求是设计会

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        来SUTD的第一天，被校园门厅的设计吸引住了。这是我理想中的校园环境也是我理想中的月牙楼，小而精致，充满设计感，据说，出自一位SUTD建筑系教授。在走廊上看到Open House的主题：A better world by design. 让我想起了IDEO老板布朗写的书《Change by Design》（《设计，改变一切》），多少次听到这么伟大的设计口号，真荣幸自己能成为一名设计师。    

        这次我们是带着艰巨的任务去SUTD的，数百平方米的展厅，我们占居一隅。在我们的隔壁，在我们的对面，在我们的侧面都是MIT的影子。在这样的阵容里，我们总得展现出自己的设计优势吧。 

        在我们展区的对面，我看到MIT D-lab的Leverage Freedom Chair （LFC）。上半年，我仔细研究过这把轮椅的结构。这次终于看到实物了，而且还是刚从美国运来的。我马上体验了一把。

        对MIT D-lab的兴趣来自他们的课程都是基于相同的价值观和体验式的学习，在坚持当地化原则，重视土著知识，促进学生的参与性合作性，利用技术设计解决贫困，建立起可持续的伙伴关系。26名世界上最有影响力的设计师中，就有一位是D-lab的教授Amy Smith，而她，是凭借“转农业废物为干净木炭”——普通人觉得非设计的设计影响了世界。

        我充满了对D-lab的好奇，他们这么一个为贫穷而设计，低成本低科技的研究中心到底是怎么样的？我开始关注这把轮椅的设计者是否来到现场，非常渴望跟他交流，对这把轮椅、对他们的思考方式、对他们的D-lab的认识。 

        锁定了这个胖胖的男生就是我在网上看到他在世界不同地方留下工作的照片的人。

        鼓起勇气，让博士学姐陪同我一起去交流。知道了他叫Amos Winter，他是MIT 机械工程的PhD，他已经毕业了。他现在在Singapore-MIT International Design Centre（IDC）做研究员。主要研究的方向就是发展中国家的代步工具。他告诉我们，他花了四年的时间完成的第三代的这把轮椅，他还需要继续去完善它。更让我惊讶的是，他说这把轮椅并不是自己的PhD内容，只不过是自己的喜好，他想要做能帮助贫穷地区人们的轮椅。他的团队有15名成员，主要是机械工程，也有来自不同的学科方向。他有来自15家单位的资助，其中包括SUTD。接着他通过PPT为我们讲解他为什么设计这把轮椅，它的优势在哪里，从哪些数据可以看得出来。

        Amos告 诉我们，生活好的人可能难以想象——以非洲为例，大概有200万的人需要轮椅，但是只有1%的人拥有。因为轮椅对于他们来说价格太贵，无法接受。而拥有轮椅的人中又有很多人要为买一样东西出远门。那里没有我们想像中到处都有的便利店，因此他们可能要跑上10几公里到隔壁的小镇才能买到。而传统的轮椅驱动让这么长途的运动变得十分艰难。Amos就设计了第一个版本的雏形，但是失败了。第二年改进，黄色的，算第二代吧，但马上发现很多结构，工程数据跟现实用户的差别比较大，又改进到了灰色的，是第三代。这把轮椅的每个零件都能够在普通的自行车上找到，所以部件坏了之后都可以从自行车上找到类似的来替换。

        Amos桌面上摆着一个大工具箱，里面的各种工具十分让我惊讶，那些检测数据的工具，居然都是他自己制作的。他采集了很系统的数据，分析，然后根据这些数据不断的去优化结构设计。比如说轮椅的摆臂，什么长度、什么位置最适合长途运动。每一个细节的认真仔细周到都让我十分钦佩，换做是我的话，我也许会说：差不多了，别测数据了，测出来也会差不多的。

        看了他带着他的轮椅，带着他的工具箱，去危地马拉、肯尼亚、坦桑尼亚、乌干达、越南、印度……去全世界测试他的轮椅。我感动，他的执着和认真，以及他渴望用自己的产品让更多贫穷的人用上方便的轮椅的梦想。Open House结束的时候，我们告别，他告诉我们他要带着他的轮椅去印度测试了。

   

        曾经我看到这把轮椅获得了美国Spark Awards World Changing组的金奖，评委对这把轮椅的评价，这将是一个改变轮椅世界的作品。CNN、Discovery 等媒体也都报道过这把轮椅。我开玩笑对我们的带队老师说：四年的时间在中国，会有人资助我们做一把为贫穷而设计的轮椅吗？四年时间在中国，能让我们沉下心来做这样一把为贫穷而设计的轮椅吗？而且可能不能给我们带来一点的商业利益。四年时间在中国，只出了一把这样的轮椅，可能马上会被烧鱿鱼吧。哪怕它真的是一把能改变世界的轮椅。哪怕真的是追随我们内心，去做自己觉得有意义的事情。

        走出展厅，看到SUTD的校园里面一个很大的招贴，就是这把轮椅的背影。写着MIT学生与2010年发明，还有他们这次Open House 的主题： A better world by design.

