Calm Before The Storm
Abstract
It’s fall 2023, and it is hard to look at the current state of affairs in an
optimistic way. This year has vividly showcased the reality of the
climate crisis. Temperature rises, extreme weather occurrences are
more frequent, and their impact on communities is profoundly
devastating. It's influencing every aspect of our lives: how we work,
vote, socialize, and even live.
While still in school walls, I've chosen to leverage the luxury of being a
student to engage with this topic from a design perspective. While we
can't single-handedly solve the issue, as designers, we can contribute
by delving into people's personal perceptions of the climate crisis. I
aim to explore ways for sustaining hope—an essential catalyst for
action and change by looking at what we can do now to be better
equipped to meet climate change.
My project, a strategic design diploma thesis at the Oslo School of
Architecture and Design in the fall of 2023, employed practices from
strategic and service design. It aims to investigate three primary
facets: 1. How to live in the climate crisis; 2. How to navigate this crisis
in an emotionally resilient way; 3. How might design be helpful in
exploring new possibilities for sustaining hope in climate change? In
my work, I put people first, focusing on how the climate crisis is
changing people, physically and mentally, affecting every aspect of
our lives. The culmination of this exploration is not only the process
itself but also a set of briefs and strategic concepts aimed at showing
possibilities and encouraging discussions on how society should
prepare for climate crises. These ideas were tested alongside young
people: Heidi Dolven, a Senior service and system designer at the
Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, and Marianne Rolfsen,
Senior Innovation Advisor, together with Ingrid Marie Dybvig, Senior
advisor in Disaster preparedness and crisis management at Red Cross
Norway.