Human Settlements Review - Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Human Settlements Review, Volume 1, Number 1, 2010
“It is about understanding the unfolding
and dynamic interplay between nature and
culture and treating design as if it is a process
of participating in and reconciling these
processes as they flower into forms that best
benefit people and the planet” (Buchanan
2008, 128).
Design also needs more of what Albert
Borgman terms “spacious awareness and
humility” (Borgman 2008, 6). He discusses how
premodern cultures were keenly conscious of
space – they could and did inhabit, at least
conceptually, the whole universe (Borgman
2008, 6). “In contrast, the semantic space
most people in our rich Western democracies
inhabit is just the surface of the earth”
(Borgman 2008, 6). Borgman states that we
live in ambiguous space (2008, 14). Many of
the technological and economic advances
often considered as evidence of our cultural
vitality are smoothing and accelerating
private forms of transportation, information
and consumption and are thus fomenting the
feeling of restlessness and unreality that is
the curse of destitute space. We are largely
unaware of the destitution of space, because
we think that the threat to space is material
poverty rather than experiential destitution.
David Orr (2007, par. 17) suggests that we
need a standard for our work, rather like the
Hippocratic Oath or a compass by which we
chart a journey. For that David Orr (2007)
proposes that “designers should aim to cause
no ugliness, human or ecological, somewhere
else or at some later time” (par. 17).
“That standard will cause us to think upstream
from the particular design project or object
to the wells, mines, forest, farms and
manufacturing establishments from which
materials are drawn and crystallized into
particularities of design. It will cause us also
to look downstream to the effects of design on
climate and health of people and ecosystems.
If there is ugliness, human or ecological, at
either end designers cannot claim success as
a designer regardless of artfulness of what is
made” (Orr 2007, par 17).
Orr (2007) further suggests that we must
think of ourselves firstly as place makers not
form makers – this difference he stresses is
critical (par.18). He argues that design has
conventionally or traditionally been mostly
indifferent to human and ecological costs
incurred elsewhere (Orr 2007, par.18). Place
making he argues must honor and preserve
other places, however remote in space and
culture (Orr 2007, par. 18).
Paradigm Shift
Questions of sustainability typically center
around energy usage, consumption patterns
And issues such as water scarcity. We must,
however, keep in mind much deeper questions
that rarely find their way into political debate
or public discourse and there will need to be
attempts to integrate economics with ethics,
culture and spirituality. Such conversations
about changes in governance, economics,
social norms and daily life that must be made
to avoid the worst of what lies ahead are only
beginning.
We in the comfortable middle class must be
prepared to “give up”, give up cars, rethink and
reimagine cities and be prepared to share
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