Humans, Heat & Hygiene

Talk

What role does design play in an overpopulated world, where temperatures are continuing to rise and there are mass movements of people due to conflicts and natural disasters? How do you create technology when the problems we are designing for traverse borders, sectors and cultures? To answer these questions, we will unpack some of the systemic issues involving humans, heat and hygiene.

We will share our experiences of exploring problems around sanitation design in refugee camps, building resilience for cyclones and floods in coastal cities and coordinating emergency humanitarian responses. Through co-designing solutions with large NGOs we will explain how we applied a systems thinking approach and critically examined the ethics of our methods.

Though these problems may seem insurmountable, we believe that we can apply and adapt our design-led practices to make a positive difference in our ever changing world.