Dott 07 held a series of debates during the festival. In the debates we asked: what did we learn in the projects, and what do we do next? Participation was free.

The debates programme included:

  • Low Carb Lane
    More and more of us would like to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, especially at home. But how do we do it? Wind turbines? Fuel cells? Solar panels? Wood-chip? How can we do it affordably? Low Carb Lane tackled these challenges head-on, in a real street: Castle Terrace in Ashington. This debate reviews the project from household, local government and industry points of view, asking: how can we save energy, money and carbon – one house at a time?
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  • Design and Sexual Health (DaSH)
    The Design and Sexual Health debate looked specifically at the lessons learned from Dott 07’s DaSH project. DaSH confronted a challenge: sexual health services don’t always reach those most in need. Are our services looking after the nations’ sexual health? What’s stopping them? By engaging a wide audience the project hopes to understand the value of design in health services, and look at how new ideas for service delivery can be realistically implemented.
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  • Food Systems and Cities
    Up to 30% of the ecological footprint of a city can be attributed to the systems which keep it fed and watered. But when the mayors of the world's 40 largest cities met recently to discuss sustainability strategies, food was not on the agenda. Why? This international debate, organised jointly by Dott 07 and Doors of Perception, aimed to connect together food systems and city-region development in policy, and to reframe food systems and social innovation as design opportunities. The debate opened with a review of Dott 07’s Urban Farming project, in Middlesbrough, which involved more than a thousand citizens and dozens of organisations.
    Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART ONE

    Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART TWO

  • Better Lives With Dementia
    Dott 07’s Alzheimer100 project charted the key stages of the journey through dementia in collaboration with people with dementia and their carers. What opportunities for service design innovation exist on that journey? Service ideas that emerged from co-design workshops range from time banking to assistive technology. This debate, organised in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Society nationally, considered how to amplify the role of citizen co-design in service innovation for health and care.
    Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART ONE

    • Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART TWO

     Read the group discussion transcript or listen again - PART THREE
  • The Movement Dilemma
    The debate suggests that the movement of people and goods around the world consumes vast amounts of matter, energy, space, and time - most of it non-renewable. Should sustainable development therefore be concentrated in cities, where economic progress can most feasibly be de-coupled from transport intensity? Or are there ways to ensure that rural communities have access to services by using transport resources more smartly? And could new forms of sustainable tourism be enabled by access to territorial and cultural assets that already exist?

    The session began with a keynote from Anthony Townsend, research director at the Institute of the Future in Palo Alto, California, who asks: "must we keep on moving?" There follows a review of Dott 07’s Move Me project, which explored the potential to transform transportation resource efficiency in one village, Scremerston, in Northumberland.

    Emer McCourt listened to Anthony's presentation. Find out what you missed here.
  • Sustainability, Schools and Schooling
    One group above all others has a stake in the transition to sustainability: today's school students. Are we giving them enough leeway to shape the world they will live in? The debate began with a review of two Dott projects.

    In ECO Design Challenge, Dott 07 invited year eight students across North East England to map their school’s ‘carbon and ecological footprint’. Having identified which aspects of their footprint are most wasteful, they then proposed the redesign of an aspect of their school’s life to reduce its impact on the environment.
    Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART ONE

    A second Dott 07 project, OurNewSchool asked: how do we create schools that prepare our children for their futures? The OurNewSchool story was presented by the designers and staff members involved at the prototype school in Walker, Newcastle. This included the opportunities available when planning for the BSF (Building Schools for the Future) process, the OurNewSchool process, Walker’s reaction and its new perspectives on the future of learning.
     Read the speaker transcript or listen again - PART TWO

    Read the debate transcript - PART THREE

    Read the speaker transcript - PART FOUR