        想起了三年前刚选完专业的时候，寝室同学夜聊自己的理想，法学的室友说自己想要从政，我调侃他：你一定要做个好官。古典文献的同学说自己要做一座灯塔，用文学来引领迷茫的众生。历史的同学说自己可能会当个老师，或者去读个研究生从事研究。当问到我的理想的时候，我不假思索的说出，我想有一家自己的企业，能像苹果公司一样从事产品创新，用我的设计和产品改变世界，影响人们的生活。

        三年前，我是这样的答案，三年后，学弟学妹问我将来的规划是什么。我的答案是：不知道，我有一颗改变的心态，但是自己太渺小，我想当个老师，通道而后传道，让更多的人有一颗激情澎湃想要改变世界的心态。

        我内心不变的还有设计能影响人们的生活，我们不可能像苹果一样伟大，震撼世界，重新定义了各个行业。离我们更近就好像N年工业设计某个学长设计下吸式的油烟机，改变了整个行业的方向。就好像应老师设计了集成吊顶，开创了一个上百亿市场容量的集成吊顶行业。多么希望我们的产品创新能影响到我们的生活。

        越成熟就会觉得生活变得越现实，我相信设计的力量能改变世界。曾经在上海参加一次创业设计大赛的时候，跟评委提到了，我们年轻的大学生需要承担起对社会的责任。评委很严肃的跟我说了一句：等你赚了一个亿到时候再跟我谈社会责任。冲动的我就在台上直接顶嘴，说他不理解我说的社会责任。我想表达的是想MIT D-lab一样在设计的时候就考虑对社会对环境的责任，让我们建立自己以问题为导向的设计观。

        设计技能只能解决我们就业和生存的问题，但是真正能引领我们人生的是设计思考。但是现实这样的环境，能让多少的年轻人能坚持自己的梦想，让自己不会被老男孩的歌词震撼内心呢？

        On my first day in SUTD I was caught by the design of the entrance hall of the institute. It looked like the ideal campus in my mind, and my ideal Crescent Building, small and delicate, full of the quality of design. And it was said to be the work of a professor of SUTD Department of Architecture. I noticed the theme of Open House at the corridor: A better world by design, which reminded me of Change by Design by Tim Brown of IDEO. I’d heard the great slogan many times and now I felt so proud to be a designer.

This time we came to SUTD bearing an arduous task: we occupied a corner in the exhibition hall of hundreds of square meters. We could sense the presence of MIT from our next, front and both sides. Facing such a line-up, we should at least show our advantages in design.

Opposite our stand I saw a Leverage Freedom Chair （LFC）from MIT D-lab. I examined the structure of the LFC in photo early this year. Now in front of me I saw the chair physically and it was shipped here from America shortly. I had a trial on it at once.

Our interest in MIT D-lab was that their courses were based on the common values and the study style there was experiencing. They stressed localization and indigenous knowledge, encouraged students’ participation and cooperation, and used technical design to alleviate poverty to establish sustainable partnerships. Professor Amy Smith, one of the 26 most influential designers in the world, came from D-lab, and she had influenced the world by transformation of agricultural waste into clean charcoal, a design not regarded as design by ordinary people.

With great curiosity about D-lab, a low-cost and low-tech research center that designed for the poverty; what was it like? I began to look for the designer for the wheelchair, I was keen for talking with him about the chair, about their thinking and their D-lab.

I spotted the heavy man whose photos in the net show he’s working in various places in the world.

Summoned up my courage, and asked a doctorate candidate to go with me, to have a talk with him. His name was Amos Winter, graduated from MIT and got a PhD in mechanical engineering. He’s now a research fellow of Singapore-MIT International Design Centre（IDC）specializing in man-made devices to support personal movement. He told us that he’d spent 4 years on this 3^rd generation wheelchair and he would go on improving it. More to my surprise, he said this chair wasn’t something involved in his PhD program, it came up as his hobby, he hoped to make wheelchairs that could help the people in poverty areas. He said his team had 15 members, most of them specialized in mechanical engineering and some in other fields and they had 15 sponsors including SUTD. Then he explained to us by PTT why he designed the chair and its advantages reflected in data.

