Week 6 Reflection
This week, we focused on working on our designs that could contribute to the 50% reduction of our carbon footprint by the year 2050. I was designing something that could potentially reduce the carbon footprint of my travels. However, this was more challenging than expected. The 4 general ideas I started off with included:
- Transatlantic/Transpacific trains
- VR Zoom
- New airport design to reduce traffic
- New airplane design
However, each idea had its challenges. For instance, the transatlantic/transpacific trains seemed very unlikely in regards to feasibility. Furthermore, ideas like a new airplane or airport design were ideas that I could not do alone in the time frame. Therefore, I changed the way I approached this process of finding a design idea.
First, I laid out all aspects and steps of my travel. From booking the flight to getting on the plane, I established a whole timeline of what I do whenever I return home. From this storyboard, I tried to pick out what section of this whole travel I could re-design to make it more sustainable. Ultimately, the section I decided to go for was the travel that takes place between my house to the airport. I decided to design an electric train that would be able to take travellers too and from the airport. While this already exists in some countries and cities, I distinguished my design in regards to the services and the general system the train operated within. For instance, this train would allow passengers to check-in their luggage in the train so that they can skip the check-in portion at the airport. Throughout the weekend, I will be spending more time breaking into the specifics of my design and really pulling out the attributes that makes my design more sustainable.
