Guest post by Charlotte
Leib, Community Outreach Intern
It would be quixotic to assume
there is one singular definition of good design. After all, Dieter Rams, widely
regarded as one of the most influential industrial designers of our time, put
forth not one, but ten principles for good design.
In the early 1980’s, around the same time that John Connell founded Yestermorrow, Rams
published these principles, which have since influenced the designs of
countless products, including Apple computers.
Why fixate on Rams’ “Ten
Principles for Good Design”? Because more than offering a rubric for
product design, these principles value process over product, offering a durable
and elastic system for design. Rams’ process-driven approach evolves from a
design/build ethos, making him relevant to any discussion of “good
design” at Yestermorrow. Rams’ formative years were strongly
influenced by his grandfather, a carpenter, and though Rams at first aspired to
be an architect, he ultimately found his calling adapting industrial
technologies for the home setting.
Rams’ most recent reflections
suggest that good design must concern the creation of both better products and
better processes. “Today we need less but better products,” says Rams in
this short film “The Ethos of Dieter Rams.” “We
need new landscapes, together with new cities. We need new structures for
our behaviors. And that is design…We have enough things…we can improve
some things but it’s not spectacular to improve a television…”
Perhaps what we need are not more
things, not more industrial designers, but more industrial ecologists, who
study the “flows” of materials and energy through socio-economic systems with a
view to optimizing their use. Architect William McDonough and
chemist Michael Braungart issued
a clarion calls for this regenerative approach with their books, Cradle
to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things (2002) and The
Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability — Designing for Abundance (2013).
We need more inspiring work from
industrial ecologists like Ariana Bain, who works to create positive change
through innovative food systems, cities, and industry through her
business, Metabolic Lab. Bain delivered an
outstanding lecture during the Yestermorrow Summer Lecture Series, “Symbioculture: Healing the
Food System,” and returned to campus recently to share her design approach
with Regenerative Design Certificate students.
After completing a four week
program in whole systems thinking, these students are poised to create cultures
of positive change that move beyond the creation of sustainable products to the
facilitation of regenerative processes.
In order to better understand the
emerging field of Regenerative Design, I asked the certificate students to
answer the question, "What is good design?" What follows are a
selection of student responses, which expand traditional definitions of
good design, turning the notion of “good design is timeless” on its side to
suggest that design is not static but instead a product of evolving, dynamic
design processes.
“Good design…interconnects the
watershed, culture, community, people and their needs, place, the elements, and
location, trees, roads, rocks and plant life in a regenerative
way. In the built design this entails both interconnection and the
use of natural materials with minimum impact on the earth and modest, yet
efficient construction that interrelates with its people and landscape.”
– Jesse
LoVasco
“Design is the process through
which we utilize all of our knowledge to create a solution. Good and bad
design don’t exist. There can only be under-informed realizations.”
– Ryan
Galliford
“It’s hard to define “good
design,” because “good” is an abstract subjective word. To me, good
design is regenerative design – a process of designing [that] ensures that the
final outcome is a design that is vital and viable to a larger
whole. The design would have the ability to evolve overtime.”
–
Monica Albizu
“Good design begins with good
attention:
Listen, use your vision, smell,
taste, and feel movement, seeking wisdom.
Ask and hold the space for
questions.
Consider obstacles and greater
ramifications of our actions.
Good design takes the time to
dwell in and respond to context without judgment.
Sees what is - whole and simple.
Draws connections; makes a new
way to rise above the challenge.
Manifests process, inspired by
and spurring life.”
– Jesce
Walz
We look forward to seeing the
work of our first class of Regenerative Design Certificate students as they
bring these definitions of good design into their next endeavors.
How do you define good
design? Join the conversation and share your definition below!
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