Designing our way into the 21st century…
Posted on December 19, 2010 | posted by:
“Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing existing situations into preferred ones.”
This statement has an ironic connotation for me, as it is precisely these design actions of the past, which have led to the current situation of global crises, which is hardly a ‘preferred’ circumstance. We have designed our way into massive problems.
The readings explored through the Transdisciplinary seminar and Design for the 21st century classes not only provide a context for the program, but also plants critical seeds of thought about the role of design in the increasingly complex cultural and technological environment of this century. The readings comprise of a wide range of topics from systems thinking, open source, self-emergent behaviors to books that highlight environmental issues and solutions. Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution, by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins and In the Bubble by John Thackara form a part of the latter.
In one of the class discussions, which follow the readings, someone mentioned the enormous responsibility a designer in today’s time has. In this highly competitive global economy, it’s difficult enough to be successful and now it appears we have to be responsible too? The fact of the matter is that we don’t have a choice. I have come to learn that eighty percent of the future environment impact that a product, service or infrastructure has, is decided at the design stage. Hence the same way that actions of the past have led to the situation we face today, the future will be a result of the design decisions we make today. It is essential for today’s design collective to be aware of this.
Having a classes like these have given me some ‘official’ time to give more than just a passing thought towards the role and responsibility of design today and in the future. Questions in my mind develop about the future of design and thereby the future of the world. It’s hard to ignore that our ecological footprint that has doubled since the sixties. In 2007, humanity used the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support its activities and by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb carbon dioxide waste and keep up with natural resource consumption. The US is one of the largest consumer societies in the world with a massive ecological footprint. Despite having a small percent of the world’s total population, it accounts for a dominating amount of consumption. Countries with the most massive populations like China and India are fast growing consumer societies. With the ecological footprint of the world already being 1.5 times, what will happen when other countries catch up with the American lifestyle for which we all aspire?
What has struck me is this massive scope and need for sustainable design. Sustainable design thinking is described as a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Hence we need to not only design to meet today’s environmental standards but also to meet the needs of the 21st century. John Thackara, author of ‘In the Bubble’ states optimistically in one of his interviews.” If we can design our way into difficulty, we can design our way out.”
I certainly hope so.