One of my biggest regrets of 2008 was that I didn’t get to the Changing the Change conference held in Turin, last July. Apart from not being able to spend time in that wonderful city, I was disappointed to miss the opportunity to meet all those creative people who were there to talk about design research and sustainability.

The organisers have gone some way towards consoling me by making the entire proceedings available online as a free download. I know it’s not the same as being there, but at least I can read the papers. I’m looking forward to learning about what designers and design researchers of all stripes can do to advance sustainability. I will need to find plenty of time to do so because the PDF document clocks in at 1806 pages.

Sustainable design is as much about designing new ways of meeting people’s needs as it is about designing new buildings. The contributions to this conference offer ample evidence sustainable development requires an open-minded attitude to design that questions conventional disciplinary boundaries. After all, what is there to suggest that the challenges posed by sustainable development would fit neatly into the boxes we have previously constructed to build our professions? The current design professions congealed around societal needs that were current in the 19th century. We face very different challenges now.

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