On the occasion of the International Exhibition of Internal Fitting out, Decoration and Garden Supplies "INTERMED" which will take place from the 22nd to 25th of  February 2012 at the International Fair of Sfax., the Sfax Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the organiser of the Exhibition, calls for the conference on the INTERMED forum which will focus on the theme:

R-evolution: the design and its practices

What impact on society could have a radical and abrupt change in the daily life experience, in the perception of the other, in the way to see the future, in the identity and in the design made? 

        Clearly the revolutionary impetus witnessed by Tunisia in the recent months, tends to support a public space in which its nature and importance are considerably transformed and extended. However, it is not surprising that the public space is subject to individual new assumptions: green public spaces which are mistreated and hardly approachable, almost non-existent pedestrians, little studied street furniture for use, not to mention the 'aesthetic side which is virtually missing in these areas.

        The revolution seems to far aggravate/ worsen the discrepancies which are maintained for a long time and which contribute to reducing the public space to a lifeless place made just for passage rather than to a place where to live and experience. Does this mean that architecture and also the design of public places will give a new identity that is built between preserving the historical heritage and recasting it, thereby creating areas of freedom which break with the tyranny of the position and the monotony of the public offering? This identity/ dimension is often wandering in a vast universe and into the air of the timing off.  The latter are the two spatiotemporal parameters which define the new age of the globalization of the design.

In this global context, could a designer face a duality or rather a dilemma of rupture or continuity in the creation? Acquiring a freedom of thought and expression, grazing or crossing the threshold of risks, doing the experience of ‘ the new thing’ or safeguarding the features of  the existing ‘heritage’, there are many concepts which has deeply reissued the activity and  the practices of the design in our modern societies.

We admit that the integration of the designed object in its environment must be a fulfilling experience. This certainly would be felt cramped if it would not lead to the horizon of the cosmos.

Themes of thought:  

• Could the design in a society change for a ‘new’ use for public space? 
• Globalization, internationality and the cosmicity in design 
•  Is it possible to talk about the transfer of identity via design? 
• Are craft and industry media/ agents for a revolutionary design?

Operators wishing to participate in the animation to this forum are asked to send us their proposals (in the form of a summary to be filled in the attachment file) before the 20/12/2011 and to one of these e-mail addresses:  ccis@ccis.org.tn / taha.chaabouni@ccis.org.tn

The scientific committee will meet on the 22/12/2011 to review the proposed topics and to finalize the program of the forum.

The Travel and the stay expenses of participants who are accepted by the scientific committee are supported by the Sfax Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Tunisia)

                                             The Scientific Committee