The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention
David W. Orr
Language: English
Pages: 249
ISBN: B0060L8Q72
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
The environmental movement has often been accused of being overly negative--trying to stop "progress." The Nature of Design, on the other hand, is about starting things, specifically an ecological design revolution that changes how we provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and livelihood, and how we deal with waste.
Ecological design is an emerging field that aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology.
The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century. Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language, the clockspeed of technological society, and shortsighted politics. Orr goes on to describe the critical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism."
Appropriately, the book ends on themes of charity, wilderness, and the rights of children. Astute yet broadly appealing, The Nature of Design combines theory, practicality, and a call to action.
Increasingly, we communicate by electronic mail and the Internet. As a consequence, I believe that one can detect a decline in the salience of our communication and perhaps in its civility as well in direct proportion to its velocity and volume. It is certainly possible to detect a growing frustration among faculty with the time it takes to separate chaff from the grain in the rising deluge of e-mail, regular mail, memos, administrative pronouncements, and directives. Conclusion Fast knowledge
observation of soils, wildlife, and plants. My Amish friend often uses only a walking plow, which he believes preserves soil biota and prevents erosion. The speed of the horse, in other words, allows the Amish to pay attention to the minute particulars of their farm and how they farm. By a similar logic, he waits to cut hay until the bobolinks in the field have fledged. The loss in protein content in the hay he believes is more than compensated by the health of the place and the pleasure derived
displace the laws, both physical and moral, that bound human actions. A second indirect manifestation of ecological denial occurs when unreasonable standards of proof are required to establish the existence of environmental threats. Is the loss of species a problem? Well, if you think so, just name one species that went extinct today! The strategy is clear: focus on nits, avoid large issues, and always demand an unattainable level of proof for the existence of any possible problem before agreeing
nations do exploit the resources and people of poorer nations. Both positions are, of course, much more detailed than my brief synopsis suggests. On balance, however, the issues are familiar ones, dating back at least to the controversy over The Limits to Growth (Meadows et al. 1972). In the intervening years, the stakes have grown higher. Evidence mounts that humans are now impacting the global environment and eroding what has come to be called natural capital. Despite the emergence of a
as all of those other costs to environment and human health not included in the prices of energy, materials, and waste disposal. The costs of this project, accordingly, were higher than normal because we included • students, faculty, and community members in the design process • research into materials and technologies to meet program goals • higher performance standards • more sophisticated technologies 132 DESIGN AS PEDAGOGY • greater efforts to integrate technologies and systems • an