SUSTAINABLE AESTHETIC FUNCTION: REFRAMING DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABILITY

This paper aims to promote reflection on the design process and planning of products and provide alternatives to reframe the current material culture of consumption in the context of contemporary post-industrial society. The purpose is, more precisely, to contribute to the introduction of an approach to design aimed at raising awareness and promoting "Sustainable Aesthetics" (Walker). In this sense, we take into account: conceptual contributions about the interrelationship between theory and practice, ethics and aesthetics in the process of product design; the relationship between the aesthetic function and the practical function and symbolic function, in order to focus and prioritise a "sustainable aesthetic function" (Pantaleão). In a more comprehensive plan aiming to contribute to a reflection on the creative process of the act of designing (just do design) to syntonize society regarding new systemic, holistic and ecological paradigms, regarding the influence of “aesth/ethical” configurations as elements developing consumerist awareness.