Design research at the Cité du design
The Cité du design organises and structures research which stands at the crossroads where creative work, the sciences, technology and industry meet. The standpoint taken by the Cité is to support a kind of design which invents and builds new living systems through objects, images or services. This research draws on both what is needed and the ways that things are used and supports new of doing things. The programmes (energy, sustainable development, uses and technology, service design, medical design, light, flow, etc.) combine a theoretical contribution with conceptualisation. So there is no research without the production of knowledge; but no design research without designing using images, scenarios, objects, services or any appropriate formulation emerging from the results of the analysis.
The research builds an alliance between plural, aesthetic, scientific and economic logics. For instance, a research programme on Reducing energy insecurity leads to a Design and energy overview, then pairs made up of a designer and an anthropologist carry out a one-year survey on energetic use by thirty or so households living close to the poverty line. The analysis of the survey opens with a laboratory which comes up with objects, scenarios, systems and services designed to reduce this insecurity and taking sustainable development on board. The innovations achieved may be of interest to energy suppliers, industrial manufacturers of electrical equipment, etc. In the end the results of the whole of the research are either published or appear in an exhibition.
The research builds an alliance between plural, aesthetic, scientific and economic logics. For instance, a research programme on Reducing energy insecurity leads to a Design and energy overview, then pairs made up of a designer and an anthropologist carry out a one-year survey on energetic use by thirty or so households living close to the poverty line. The analysis of the survey opens with a laboratory which comes up with objects, scenarios, systems and services designed to reduce this insecurity and taking sustainable development on board. The innovations achieved may be of interest to energy suppliers, industrial manufacturers of electrical equipment, etc. In the end the results of the whole of the research are either published or appear in an exhibition.
