The lighting industry is currently under-going a systems shift; a bulb, once a consumable, is now a long-life object. However, is this how these products are regarded by consumers? As a durable, potentially long-term companions within the home? Or invisible items easily discarded without thought? Furthermore, new technologies, such as the Internet of Things, are creating exciting opportunities for innovation challenging lighting designers and researchers to be more mindful of lifecycle thinking and durability, but also prompting us to consider how this may affect the way we use and consume products in the future.
‘Emotionally Durable Design’ offers an opportunity in which to investigate this thinking within NPD; an approach to design, it examines and articulates the unspoken emotional experiences that occur between products and consumers to reduce consumption and waste of natural resources by fostering more durable, resilient relationships with the designed object.
This practice-led design research is an AHRC-funded collaboration between Philips Lighting and University of Brighton where our aim is to explore the application of Emotionally Durable Design and Circular Design thinking into the New Product Development process of consumer lighting. We will achieve this through the development of innovative tools and methods that assist in the transition to a Circular Economy, which facilitate the creation of more emotion centred, regenerative designed lighting solutions which enhance user experience and create more meaningful product user interactions.
Funder: Collaborative Doctoral Award - Arts Humanities Research Council