Design em Busca da Sustentabilidade em Aglomerados Produtivos: A Experiência na Produção de Móveis no Amapá

Abstract

Sustainability has not been directly addressed by the public policies of design in Brazil, but in the last decade it was contemplated through the insertion of design within the government’s project for social development. In this context, we highlight the activities promoted in clusters, organized around a specific set of productive activities, which have received great institutional encouragement. This article seeks to contribute to the study of design-based strategies implemented in clusters through a case study — the clusters of small producers of furniture in Amapá — based on field research undertaken between 2004 and 2009. The first section explains the concept of clusters in Brazil — the so-called “APL” — and its relation to innovation, as well as the manner in which design policies are inserted to stimulate clusters development. The following section provides an overview of design activities conducted in the furniture clusters of Amapá. The third and fourth sections discuss issues that were crucial to the strategies adopted there: the search for cultural identity through design and the articulation between design strategies and the furniture production as a whole.