Local Holistic Sustainability and Global Reality?

PORTHOFN IN JUNE 2012

We will be encountering a local area in Iceland that represents edge conditions. The Hornafjördur Community includes a cross section of geography, cultural context and Nordic social conditions. It is a fundamental fish industry town. It reaches from the top of the 3rd largest glacier in the world (Vatnajökull) containing various volcanoes and the district has very active agriculture, tourism, a small local town and fishing and fish industries. Geographically the next stop in direction South is Anctartica. The institutes in the community have looked widely for method and inspiration, like the Canadian network Economuseum, where public dissemination, production and crafts go hand in hand, to food R&D and university ethnographic and economic research. Tourism has been a growing element in the region while it still embraces its traditions and climatic and geographical particulars. This coming 2nd of June design students and teachers from the Nordic Cirrus region will visit to evaluate the situation and evaluate coming moves for the region in terms of production, services and tourism. We did have a project there last autumn specifically looking at the food industry but this time we will look more openly and widely at potentials and how designers participate in local development. The project starts on June 2nd, will last for a week and includes designers from very many of the design schools in the Nordic Region that are members of the Cirrus Network.

May 15, 2012   Posted in: ARCHITECTURE, ART, DESIGN, FASHION, ICELAND, SUSTAINABILITY