Bruce Mau proposes new ‘smart and sexy’ business model
Sustainability issues present ‘some of the greatest opportunities in human history,’ says Mau
Wednesday January 27, 2010 -- Michelle Strutzenberger
TORONTO - In response to a recent discussion on reducing global oil dependency, Canadian designer Bruce Mau said the answer is not to eliminate oil use but to redesign the world of tomorrow in a way that is more intelligent and more beautiful than it has ever been.

Mau was one of 10 leading designers who presented at the recent World Without Oil symposium, an inaugural component of the Toronto Interior Design Show.

Rather than framing the discussion in a negative sense — can we imagine a world without oil? — Mau proposed an important element in moving to rely more on alternative energy sources and reducing environmental impact is to begin emphasizing the exciting possibilities inherent in such a change.

“I think about it this way: can we imagine a beautiful future world with oil? Can we imagine a future with oil that is a designed future, that is an intelligent future? Absolutely. Yes,” said Mau.

He put forward that a new business model is required to recreate a more intelligent yet beautiful world and proposed an approach that includes the qualities of both “smart and sexy.”

The strategies and systems and products of the future need to be designed to leave the world a better place yet also compelling enough to motivate people to make use of them and change their way of life.

“It’s about making smart things that are the coolest, the most compelling,” said Mau, noting this intersection of qualities is where designers already live and in this context makes them “critically important” to the future and to survival.

In the smart and sexy model, outputs are inputs, according to Mau, meaning waste becomes a new source of revenue. He referred to innovators working with businesses to do just that. One brewery is using its waste to make baked goods and grow mushrooms and is now generating more income from the sale of its mushrooms than its brew.

The new model includes advancing a complex ecology of energy, rather than relying on a single source, said Mau.

He also related examples of various innovative products that are both exciting and smart, including the new electric bike, the Copenhagen wheel, unveiled last month at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen.

Mau described the Duo, the new three-wheeled electric car from Myers Motors as “an incredibly beautiful thing. When you see it, you just want one of these things” and said the new Tesla Roadster, another electric car, “blows away the Ferrari” according to people who own both.

“I find these projects really exciting because they’re moving to do what we did in the first place with the car, which is make it sexy and exciting, and make us want to be part of it,” he said.

According to Mau, better design is the key to survival, not necessarily sacrifice or duty, and, considered in this light, the challenges of today related to energy consumption and sustainable living, become “some of the greatest opportunities in human history.”

Related Article:
Designer Bruce Mau says he wants a world with oil ‘and so much more’

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