LeNSin Project
LeNSin, the International Learning Network of networks on Sustainability (2015-2018), is an EU-supported (ERASMUS+) project involving 36 universities from Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Central America, aiming at the promotion of a new generation of designers (and design educators) capable to effectively contribute to the transition towards a sustainable society for all.
LeNSin ambitions to improve the internationalisation, intercultural cross-fertilisation and accessibility of higher education on Design for Sustainability (DfS). The project focuses on Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS) and Distributed Economies (DE) – considering both as promising models to couple environmental protection with social equity, cohesion and economic prosperity – applied in different contexts around the world. LeNSin connects a multi-polar network of Higher Education Institutions adopting and promoting a learning-by-sharing knowledge generation and dissemination, with an open and copyleft ethos.
During the three years of operation, LeNSin project activities involve five seminars, ten pilot courses, the setting up of ten regional LeNS Labs, and of a (decentralised) open web platform, any students/designers and any teachers can access to download, modify/remix and reuse an articulated set of open and copyleft learning resources, i.e. courses/lectures, tools, cases, criteria, projects.
LeNSin will also promote a series of diffusion activities targeting the design community worldwide. The final event will be a decentralized conference in 2018, based simultaneously in six partner universities, organized together by the 36 project partners from four continents.
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Previous newsletters:
LeNSin project newsletter #3 (1/2017)
LeNSin project newsletter #2 (10/2016)
LeNSin project newsletter #1 (6/2016)
LeNS Manifesto
We, the undersigned, aware of both the urgent changes required by sustainable development, the potential role of design (and design thinking) in promoting system innovation in the way we produce, consume and interact, as well as the opportunities offered by the ever more interconnected society, propose the adoption and diffusion of a new ethos within a worldwide design community:
To view design as a unique multi-polar learning community promoting, enabling and activating any possible learning-by-sharing process aiming at effective knowledge osmosis and cross-fertilization in design for sustainability in an open and copy left ethos.
We, the undersigned, commit our selves in such an ethos, trying our best to apply this in our daily life as individuals or representatives of institutions in the design community.
In relation to our competencies and possibilities we will make our acquired knowledge to be, as far as possible, freely and easily accessible in a copy left and open-source modality (while safeguarding our authorship and scientific recognised publication activity), that enable others in the design community to acquire them free of charge, with the possibility to replicate, modify, remix and reuse, through e.g. adopting creative commons licences.
- As researchers, this knowledge includes our acquired research knowledge base (e.g. papers, books, etc.) and knowhow (e.g. methods and tools).
- As educators, this knowledge includes our educational resources (slideshows, texts, video of lectures, educational support tools, etc.)
- As designers and design thinkers, this knowledge includes the design for sustainability concept proposal of products, services, systems and scenarios, as well as knowhow they used to design them.
- do our best to commit individuals such as researchers, educators, professional designers and design thinkers as well as institutions such as research institutions, design schools, and designer's associations to adopt the same ethos
- do our best to generate and/or enable open learning networking of sustainability of design researchers, design educators, professional designers and design thinkers.
LeNSin Partners
LeNS_Brazil
PARTNERS:
Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR)
Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE)
ASSOCIATES:
Londrina State University
Fluminense Federal University
Federal University of Alagoas
Federal University of Uberlândia
Federal University of Santa Catarina
CONTACT:
Aguinaldo Dos Santos <asantos@ufpr.br>
Leonardo Gomez Castillo <leonardo.a.gomez@gmail.com>
LeNS_India
PARTNERS:
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IIT Guwahati)
ASSOCIATES:
C.A.R.E. School of Architecture
Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology
Indian Institute Of Technology Gandhinagar
Goa College of Architecture
Hunnarshala Foundation for Building Technology & Innovations
Vastu Shilpa Foundation
CONTACT:
Mary Jacob <maryjacob@srishti.ac.in>
Ravi Mokashi <mokashi@iitg.ernet.in>
LeNS_China
PARTNERS:
Tsinghua University
Hunan University (HNU)
ASSOCIATES:
Wuhan University of Technology
Jiangnan University
The University of Science and Technology Beijing
Beijing Information Science and Technology University
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Guangzhou academy of fine arts
Tongji University
CONTACT:
Liu Xin <xinl@tsinghua.edu.cn>
Jun Zhang <zhangjun@hnu.edu.cn>
LeNS_South Africa
PARTNERS:
Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa
Stellenbosch University (SUN), South Africa
ASSOCIATES:
Farm and Garden National Trust
Cape Craft and Design Institute NPC
CONTACT:
Ephias Ruhode <ruhodee@cput.ac.za>
Marjorie Naidoo <marjorie.naidoo@telkomsa.net>
LeNS_Mexico
PARTNERS:
Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM)
Universidad del Valle de México (UVM)
ASSOCIATES:
Universidad National Autónoma Metropolitana
Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey Campus Ciudad de México
CONTACT:
Alejandro Ramírez Lozano<ramloz@correo.azc.uam.mx>
Rodrigo Lépez Vela <rodrigo.lepezv@uvmnet.edu>
Sandra Molina Mata <unasandra@yahoo.com.mx>
LeNS_Europe
PARTNERS AND CONTACTS:
Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI), Design Dept., Italy
Carlo Vezzoli (project coordinator)
<carlo.vezzoli@polimi.it>
Aalto University (Aalto ARTS), Finland
Cindy Kohtala <cindy.kohtala@aalto.fi>
Brunel University London (UBRUN), UK
Fabrizio Ceschin <fabrizio.ceschin@brunel.ac.uk>
Technische Universiteit Delft (TU Delft), Netherlands
Jan Carel Diehl <jc_diehl@me.com>
