Design and Energy

Energy always makes a huge difference when it comes to using the proper design. Designers aim to create the most environmentally sensitive buildings which are feasible and sustainable. Engineers who use energy technology for a building design apply basic building engineering principles and technical skills which supports the developing of energy-related systems. Energy technology is widely used throughout the world to bring about development which is not only economically beneficial but also which is supportive of the environment.

The energy that is consumed by the energy-related products can cause a lot of impacts on the environment such as the consequences of energy and other materials/resources consumption, waste generation and release of hazardous substances. It is estimated that over 80% of all product-related environmental impacts are determined during the design phase of a product. These impacts are majorly caused by the production, the distribution, use, and end-of-life management of energy related products

There are many firms and industries across the world which are combating ways to create a green environment. One such example is of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It targets ways in which we think about how our buildings and communities are designed, constructed, maintained and operated across the globe. It creates green building tools which addresses the entire building lifecycle which helps to recognise the best building strategies.

http://www.southcentral.edu/building-design-and-energy-technology/building-design-and-energy-technology.html

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/efficiency/ecodesign/eco_design_en.htm

http://www.usgbc.org/leed

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Water Resources and Management

Water resources management is the science of preserving our natural water environment for today and future environments. There are many problems that have been caused to our water resources such as land erosion, construction of dams, etc. Water supply and water quality are two of the most concerned problems viewed by the humanity. Water resources management aims to use engineering techniques to combat these problems. It plans to deal with these problems by constructing bridges to reduce impacts to non-tidal wetlands, erosion and sediment control design, environmental site design, etc.

There are several firms that have been developed in order to resolve water resources problems. One such firm is the MWH global. This firm is known to provide solutions to protect, enhance, store and distribute water. MWH has the technical resources, knowledge, and multi-disciplinary expertise to bring about environmentally responsible water resources solutions. It uses several engineering techniques to provide technical solutions and services such as watershed planning and management, planning approval applications, project feasibility studies, beneficial reuse, etc.

One such other example is of the Horizon Consulting Services. It provides civil and environmental engineering techniques for water resources and water supply. It also uses hydrogeologic and hydrologic services to develop new water supply sources from either groundwater or surface water resources. It can be useful in helping clients with bid solicitation and administration of construction contracts for all types of improvement projects. Field observation services are provided to monitor construction activities for conformance.

http://www.jmt.com/solutions/design/water-resources-management/

http://www.mwhglobal.com/services/engineering-and-design/water-resources/

https://horizonconsultingservicesllc.com/Water_Resources_Design.html

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Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the technology which is based on the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules to build structures to complex atomic specifications. When nanotechnology would be incorporated with design, it will make design the most important part of any development process. If nanotechnology is possible, the cost of products (manufacturing, raw materials, labor) would drop to almost nothing. Though nanotechnology would increase the amount of work due to its complexity, but it aims to make the design process important and give designers the power to enact positive change.

The next question would be that what can nanotechnology provide? Nanotechnology being one of the most interesting fields of science and technology allows scientists to observe, touch, design, fabricate matter as small as atoms and molecules. Nanotechnology creates new materials and devices for use in a variety of applications, including physical science, medicine, electronics, and etc. It will provide engineers opportunities to explore challenges such as how to get objects into space efficiently, how to control material properties, identify the materials to be used for a particular application, etc.

Nanotechnology would benefit four specific areas through its use. It would collaborate a variety of diverse scientists and engineers to support research and development to meet national challenges. It gives a modelling network or multidisciplinary intellectual collaboration that effectively couples experimental basic research, modeling, and applications development. It would effectively enable application of models and knowledge to nano materials design. Lastly provide a data and information infrastructure to support data sharing, collaboration, and innovations across disciplines and applications.

http://trex.id.iit.edu/~milanski/fun/nanotechnology/nanotechnology.html

http://brown.edu/ce/pre-college/catalog/course.php?course_code=CEEN0916

http://www.nano.gov/node/829

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Communication Design

Communication design is one of the major applications of design. It is mixture of design and information development which is concerned with the role of media like printing, crafting, electronic media and presentations. Its approach is not only concerned with developing the message aside from the aesthetics in media, but also with the creation of new media that ensures that the message reaches the target audience. Some designers use graphic and communication design as to overlap the skills. Communication design can also refer to a systems-based approach, in which the totality of media and messages within a culture or organization are designed as a single integrated process rather than a series of discrete efforts.

