I'm an engineer working in Glasgow, Scotland. This personal blog is a collection of my writing on whatever I find interesting, mainly on the themes of design and sustainability.
Design and technology is the most visible expression of society's values and though I do not believe design can solve societal problems independently of broader social, political and economic efforts, I do think we have an "urgent opportunity" to re-evaluate design and technology in light of today's social, environmental and economic context and express our values therein.
- I'm a proponent of the circular economy (as part of the solution)
- I am an advocate for standards and open collaboration
- I generally favour simple, elegant and considered design
- I'm typically critical of proprietary, ephemeral, capitalistic things
- I take a systems approach to design, and a design approach to systems
I've re-engineered many commercial light fittings ("luminaires") so they can be remanufactured not recycled; I've had a key role in drafting BS 8887-221:2025 (a standard which describes the general process for remanufacturing luminaires). Previously I helped design a microplastic filter for washing machines and now have some patents relating to filtration and filter regeneration (I'm ambivalent about patents).
Please take a look through my pages and if you want to get in touch with corrections, comments or anything else you can email me here. Cheers!