SEM2007 Challenge

The Challenge

In a very short period of time, sustainability and concern for the environment has become mainstream. There is a growing demand for innovative solutions: solutions that go beyond reducing our impact on the environment, to restoring and regenerating it. 'Big problems' are complex and cut across fields of expertise, requiring multi-disciplinary collaboration. Yet at the same time, the burden of keeping up with the explosion of information has led to greater specialization in both the research and design disciplines, inhibiting communication amongst professionals and making it difficult to access existing solutions in another field.

Sustainable design challenges often require a systems approach, which further complicates the issue. Systems thinking requires a balance of breadth and depth - neither a focus on the trees nor the forest is sufficient. Again, collaboration is often the best way to gain the mix of skills required to switch easily between different scales.

develop graphic of knowledge domains separated by a chasm or a wall?

Effective communication and collaboration across disciplines requires tools to help bridge differences in language, analysis methods and implementation approaches. To be effective, these tools also need to counteract psychological inertia that is born through years of success in a field: the words we use to define problems, the images that immediately pop into our minds, and the comfortable familiarity of the 'tried and true'.