Actually, the debate of “Designers have not yet come to terms with their complicity in the creation of the conditions of environmental crisis or with their environmental responsibility, nor have they yet reformed their practices accordingly” seems different with traditional debate in my previous understanding( a so poor connection brings lots of noise and feedback that I could not hear what mates said)

I’d like to share what I intend to present in following with some examples.

We think to demonstrate this thesis it could be better if we argue this from three perspectives-possible references, attemption&try and public mission.

Below is Book Mountain Library in Spijkenisse by MVRDV and nearly all bookshelves are made of recycled flowerpots; while at the same time, it becomes the functional background for the books parapets, information desk and cafe area. They form another element in the building’s palette of recycled materials: brick, wood and glass. This studio aims to reuse and adapt current existing structures to transform them into a more livable, flexible and adaptable space for the future.

In their next projects, they talk about sustainability and think it’s something that everyone wants but the eco-buildings are often uninteresting and unattractive. There are so many different aspects of sustainable design which could be a combination and self-sufficient buildings. They’ve observed it which the car-free model still allows residents to drive up to their houses with their shopping, but it is just hidden underground, and streets are suitable for emergency vehicles.

We could learn from these two projects and their explanation about what is sustainability and how designers integrate with sustainability.

As for the first viewpoint that designers seem to bear too much pressure and responsibilities, it’s a good angle to see this question to discuss weather designers recognize their dilemma and put efforts to practice. I’ve always held a view that we designers should not only output things to our audience but also learn from our client, which is a mutual-interacted process. The world consists of mere individualists and a few idealists while the later could change our existed lifestyle, methodology and ideology potentially. (No offence to any certain group) Same as our design group, the excitement and passion of pushing the design boundaries and creating a better society absolutely become designers’ primitive inspiration and manifesto.

What’s more, about the discussed sustainability, to be frank in other areas this conception is pretty ordinary. Take my graduation design which requires a whole chemistry factory process for example. We need to finish all drawings and comparison of raw materials so that we could minimise this reaction process out of “green chemistry”. Meanwhile, this idea can be also indicated from these selections of facilities cuz different consumption depends on different materials. In order to achieve this sustainability, continuously appealing scientists and engineers make efforts to reduce the usage of natural resource and pollution. If we regard the behaviour that solves the problems on purpose as “design” in a general sense, not restricted in graphic design, architecture and interior design…we will find our conclusion that sustainability has existed long before.

(still lots of things to write, I’d like to add them to next week’s blog

[Week 4]debate&lecture / Yanming He / Environmental Design: Materials, Ecologies, Futures (2020-2021)[SEM1] by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0