Marc Alt is a designer, humanist and futurist. He has dedicated his career to connecting design, technology and ecology in the service of making a world that works for all living things. Marc was founder and co-chair of AIGA Center for Sustainable Design and served on the advisory boards of Designers Accord and Design Ignites Change. He has been an advisor to companies such as BMW, MINI USA, Volvo, AECOM and OgilvyEarth and is actively involved in a number of urban mobility and smart cities initiatives. He was an Adjunct Professor at the NYU MFA Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) and is a frequent guest critic. Marc lectures internationally and presents workshops on living systems, urbanism, mobility, resiliency, ecological design and ancestral knowledge. He is founder of Open Source Cities, a technology and design platform for the future of cities (currently in development).
Readings/Viewings to prepare for Marc’s visit:
Reading/Viewing: Open Source Cities Tumblr
Reading: Beyond Smart Cities: Interview with Tim Campbell Part 1
Inspirational/Informational Websites:
Biomimicry 3.8
Ask Nature
Earth Dashboard
Marc’s Sustainable Design Guidelines to Apply to Design/Life/Work from his Presentation:
Organisms in a mature eco-system (Biomimicry)
- Use waste as a resource
- Diversify and cooperate to fully use the habitat
- Gather and use energy efficiently
- Optimize rather than maximize
- Use materials sparingly
- Don’t foul their nests
- Don’t draw down resources
- Remain in balance with the biosphere
- Run on information
- Shop locally
Guidelines for sustainable design:
- Design with life cycle constraints
- Dematerialize products into services
- Use appropriate local technology and resources
- Co-create with and for communities and people
- Design for disassembly, take-back and recycling
- Support third party certification
- Minimize materials, energy and inputs
- Use non-toxic/recycled/re-claimed resources
- 100% renewable energy
- Zero waste
Documentation of Marc’s visit by Tara Tannenbaum here.