The main objective of communication design is to teach designers to examine social and cultural ramifications of communication. They learn to persuade people by creating compelling messages, explaining their design in meaningful ways, and crafting different strategies to broadcast to the world. Designers are encouraged to undertake real world collaborative projects and to pursue internships and other work experiences. Communication design can provide various career opportunities such as advertising, motion and broadcast graphics, book and magazine design, interactive design, etc.

A great example in the field of communication design is of graphic design communication. Graphic design is a blend of liberal arts and applied creative and technical skills. Its aim is to extract information to shape visual messages that are thought provoking, well researched and well executed. It demands for a lot of creativity, curiosity and discipline. It motivates individuals to work with technology and draw inspiration from from academics and experimental research. Critical thinking and technical training are partnered with practical information in  Graphic Design .

http://rwu.edu/academics/schools-colleges/fcas/degree-offerings/graphic-design-communication

http://www.newschool.edu/parsons/bfa-communication-design/

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Design For Pleasure

 

Design is done to fulfill many purposes all over the world. It ensures the safety, reliability, sustainability, etc of the design. A very important factor for design is the pleasure that one gets with the design. People make designs for pleasure as well. The main idea of the design which is made for getting pleasure is that of feeling mentally and physically pleasant around our surroundings. Different features are added significantly in the design in order to create a positive feeling which pleases our senses and makes it a better place to live.

Many questions have been raised in this topic when it comes to what should be the main focus of the design? Should it be the users or the pleasure the users get from the design? Traditionally, people would want to make sure that the users can access the design, then they can use it and lastly hoping that the design itself is useful. This view was eventually opposed by the designers who proposed that why shouldn’t the design be the main focus so that users can  choose the design that gives them the most pleasure. It was proposed that the design that gives the most pleasure should be given the topmost priority.

An example to support this point would be that of designing of an automobile industry. Instead of people wasting so much time worrying about how to design cars that is comfortable for people and what are their preferences, people should come up with ideas about how to come up with a good design for a car and make a better car. People then get the choice to choose a car that is best suitable for them out of all the designs. Thus, the main idea should be that one should build a great product, and the users will come to you.

http://www.iivix.com/pleasure_centric.html

http://www.forbes.com/sites/houzz/2013/09/27/designing-for-pleasure-how-to-appeal-to-all-the-senses-at-home/

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Design For Good Health

Health is one of the biggest factors that affect an individual and an entire nation as well. People from all over the world are coming up with ways to improve the health conditions of a place. People are also coming up with designs that target to ensure better health facilities and navigate places that can transform vacant spaces into healthy places. The design aims to focus on the fact that healthy choice is the best choice no matter where you live, work or play.

A great example about a design which is in process to improve health care facilities is that of the “Fable” hospital. It may seem that extra large private hospital rooms with plenty of light and natural artwork are luxuries that are unaffordable. But research has shown that these and other architecture and design features can improve patient health care and eventually reduce costs. These are the elements of a “Fable” hospital which is an ideal health care facility conceived and analyzed by people involved in health care and design and it aims to improve quality and value.

Another such example is of the ‘Affordable Designs for Affordable Housing’. This project aims at incorporating active design principles that can help in increasing physical activities among children within the age of 3-18 years. It aims to provide professional designing and developing affordable housing with low-cost solutions for increasing physical activity in their developments. The project claims that when implemented, low-cost and cost-neutral strategies will support physical activity and better health.

http://www.thehastingscenter.org/FableEssays/

http://www.good.is/posts/when-urban-design-meets-public-health

http://activelivingresearch.org/good-design-improves-health-fostering-physical-activity

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Biomimicry

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Biomimicry is the imitation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. Nature goes through a lot of trial and error to refine the materials, processes and living organisms of the earth. As the field of biomimetics has emerged to a great extent, it has given a rise to new technologies which are created from bioengineering which works at both nano and macro levels.

There are several examples of biomimetric design being used comprehensively in today’s world. One of the most incredible example is of the Biomatrix Water. As we know rivers are the most needed sources of water by our mega cities nowadays. They are capable of transporting, cleaning, liberating floods and transforming the entire ecosystem. But as most of its sources are lost or contaminated by the excessive use of the urban population, a company called the Biomatrix Water has been implementing  the model of ‘living machines’ bringing to life damaged streams, canals and creeks in several locations around the world such as Philippines, US and the UK. Through the understanding of biological elements, biomatrix water is a model of ecological engineering and regenerative design.

