This event followed the prestigious annual Concorso d’Eleganza at the neighbouring Villa d’Este and preceded a tour through north-West Italy, driving eight decades of BMW convertibles; cars that have certainly stood the test of time. Colin Sharp reports:

Alice Rawsthorn, design critic for the International Herald Tribune and a past director of the Design Museum in London said: ‘This is not necessarily an ideological topic, hard commercial reasoning is vital to ensure ethical sustainability. The role of design is to act as an intermediary, a cross-pollinator; we must cherish value, not only aesthetics. Built structure and motor vehicles are very obvious examples, the most universally recognised symbols of sustainable labeling.’
Ian Cameron, Chief Designer for Rolls Royce Motor Cars worked for BMW in the ‘90s and was project leader for the then 3-series and Z8 programmes. He commented: ‘The essence of design sustainability is not to prioritise immediacy. We must have the mindset to sustain design, an eagerness to discover and to develop the creative process.’

Sustainability has certainly become a current corporate buzzword and venture capital is being plowed into sustainable thinking and ultimately design. Yet, this new, confident angle on the market is being undertaken in order to engender a return, profitability on investment. How can this be quantified and / or justified?

Environmentalist / smart-home builder John Picard – a Californian – says:  ‘Clean technology is firmly aimed at the built environment, a sector which is in turn informing and proving to have strategic advantages; it’s cheaper to do the right thing. There is no real crisis currently, but there is a transition that we have to be a part of and building(s) represent  60% of the issue.  Essentially, there is a new economy of natural thinking and nature will provide the future design guides.’
Chaos pundits allege that the globe is not able to provide enough energy to sustain Man’s ongoing march of progress and that the human population has to be cut by a huge percentage – some believe even up to 90%.

July/August 2010 Issue

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