The highlight of the Kyoto Design Conference, Japan, the first Cumulus conference held outside Europe. (28-31.03.2008)

The Kyoto Design Declaration was signed in Kyoto on the 28th of March 2008 by the Executive Board of Cumulus, President Christian Guellerin, Past President and Author of the Declaration Yrjö Sotamaa, Rector Kan Shimamoto, Kyoto Seika University, and Industrial Designer Takuo Hirano from Japan, representing the 124 global members of Cumulus. The Declaration received support ao. from ICSID, BEDA, AIGA and EIDD. By signing the Kyoto Design Declaration, the members of Cumulus committed to sharing global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centred and creative societies.

 kyoto_design_declaration2008

The printable version:  kdd2008 

The ceremony:

TEXT OF THE DECLARATION:

KYOTO DESIGN DECLARATION 2008

A statement of commitment by the members of Cumulus to sharing the global responsibility for building sustainable, human-centered, creative societies.

PROPOSING NEW VALUES AND NEW WAYS OF THINKING

All the people of the world now live in global and interdependent systems for living. We continue to enhance the quality of our lives by creating environments, products and services utilizing design. Design is a means of creating social, cultural, industrial and economic values by merging humanities, science, technology and the arts. It is a human-centered process of innovation that contributes to our development by proposing new values, new ways of thinking, of living and adapting to change.

AN ERA OF HUMAN CENTERED DEVELOPMENT

A paradigm shift from technology driven development to human centered development is underway. The focus is shifting from materialistic and visible values to those which are mental, intellectual and, possibly, less material. An era of “cultural productivity” has commenced where the importance attributed to modes of life, values and symbols may be greater than that attributed to physical products. Design thinking stands steadfastly at the centre of this continuum. Simultaneously, this development highlights the importance of cultural traditions and the need to extend and revitalize them.

THE IMPERATIVE FOR DESIGNERS TO ASSUME NEW ROLES

Global development and an awareness of the growth of related ecological and social problems are posing new demands and offering new opportunities for design, design education and design research. Design is challenged to redefine itself and designers must assume new roles and commit themselves to developing solutions leading to a sustainable future.

SEEKING COLLABORATION IN FORWARDING THE IDEALS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The members of Cumulus, representing a global community of design educators and researchers, undertake the initiative outlined in this, ‘THE KYOTO DESIGN DECLARATION’, to commit themselves to the ideals of sustainable development. Furthermore, the members of Cumulus have agreed to seek collaboration with educational and cultural institutions, companies, governments and government agencies, design and other professional associations and NGOs to promote the ideals of, and share their knowledge about, sustainable development.

FROM EDUCATION TO GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY

In order to fulfil its declared mission to contribute to sustainable social, environmental, cultural and economic development for current and future generations, and to contribute to an environment and culture that makes harmonious and healthy life possible, the Cumulus members make this declaration. Members will commit themselves to accepting their part in the further education of our youth within a value system where each of us recognizes our global responsibility to build sustainable, human-centered, creative societies.


THE POWER TO MAKE FUNDAMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS TO OUR WORLD

Human-centered design thinking, when rooted in universal and sustainable principles, has the power to fundamentally improve our world. It can deliver economic, ecological, social and cultural benefits to all people, improve our quality of life and create optimism about the future and individual and shared happiness.