Amos told us that a population of about 2 million in Africa, taking as an example, needed wheelchairs, but only 1 percent of them had ones. Wheelchairs for many of them were too expensive to afford — hard for those better off to imagine. And those having wheelchairs often had to go a long way, perhaps more than 10 kms, to the next town for a merchandise article. It’s difficult for the driving system of a traditional wheelchair to handle such a long distance. Amos tried to design a wheelchair as a prototype, but failed. In the next year he made some improvement to it and color it in yellow, which might be regarded as a version of the second generation. But he soon found big differences in structure and engineering data between this version and the requirements of potential users. He made more improvements and color it in grey as a version of the third generation. Every parts on this wheelchair could be found on a bicycle and be replaced easily by those from the latter.

Various tools in a big box on Amos’ table surprised me, imagine these measuring tools were made by himself! He collected systematic data and did analysis and continuously made an effort to optimize the structural design based on the data. Taking the moving arms of the chair as an example, what should be its length? At what position was the best for its user to cover a long distance? I admired him deeply for his thoughtfulness and carefulness. If I were him I might say to myself, “It’s fine as it is now, don’t mind measuring it again, the number measured will be likely the same.”

He traveled around the world, bringing his tool box and the wheelchair, to Guatemala, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, India…to test his wheelchair. I was touched by his persistence and earnestness and his keenness for convenient wheelchairs for more people in need. He told us he’s going to take his chair to India for a test when we exchanged farewells at the end of the Open House.

Once I saw this wheelchair won gold award in Spark Awards World of World Changing. In the comments on it, the judging panel says it is a work that will change the world. CNN, Discovery and other media had reports on it. The teacher leading our team asked with a bit joking tone: Is there anyone in China could sponsor us to make a wheelchair designed for the people in need in the coming 4 years? Can we settle down to a wheelchair designed for the people in need, which may not bring us any commercial benefits, in 4 years in China? Such a wheelchair made in as long as 4 years could be faced with dissatisfaction and put into fire for barbecue, even though it is a wheelchair that can change the world, even though we follow our honest heart to do meaningful things.

Walking out the hall, we noticed a big poster with the back image of a man on this chair as its subject, it reads below the chair: invented by MIT students, 2010, and the theme of the Open House: A better world by design.

I remembered a night, shortly after I decided on my major, when my roommates were talking about their expectations. The roommate studying law said he hoped to be a government official, I made fun of him, saying that he should be a good official. The one studying ancient literature hoped to be a lighthouse to guide the confused mass with literature. The one studying history said he might become a teacher or go on to a graduate program and then engage in academic work. When I was asked about my expectation, I answered without any hesitation that I wanted to have my own enterprise like Apple Inc. to engage in invention to change the world and influence the people in their lifestyle with my design and products.

That’s my answer three years ago. Now if other students ask me about my expectation, my answer is I don’t know. I have a heart of seeking changes, but I feel I’m powerless. I want to become a teacher, first, to understand the way, and then to show others the way, encourage more people to have a passion to change the world.

I have an unchanged motto in my mind: to design what can influence the people. We are not possible to be as great and powerful as Apple which redefined various sectors. But we have some other accomplishments around us. A student in industrial design designed years ago an extractor which removing the cooking smoke downward that redirected the manufacture sector. And Prof.Ying designed an integrated roof which created a sector with a value of more than 10 billion yuan. I really hope our inventions can make a difference in our lifestyle.

Being more mature one sees his life more realistically. I believe the power of design can change the world. I once mentioned to a member of the judging panel at a design competition for start-ups in Shanghai the responsibility of our young students for the society, he said to me, “Don’t talk about the social responsibility until you’ve made 100 million yuan.” I talked back impulsively on the platform that he didn’t understand what I meant by the social responsibility. What I wanted to say was that we should pay attention to our responsibility for the society and the environment when we started to produce design as MIT D-lab did and build an issue-oriented design notion.

Design skills can help us find a job and make a living. What can truly guide us in our life, however, is design thinking. But how many young people can in current situations adhere to their own dreams, their minds not to be moved by an Old Boy’s lyrics?