contact details
email: s.fairburn@rgu.ac.uk
tel: 00 44 (0)1224 263657

web site:
www.designfordevelopment.org

SUE FAIRBURN

Biographical Statement

Sue Fairburn is a part-time Lecturer in Product Design. Born and educated in Western Canada, she holds a MEDes (Industrial Design – 2003 – University of Calgary) and a MSc (Environmental Physiology – 1993 - Simon Fraser University). Her skills and experience bridge the fields of design and applied human sciences, with recent opportunities to apply these to International Development and technology/knowledge translation. She is currently co-employed with the Department of Public Health, University of Aberdeen to ‘translate research into policy’ for a Maternal Health project in Developing countries (Ghana, Indonesia, Burkina Faso). In 2005, Sue co-founded a Canadian-based Charity, Design for Development. (www.designfordevelopment.org),

A bike ambulance developed for a community in Malawi - this approach
provides a realistic solution to patient transport challenges, utilizing
bicycle technology and region-appropriate design to improve and save
people's lives.(Image: Design for Development)

Personal Statement

Research pursuits have included diving and thermal physiology, industrial rehabilitation, space architecture, and design for development. These research-related opportunities have involved a variety of Canadian and European agencies; Department of National Defence, Workers’ Compensation Board, University of Calgary, the European Space Agency and the Austrian Chancellory of Art. In 2001, Fibre Design Inc. a Canadian-based design+engineering consultancy was set up and Sue is currently the Principal of the firm. Funding sources for projects have included National grants (NSERC) and Agency contracts (ESA) as well as Rotary International, Corporate Donors, and private contracts.




Access to clean, drinkable water is a daily concern for many families
in sub-saharan Africa. This affordable (<50Rand) multi-purpose
short-range cart for transporting water/goods would be distributed
as a working prototype with a field dissmeination kit so that each
local community can interpret and reproduce the design based on
their local resources and ability. (Image: S. Fairburn, Interdesign)

Recent projects include medical devices (2002-2005), habitat design/space architecture (2000-2006), space simulators (2005-2006) and sustainable rural transportation (2005-current). Current projects span the technology continuum: Space architecture habitability research with colleagues in Europe and India and Design for Development projects based in Namibia, Malawi, and Kenya.

Projects outputs of interest:

Book: Transcripts of an Architectural Journey – Musings Towards a New Genre in [space] architecture (2005). Barbara Imhof, Susmita Mohanty, Hannes Stiefel, Sandra Hauplik, Constance Adams, and Edited by Sue Fairburn. Published by KUNST, Austria.

Paper: Mohanty, S. and S.M. Fairburn (2003). “Skins” by Design – Humans to Habitats.  Presented at 32nd International Conference on Environmental Systems (ICES), July 7-10, 2003. Paper # 03ICES-173 Published by Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE).

Paper: Fairburn, S.M. ‘Retrofitting Space – The Design of a Crew Quarter and ‘Kit of Parts’ for the International Space Station.’ (2002). Paper SAS202-3764 Published in the AIAA 2002 Proceedings.

Conceptual design of a 'kit of parts' approach to habitability in space:
a crew quarter for integration into existing International Space Station
rack-modules which allows for control of body position in zero gravity
and flexibility of orientation and layout out of the interior feature to
achieve privacy and comfort while considering the qualitative aspects
of the personal space. (Image. S. Fairburn)

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