The Role of Affective Design in Sustainability

Abstract

As the changes in global climate become more evident, sustainable design, which is also known as green design, environment-friendly design or eco-design has become a major topic in many of the most recent forums and conferences. Sustainable design is defined by Zande (2010) as “a design philosophy that seeks to maximize the quality of the built environment, while minimizing or eliminating negative impact to the natural environment” [18]. In the field of architecture, the value of sustainability has also been highlighted, as it is considered a useful tool that can help to overcome the challenges of sustainable development. Nevertheless, it is common to associate this concept with sacrifice when addressed in practice, as stated by Fiore, Phillips and Sellers (2014) “society is asked to sacrifice quality of life to achieve some sustainable goal” [8]. In order to overcome this attitude, a new approach has been generated in the last decade. This new approach named hedonistic sustainability by Bjarke Ingles (2011), aims to address the limited scope of sustainable design by bridging two design methodologies- hedonistic (affective design) and sustainable design.