Upcoming at BODW 2014 Tracks: "Design For Sustainability" And "Culture & The City"

Sweden, the partner country for Business of Design Week this year, has set an exemplary role model in 'designing for sustainable futures', one of the themes discussed at this year's seminars.

Swedes are heavy consumers of organic produce, green technology and organic fabrics—the popular Swedish clothing empire, H&M, is the world's largest user of organic cotton. It also doesn't hurt to have a bureaucracy that's completely supportive of their environmentally friendly ways: in 2011, the Swedish government rolled out a detailed plan for encouraging the innovation of eco-friendly technology while stimulating economic growth within the industry.

A wordy spin on sustainable design, 'sustainaquality' is a how architect—sorry, aqua-itect—Koen Olthius describes his series of villas and buildings that float on water (the first ones were in Holland, and are now in exotic locales such as the Maldives). As lead designer of Dutch architecture firm Waterstudio, Olthius and his team believe that they are solving crowded urban density in a sustainable way, using water as real estate for their developments. Their website elaborates, "Given the fact that about 90% of the world's largest cities are situated on the waterfront, we have arrived to a situation where we are forced to rethink the way we live with water in the built environment." Olthius will lead a seminar discussing sustainable design in relation to his work.

Another theme that will be explored in the week-long design conference is 'culture and the city', where speakers will explore the fusion of art and engineering in urban spaces and planning. From large scale sculptures to modern installations in public areas, a broad variety of topics will be discussed by global industry leaders.

Photo courtesy: https://i1.ytimg.com/vi/d98u3jr47Fc/maxresdefault.jpg

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Edited By 

Villie Tsang |  @vils82  |  linkedin