very important considerations and tools to sustainable living. However, they are admittedly tired ‐ we've seen it over and over, while we are still nowhere in sight to being meaningfully greener. This was the question Orcadesign set to themselves: "what could green design be ‐ beyond statistics, technology and sacrifices?" Where and how could designers contribute? How can we more meaningfully connect with people through better (green) designs?

How do we create products that are appealing to the users not simply because they are green, but because they are inherently superior (and green too!)? If a greener product is better ‐ whether in function, aesthetics or meaning ‐ than the ‘non‐green’ counterparts, there is simply no reason for the consumer to choose otherwise.  

Hence the theme in the Greenhouse Effect: Green Design – beyond statistics, technology and sacrifices.

Links

• GreenHouse Effect website
• Download the Press writeup (PDF - 496KB)