Cumulus is a conference that brings together institutions involved in design, education, and research. These encounters generate an environment which promotes the exchange and transfer of knowledge and best practices that are extremely useful and necessary in these troubled times. Networks and contacts are created that stimulate cooperation and innovation.
The most recent Cumulus conference was held last November at Universidad de los Andes in Bogota. More than just an event, it was a landmark that invited designers and architects to think about their role as creators in Latin America: a diverse land that is in permanent transformation.
Many situations from the five continents were discussed. Creative and new perspectives were suggested that not only illustrate the complex current reality but also the many possible alternatives to improve conditions in different parts of the world.
The central theme—The Design After—was an invitation to think about positions that have an innovative view of the current juncture and warns us about how certain ways of doing are over. We need to reinvent ourselves and profoundly reflect upon what is to come. The guideline question during the conference and paper presentations was the following: Have designers thought about what will happen next and how would they respond from their role?
The type of design we need today is transdisciplinary and pluralistic. Thinking about design from this perspective implies different opinions for which action and transaction become part of the process. When they are approached from this perspective, the design-related disciplines are forced to transcend their limits and question the principles on which they are based.
The presented proposals in the conference become important for architecture, through the fundamental action of approaching to reality, in order to contemplate as many factors as possible. We should become aware that sometimes the solution or approach does not come from outside; instead, it is constructed from within those who are involved within the process. We should carefully observe, register and communicate the knowledge that is found within these realities, and lead to the understanding that all the discoveries should be recognized and empowered. We should listen to the stories that keep the secrets of everything that is evident. We should work within and with the communities who are the authors of these stories and protagonists of the territories. We should make room for imagining certain fictional scenarios that enhance the conditions of a reality that embraces good wishes and hopes. We should understand all this as the perfect foundation to integrate multiple disciplines that enrich complex processes. We should immerse ourselves in the diverse realities at the working places.
These are just some of the actions that were considered during the three-day conference and that, without doubt, invite architects and designers to become more receptive, innovative and creative.
Therefore, it seems both relevant and useful to dedicate a Dearq’s issue to the trials and challenges of The Design After. To expose to architects the different points of view and to profoundly connect with disciplines that are as diverse as those of the speakers who visited us, which included: design, biology, art, business administration, engineering, medicine, social work, anthropology, and sociology.
For academia these meetings represent “breaking points” that challenges teachers researchers and students to question their role as educators and professionals, to reformulate their responses to a constantly changing and complex environment through educational alternatives that includes innovation, imagination and creativity -indispensable attributes for integral processes inside educational institutions.