1

Environmental design-Week2 Reading comprehension Zhu ShenXu

written by s2553129 | 1 October 2023

In this blog post, I would like to share my understanding of “Environmental Histories of Design: Towards a New Research Agenda”This article was published in May 2017. This article explores the reasons for the formation of the interdisciplinary field of environmental design from a historical perspective.By understanding this article, we can re-examine what environmental design is and use it as a reference for our further exploration.

I think this article mainly discusses the following three things.（The above three images were created using AI tools and correspond to the following three things.）

The first thing is that designing around nature may not be environmentally friendly.
The second thing is that industrial development has driven the field of environmental design, and industrial development is also a cause of environmental damage.
The third thing is the exploration of early scholars on the topic of symbiosis with nature.
 
The original text states that if early environmental history works erected or strengthened barriers between nature and culture through a focus on wilderness and conservation, subsequent generations of scholars increasingly focused on removing such barriers. And provide examples of the design of the Flamingo in the United States and the promotion of SUVs to demonstrate that the nature that consumers encounter is “commercialized, modified, dead, out of ecological context” and may even be harmful to nature.

I associate a constructive case，Waterfall Villa. This design does not include building the villa next to a waterfall, as in the previous two cases, and then placing a plastic waterfall inside the villa. This design uses a design language that communicates with nature.The designer of the flowing villa put aside human pride and respected nature and the surrounding environment of the building. I think this is very valuable. This architectural design made me realize that although the building appears to be a separate space from nature, people and the building are actually a part of nature.

The article then introduced the arts and crafts movement that influenced environmentalism, as well as the outstanding figure Morris in this movement. Morris became famous through literary works on utopian themes and demonstrated that it is wrong for humans to view nature as an opposing concept to humans. This is a false binary opposition. But Maurice’s utopia was ultimately shattered by World War I. Because industrialization itself is a potential risk of natural destruction. When we see the scorched earth brought about by war, we can intuitively experience it.
The article concludes by discussing the origins of these trends, Bauhaus. The designers of Bauhaus explored the relationship between humans and nature with many ineffective yet enlightening designs, such as the penguin pool that no penguin would use. At that time, designers began to think about the impact of design on the environment and their essence.

From a historical perspective, I believe that designers in the last century advanced the development of design by a significant margin. With the advent of the Industrial Revolution and war, people began to reflect and evaluate their existing knowledge systems. Many constructive schools of thought have emerged, such as deconstructionism, stylism, and the Memphis design organization. These are great revolutions and innovations in the field of design.

Based on the study of this history, I believe that environmentally friendly design should not be limited to imitating the appearance of natural organisms and expressing natural graphics, nor should it only focus on the human perspective and ignore the laws of natural operation. Merely imitating forms cannot achieve environmentally friendly design. We should let go of human arrogance, abide by natural moral principles, and design from a natural perspective.

Reference:

1. Environmental History of Design: Towards a New Research Agenda; Kjetil Fallan and Finn Arne J ø rgensen

2. From luxury brands to street vendors, why is this pink flamingo so popular; https://www.sohu.com/a/163573917_788514

3. AD Classic: Flowing Villa; https://www.archdaily.cn/cn/622965/ad-classics-fallingwater-house?ad_source=search&ad_medium=projects_tab

* Unlabeled images are from search engines