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Another great example of biomimetric design  is shown by the temporary exhibition of En Vie-Alive which presented a new design landscape where the ‘synthetic’ and ‘natural’ design perspectives were confronted.The quest for a different kind of ecological design models underpins the selection of projects, which range from potential sustainable solutions, to poetic interpretations and extreme provocations. This concept also displayed the concepts and real applications of biomimetric design along with conducting workshops and talks.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biomimicry

http://biomimeticdesign.wordpress.com/

System Engineering Design

System Engineering is a field of engineering which focuses on how to manage and design complex engineering projects over their life cycles. System engineering signifies an approach as well as a discipline in engineering. The aim of systems engineering is to find out new methods and research opportunities similar to the way it occurs in other fields of engineering. As an approach it is holistic and interdisciplinary. Issues such as reliabilities, logistics, coordination of different teams and evaluation measurements become difficult to handle in large complex projects. System engineering deals with work-processes, optimization methods and risk management tools for such projects.

There can be various kinds of engineering problems in a design. Solving engineering problems requires the modification and creation of systems. The process used for this is design practice which is the skill of creative problem solving and interdisciplinary teamwork for innovation. By considering all the requirements of the design, a design solution is created which thus meets the needs of the customer, the user and the society.

Using models in system engineering is of great importance. A model can be an abstraction, an imitation, an analogue or a conceptual mathematical or physical tool that can be used to answer specific questions, represent a structure, and help in decision making. The main reason for using models in system engineering is to get an idea of the effectiveness of a system, performance, technical attributes and the cost. Models help us to verify the system design and help us to study the system design process. Thus models play a very diverse role in system engineering.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_engineering#Scope

http://uwaterloo.ca/systems-design-engineering/about-systems-design-engineering/what-systems-design-engineering

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Engineering Design Safety

5189665For any kind of engineering design to take place the most important aspect that must be taken care of is the safety of the the whole design. Engineering design safety is the discipline that gives complete assurance of the safety of the engineered system. Safety engineers have to analyze what faults can occur in the system and then propose safety requirements in design to make the system safer. Faults should be detected in the early design process as correcting the safety faults later in the design process can turn out to be very expensive and time consuming.

It depends very vastly on how engineers can analyze all the faults and failure of their system. It is done by two methods: qualitative way and the quantitative way. Both approaches share the goal of finding the dependencies of the hazard on system level and hazard on individual level. The qualitative approach focuses on the question “What must go wrong that such a hazard can occur?” while the quantitative method focuses on providing estimates about probabilities, rates and severity of consequences. Safety analysis techniques rely solely on skill and expertise of the safety engineer. In compared to the traditional methods, model-based methods try to derive the relationship between the cause and consequences from the model of the system.

An important aspect in safety engineering is the prevention of failure. Once a failure is detected it can be reduced by adding extra equipment to the system. We see this technique being used in nuclear reactors which contain dangerous reactors and they produce so much heat that no substance can contain them. To avoid this problem reactors use emergency core cooling systems which bring the temperature down, use shielding to contain the radiation and use engineered barriers which prevent the accidental leakage thus reducing the exposure to the reactions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_engineering#Preventing_failure

http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Safety_engineering.html

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Engineering Design And Sustainability

Today one of the major concerns about engineering design is sustainability. A sustainable engineering design means a design not only with good economy and high quality but also a design that is of long term development. It has to be done with proper skill and technique. It should create a proper balance between the economy and the society which can maintain a healthy relation between the designer and the people who use the design. It can thus help people to be respectful to the environment.

There is a need for engineering design to have sustainability in their projects so that with all the innovative designs that the engineers are provided with can be used to benefit not only the  economy but also the environment. Company’s all over the world must be committed to sustainability. This commitment results in a cleaner air, pure water, better living and working conditions, efficiency in the use of energy, smarter transport systems and in the increase of the economy globally.

More awareness regarding sustainability in engineering design can be created by providing information to engineers in developing countries and by giving them education about the importance of sustainability.  It can also be done by engaging in decision making processes and performing projects. A very useful method would be to take into consideration the costs, conditions and impacts of a project throughout it’s life cycle.

http://www.swecogroup.com/en/sweco-group/about-sweco/Sustainable-engineering-and-design/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_engineering

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