Abstract
This article (visual essay) provides a glimpse of a field trip ventured by design students as part of a larger study of developing a localised version of design education for sustainability, focusing on the wants and needs of non-urban populations in vast Russian hinterlands. The central goal is to introduce would-be designers to the concepts of locally appropriate technology and sustainable/circular living by real-life examples and, eventually, teach them to recognise the sustainable potential of place-based technologies and practices of their making, using and maintaining. The primary data came from the trip to Pozhva, a village in Permskiy Krai, Russia, that gained popularity among DIY activists and users of off-road vehicles in Russia in the early 2000s because of its unique, community-centred manufacture of lightweight ATVs on low-pressure tires, nicknamed “jeeps”. This article presents the students’ journey in a comic strip portraying a composite character of technologies and their user-designers as experts in local conditions and (subconsciously) agents of circularity. The article closes with a discussion on the expedition’s discoveries and learning outcomes, correlating them with broader implications for design education.
Highlights
The geographical focus is a Russian roadless hinterland where daily living requires frequent year-round short-distance travelling to meet housekeeping needs, such as hauling hay and other loads, hunting, berry- and mushroom-picking and fishing, with conditions varying from marshy and bumpy terrains to deep snow and black ice
The research quest that we pursued as design educators seeks to encourage students to understand and appreciate the sustainable potential of rural-originated technologies and related making, using and maintaining practices: how do we discover, evaluate and apply this potential in the Russian context? As well as this, what is the role of field studies in this process?
Pozhva is a rural settlement in Permskiy Krai, in the European North of Russia (Figure 3), with a population of 3131 (Census 2010)
Summary
Victor Papanek’s seminal book [1] became a manifesto of the revolution in design and design education—an uprising against self-indulgence in “ideal form”, fashion for “hi-tech”, and unrestrained commercial crass in favour of the environmentally friendly, original material forms in different regions and cultures His observations and statements are still relevant today, his critique against design education This article examines learning opportunities that emerge when design students are entrusted with a task to (re)consider a global problem through the lens of sustainability. This lens implies scaling down to the local level, where they have to immerse themselves into the community of potential users and approach them as knowledge-keeping experts. The geographical focus is a Russian roadless hinterland where daily living requires frequent year-round short-distance travelling to meet housekeeping needs, such as hauling hay and other loads, hunting, berry- and mushroom-picking and fishing, with conditions varying from marshy and bumpy terrains to deep snow and black ice
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