>		Naoto Fukasawa
>		Fumiyo Kojima
>		Shunji Yamanaka
Fumi Masuda
Open House (+):

		Fumi's talk centered around issues of eco-design and how we need to make our design more conscious of sustainable use of natural resources to enable the continued growth in consumption expected as more and more countries are becoming more industrialized and hence increasing their levels of consumption. Currently 20 percent of the world population consume 80 percent of available resources. This level of consumption can not be sustained in the long run especially as consumption levels among the remainder of the population continues to rise. In order to sustain our consumption of the Earth's resources, western countries which currently consume the lion share of the earth's resources would have to decrease their consumption by 90 percent to enable equal distribution of resources among the Earth's population so that each ten percent of the population would consume no more then 10 percent of resources. Fumi suggest we take a Mind Over Matter approach when considering material consumption. There is a lot of hidden cost and hidden matter within natural materials used in industry. For example the exportation of wood or wheat involves the consumption of energy through transportation, but that's only a small part of the story and clearly visible to those looking at the whole picture. What remains hidden is the high proportion of water in both wood and wheat which is moved from one location to another and the soil nutrients which again get transported with the wheat or wood and represent a net loss to the originating eco system. The process of consumption in nature and for the majority of history until the 18th century is locally focused. Things are consumed in the local environment and when they end their useful life they are discarded locally and therefore absorbed back into the environment. When a bird builds a nest or a person builds a house the materials either twigs or wood came from the local environment and were discarded locally after use so the local balance of materials was not eroded. In the modern age with manufacturing and consumption occurring over great distances this is no longer the case, wood and other materials are transported over long distances and are discarded in high quantities in ways that can not be absorbed by the environment. Fumi advocates Design with Memory. Designers and consumers should keep in mind the properties and uses of a material so that sustainable use of the materials encapsulated in the product could be made. This approach starts with knowing what is available in your local environment first so you can minimize importation of goods as exemplified by the GreenMap System (+). The GreenMap system provides information on producers of locally manufactured goods from fruit and vegetables through furniture to other items. This approach does not end with local production and consumption as these represent only a fraction of our total consumption. Design with Memory strives to engage designers with thinking about the fate of their products after it has completed its useful life, or if they are building new products how they repurpose existing products or parts of existing products into their design. Examples of such designs can be seen in the TULC Can (+). The TULC Can significantly reduces emissions and facilitates recycling by using a tin free steel alloy for the metal body of the can which is covered by a polyester film made entirely our of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. The can offers benefits in manufacturing as the polyester film reduces the need for coating and washing the can several times prior to filling which reduces energy, water and emissions and it offers benefits in recycling as the tin free alloy and polyester film mean the can, can be smelted with less sensitive controls over the metal content and without releasing the toxic fumes associated with can paints, etc. The TULC Can reduces energy consumption by 75% and emissions by 13 parts to 1000 when compared to a conventional can. The TULC Can provides an example of designing a product with an eye for traditional recycling also known as Cascade Recycling in which a product is used and after use it is smelted to make a new product. Repurposing of materials is an example of upgrade recycling in which materials from one product are used in the making of new products such as using a discarded bicycle chain as the basis for making a picture frame, or moulding old LP records into decorative bowls for use in the home. Fumi provided numerous examples of such design decisions throughout his talk ranging from industrial product design to architecture and urban planning. However design for sustainable societies is not characterized solely by recycling products, but also by offering new services. The Shinkansen Park and Ride systems in Japan are very successful due to a fare reduction on the train ticket. The passenger buys one ticket in which the cost of the train ride, parking and/or renting a car is integrated into one package reducing the complications of travel and thereby making train travel which is more environmentally friendly than car travel more attractive from a personal perspective. -A similar principal is applied in the concept of the Duskin vacuum cleaner which is provided in the form of a service instead of as an appliance to be purchased by the consumer. Rather then buying the vacuum cleaner outright the consumer rents it for a monthly fee from the company which is able to reduce the cost significantly by volume manufacturing and recycling of components from centrally managed fleet of vacuum cleaners as opposed to the individually bought and discarded vacuum cleaners sold at home appliance stores. Fumi also introduced the Back Casting method he uses in his design work. In the Back Casting methodology design scenarios are formed by looking into a possible future and casting its ramifications back into the past, our presence. This technique helps to gain ideas how to design for this possible future right now. To illustrate this approach Fumi quoted a survey carried out for the Japanese Government. Three scenarios described new ways of planning future Japanese lifestyles to improve or hold the current living standard while accounting for reduced availability of raw materials and natural resources:
+		The first scenario suggested a concentration on new technologies and inventions.
+		The second described emphasis on acquiring a more society and resource conscious lifestyle.
+		The third scenario proposed to introduce new business ideas and services.
		The presentation of the government survey started a lively debate among the participants as the consensus was that the survey was flawed from the outset: the three scenarios are complementary and not alternatives. Presenting them as alternative solutions out of which only one can be chosen is misleading and will introduce a skewed response which will favour one approach over others when in reality a combined approach is required. The survey example brings to bear the importance of balance in design for the future and the ease in which public opinion can be manipulated. We need to consider not only the benefits of technology but what we do with them. For example the TULC Can described above allows can manufacturers to produce cans more cheaply and with less emissions what do we do with the savings do we manufacture more cans or do we channel the savings into new endeavours? Fumi's main point is that as we move into the 21th century with an ever increasing level of material consumption we need to rethink how we live, how we use things and how we make them so that we can align consumption with a sustainable level of material use. The future holds a lot of promise but also a lot of challenges.