What is the Distributed Design Platform?
Emerging at the intersection of the Maker Movement and design sensibility, Distributed Design provides a framework for designers, makers and creatives to innovate the field of design towards more sustainable, open, inclusive and collaborative practices. It is a proactive response for makers and designs to prefigure viable design alternatives to the current paradigm designed for mass consumption.
The Distributed Design Platform was established in 2017, co-funded by the Creative Europe program of the European Union. It brings together a diverse member-base from cultural and creative institutions, providing Europe-wide programming and opportunities to support emerging creatives working in the emerging field of Distributed Design.
The production paradigm
Today, the products we buy are usually mass-produced, highly standardized and assembled in super-sized factories, leaving no room for individual customer needs nor the use of local resources or knowledge. What if we could change this system?
Distributed Design is a novel approach to design which utilises global connectivity to move data, instead of product. The approach rethinks how goods are produced and from what materials whilst aiming to enhance the customer’s relationship with their products.
Developing a platform system
To move data and enable local regenerative economies of materials and knowledge a powerful digital ecosystem is needed. Distributed Design Platform is committed to empowering, connecting and interoperating existing platforms that enable such global connectivity. We do this by incubating and supporting emerging platforms such as Make Works or Fablabs.io. We also develop programs to help distributed designers build their skills and knowledge of digital processes, in order for them to access the maximum benefit that these platforms offer.
Our values
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OpenOpen refers to the mentality and approach of designers to share and make their design processes transparent, replicable, and accessible, from hardware and software to implementation and usability.
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CollaborativeCollaborative means enabling citizens to become active participants in the design process through meaningful and participatory co-design approaches.
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RegenerativeRegenerative making and design principles aspire to renew and restore the systems that we are part of, rather than just replacing or devaluing them.
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EcosystemicEcosystemic means acknowledging the complexity of interactions between cultural, natural, and social aspects and designing to improve the health of social and environmental systems.
Advisory board
The Advisory Board provides experience and knowledge to the development of the Platform. It meets two times a year with the members of the project, and where possible they also participate in other events organised by the Platform.
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Indy JoharIndy is an architect, co-founder of 00 (project00.cc) and a Senior Innovation Associate with the Young Foundation and Visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield.
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Primavera De FilippiPrimavera is a researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research in Paris, a faculty associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society, and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies.
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Liza ChongLiza has a blended background in strategy, project management and implementation. She leads the ‘Design to Improve Life Investment’ program at INDEX.
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Nadya PeekNadya develops novel fabrication machines at MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms. She is an active member of the global fab lab community and a board member of the Open Source Hardware Association.
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Guillaume Charny-BrunetGuillaume is the co-founder and Strategy Director of SPACE10 – a research and design lab, on a mission to create a better everyday life for people and planet. -
Tomas DiezTomas is an urbanist, designer and technologist who specializes in digital fabrication. He is a founding partner and executive director of the Fab City Foundation, as well as a member of the board of trustees of IAAC.
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Kate ArmstrongAs Outreach Lead at Fab Lab Barcelona at IAAC, Kate led communication and dissemination for various European research projects concerned with circular economy, open design innovation ecosystems and future cultural heritage.
What impact?
Some of the challenges of working on shift paradigms such as the Distributed Design concept are related to a pivot from the current economy to a spiral situated-innovation ecosystem, in which materials flow locally whereas information on how things are made circulates globally.
The Distributed Design Platform values creations that are ecosystemic, sustainable, open and collaborative. Applying Distributed Design values contributes to building new pathways for sustainability in diversity and social justice, engaging civic leaders, makers, (digital) social innovators on societal change and transformation.
Such aim resonates with the concept of “cosmolocalism”, which emphasises the need of creations to be rooted in a place. Empowering individuals to become civic actors, or ‘prosumers’ blending the ‘consumer’ and ‘producer’ roles.
Join the Distributed Design Impact Charter Pledge by replying to the 5-Question-Step PLEDGE below.
Who is involved?
The Distributed Design Platform is built upon a unique and highly experienced consortium of 20 members from 13 countries. The project is coordinated by Fab Lab Barcelona and supported in the scientific and technical coordination by IAAC.
