Author: Julio Cesar Rivera, José Rafael González and Bernabé Hernandis
The global environmental crisis which is much talk in recent times is the result, among other factors, process instinctive and thoughtless development of societies on the environment. This crisis is occurring due to several factors, which on one hand, are evident in the depletion of energy sources, increasing contamination and desertification of soils and water, deterioration of ozone layer, the greenhouse effect , climate change and decrease in biodiversity and the growth of worldwide population and on the other hand in the growth of poverty and inequality. Is for this reason that the role of the designer in developing a sustainable society is not simply to create “sustainable products,” but rather to envision products, processes, and services that encourage widespread sustainable behavior. In the past 45 years, sustainable design activities have made this waste and inefficiency marginally less wasteful and inefficient. But we must not conform with this view of sustainability, the issue here is to look for options, alternatives and / or ways that allow us to achieve a sustainable society at all levels and regardless of scale, be it local or global.For the development of a product, system or sustainable process is important to identify a model, tool or methodology that enables and facilitates the setting sustainability criteria in the same one. Due to the fact that many design products methodologies are somewhat mechanical and lead to those who use them to follow a set of steps and tables that can hinder, the field of action or creative thinking of the designers. This research seeks to accomplish the sustainability development without detach ourselves of “work´s designer”. For our analysis we have based on the Model of Concurrent Design of Hernandis, B. (2003) . The model is composed mainly of a Exterior system and reference system (system under study or product system) . Exterior System is composed of all that surrounds us and that in turn serves to pose a design problem, this is the starting point for external data that affect the problem. The exterior System is composed of all that surrounds us and that in turn serves to pose a design problem; this is the starting point for external data that affect the problem. Namely, in this system are considered environmental aspects such as ergonomics, aesthetics, manufacturing, economy, functionality, distribution and all other aspects that provide considerations and constraints that influence on the design problem.
The reference system is mainly composed of three basic subsystems (in this case formal functional and ergonomic). These subsystems are at the same level and without predominance of one on other one (they are isosistemas) in order to facilitating a more detailed analysis of system under study. At the same time these subsystems are composed of other subsystems, components, variables, aims and elements –these last will be the maximum degree of disaggregation proposed-.The analysis in this study focuses on the characteristics and external system components of the model, since it is considered here there are the suprasistemas that can define the variables that allow the configuration of a product, system or process and there is in this one phase of the conceptual design in which the criteria must be applied to generate a sustainable response to the raised problem.. All of this taking into account the components of basic subsystem (form, function and ergonomics) but focused towards sustainability. Is assumed that in the methodology, already are considered sustainability criteria, but with emphasis on the strategic development of the conceptual phase, where the tools are analyzed both systemic tools and sustainability concepts which facilitate the taking of better decisions according to the proposed objectives. In a previous research , the authors suggest a way to facilitate the analysis of the exterior system through the focus of all the components toward principali three subsystems: Trend Analysis, User’s Profile Analysis and References Analysis. It is believed that through these analyzes can be identified, in addition to the input variables related to material context from a design problem, others associated with a immaterial context in which it are considered psychological and psychosocial factors often ignored in configuration and are also relevant at the time of generating a sustainable design solution.
