You are very welcome to our Corporate WebSite ... which also supports our Technical Blog.

Sustainable Development is an intricate, open, dynamic and evolving concept .... and Sustainable Design involves far more than merely substituting the word 'sustainable' for 'green', 'environmental' or 'ecological'.  The full meaning of 'sustainable', as it is used in English, is not conveyed by the French word 'durable' .... or the German word 'nachhaltige'.

In order to develop our uniquely innovative, rights-based understanding of Sustainable Human & Social Development, we have referred back, in the first instance, to the full and complete definition of 'sustainable development' contained in the 1987 WCED (Brundtland) Report.  As Design Practitioners, then, our task is to apply the Principles of Sustainable Human & Social Development to frontline implementation ... across the wide range of highly specialized services we provide.  Accurate research and creative, lateral thinking are essential ...

Here, therefore, you will find some of the most up-to-date content on Sustainable Spatial Planning, Design, Construction, Fire Engineering & Research in the Human Environment.

KEY AREAS OF SDI's DESIGN & TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION ...

Sustainable Climate Change Adaptation

Fire-Induced Progressive Building Collapse

Sustainable Fire Engineering

Accessibility for People with Activity Limitations (2001 WHO ICF)

2004 Rio Declaration on Sustainable Social Development, Disability & Ageing

1998 European Charter on Sustainable Design & Construction

• we wish to share our technical knowledge and expertise as widely as possible, and so make our contribution to authoritative content freely available in the Public Domain, i.e. Open Content ;
• we would like to encourage you, in turn, to view this WebSite as an International Forum for the exchange of information and opinions on all Aspects of Sustainable Development, and Sustainable Design in particular ;
• to implement Real Design Solutions, however, we feel it is also vital to advocate a very necessary Re-Evaluation of Political, Economic, Social, Environmental and Institutional Values in the 'developed' world - especially Europe.  The 'developed' world must also begin to understand the priorities, and the responsible social needs, of the 'developing' world.
  

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Related Domain Names, e.g. '.it' (Italy), '.com.tr' (Turkey), '.eu' (European Union)
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ETHICAL DESIGN
(spatial planning, architectural / engineering / industrial design, e-design)
Sustainable Design & the Designer

We examine and explore Ethical Design ...... directly engaging the designer in re-shaping our world, by design, to meet the responsible needs, i.e. the Human & Social Rights*, of this generation - without stealing the life and living resources from future generations, especially our children ... and their children.

*As defined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN OHCHR).

Using the World Medical Association's Helsinki Declaration as a model document, we have proposed to the European Construction Sector that a similar Declaration be developed on ....

Ethical Principles for Design, Research & Construction
in the Human Environment

This is an ambitious target which must ultimately result in the achievement of a dynamic and harmonious balance between our world - the 'built environment' - and a flourishing, not just a surviving, 'natural environment'.

Ethical Design demands a high level of horizontal integration and co-ordination, on the part of a Designer, across a very wide range of environmental, social, economic, institutional and political performance, before a 'design synthesis' can be properly expressed in reality.  This is, perhaps, one of the biggest challenges posed by the concept of Sustainable Development.

THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT
Anywhere there is, or has been, an intrusion by a human being
in the natural environment.

Comprising, and taken together as a complex whole ....

Social Environment
The complex network of real and virtual human interaction – at a communal or
larger group level – which operates for reasons of tradition, culture, business, pleasure,
information exchange, institutional organization, legal procedure, governance,
human betterment, social progress and spiritual enlightenment, etc.

The Social Environment shapes, binds together, and directs the future development of,
the Built (including Virtual) Environment.

See the 2004 Rio Declaration on Sustainable Social Development, Disability & Ageing !
Drafted by CJ Walsh.

Built Environment
Anywhere there is, or has been, a man-made or wrought (worked) intervention
by humans in the natural environment,
e.g. cities, towns, villages, rural settlements, service utlilities, transport systems, roads, bridges, tunnels,
and cultivated lands, lakes, rivers, coasts, seas, etc.
... including the Virtual Environment.

See the 1998 European Charter on Sustainable Design & Construction !
Drafted by CJ Walsh.


Virtual Environment
A designed environment, electronically-generated from within the
Built Environment, which may have the appearance, form, functionality and impact
- to the person perceiving and actually experiencing it -
of a real, imagined and/or utopian world.


Economic Environment
The intricate web of real and virtual human commercial activity – operating at micro and
macro-economic levels – which facilitates, supports, but sometimes hampers or disrupts,
human interaction in the Social Environment.


Institutional Environment

.... and still to be further developed.