What is responsible design? Nathan Yong's Lifecycles collection

What is environmentally responsible design?, asks Singaporean designer Nathan Yong, who set out to be deliberately provocative with his new Lifecycles collection.

“It should start with a feeling of strangeness,” he says in relation to the response he hopes to achieve. “Why is it built that way? What is the point of it? I hope our curious minds will lead us to understand and appreciate the things around us more, be they natural or manmade.”

Yong has taken his lead from the theory of constructivism which emerged in the field of education during the 20th century, with its roots traced back to the works of Jean Piaget in the 1920s and Lev Vygotsky in the 1930s. The theory focuses on the importance of sociocultural learning; how interactions with adults, more capable peers, and cognitive tools are internalised by learners to form mental constructs through the zone of proximal development.

“When people consume stuff they don’t always appreciate the true value of any object, it tends to be a transaction between the cost and what it can do for them. I would like to reinvestigate that relationship through artistic pieces that let people question the real value of objects for them, for nature, for communities and the good of the planet,” Yong says of the collection.”

Yong likens his approach to this project to Vsevolod Meyerhold's Constructivist theatre, a revolutionary perspective on stage design and performance that aimed to break away from traditional forms and embrace the principles of constructivism. It emphasises the active participation of both actors and audience in the creation and interpretation of their experience, aligning with the belief that individuals construct meaning through their engagement with the environment and social interactions.

 

Material choice

The project is a collaboration with the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC). The five-piece collection has been made from American cherry, hard maple and red oak. According to AHEC, all grow abundantly in American hardwood forests, making up a total of 40% of the forest volume between them, but are currently underused in the design sector. Each plays a key role in the forest ecosystem, and all contribute significantly to its diversity and sustainability.

An environmental lifecycle assessment (LCA) of this project has enabled a calculation of the carbon footprint of each of the five designs. The carbon footprint is the quantification of the greenhouse gas emissions during the lifecycle of a product. It is the sum of all gases emitted which influence the energy balance of the atmosphere leading to increased temperature. It is expressed in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kg CO2 eq.).

The total carbon footprint of the collection is 1257kg of CO2 equivalent. This is about the same as would be produced by the average Singaporean in 55 days, or the equivalent of a one-way economy flight from Singapore to Sydney. This can be considered quite high for furniture manufactured from US hardwoods (which are often carbon neutral due to the low energy input required to produce the material and the large amount of carbon stored in the wood). This can be attributed to a number of factors:

• The reliance on electricity that is dependent on fossil fuels for manufacturing (notably coal in this instance). The opportunity for the manufacturer to use energy from renewable sources would reduce the carbon footprint considerably.
• The bespoke nature of the designs means that the environmental impact per unit is high due to trial and error during fabrication. When producing at scale, manufacturers can used timber more efficiently which would reduce the impact per unit.
• Whilst almost exclusively made from American hardwoods, the designs are relatively light weight which means the carbon that remains stored in the finished furniture could only offset a small part of emissions during manufacturing.

This project demonstrates that minimising the environmental impact of design requires commitment from policy makers, designers and manufacturers and also, importantly, the support of the consumer.

Rod Wiles, Regional Director for the American Hardwood Export Council Oceania commented: “It is the responsibility of all of us to think about the impact of our actions on the planet and associated climate change. We are grateful to Nathan Yong and to manufacturers Fowseng for their participation in this project. It has enabled us all to learn and to be able to share that learning with the wider community of designers, specifiers and of course the consumer. We are proud of our ability to prove the low environmental impact of American hardwood species even when transported around the world. This is a testament to the hard work of our members from the US hardwood industry who truly value the forest resource and look after it accordingly.”

Learn more at Lifecycles project