Comments on: A MANIFESTO FOR SUSTAINABLE DESIGN http://inhabitat.com/a-manifesto-for-sustainable-design/ Green design & eco innovation for a better world Sat, 25 May 2013 19:09:32 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc By: Stiven (sustainableday.com) http://inhabitat.com/a-manifesto-for-sustainable-design/comment-page-1/#comment-43048 Stiven (sustainableday.com) Thu, 05 Apr 2007 18:47:04 +0000 http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/04/04/a-manifesto-for-sustainable-design/#comment-43048 Thanks Allan. I don’t think that you were being to rough on consumerism as a mater of fact I would go further as to say that it is an illness of the developed world especially in the US where culturally we measure happiness with the amount of “crap” we can afford to surround ourselves with. Media and corporations have taught us to believe that happiness and quality of life lies in owning an Audi or being the first to sport the I-phone, not to mention all the other far less useful and badly designed products we think we need. Just one example is Cuba, a place where consumerism of any kind practically does not exist but yet they are a one of the healthiest nations in the world both physically and mentally. I traveled there for a few weeks last year and was so surprised how few materialistic possessions they have and yet how happy they are as people. I believe that as designers we must take on the responsibility of redefining the meaning of good design. You are right, it’s about context and appropriateness and balance of all the meaningful variables. This is much harder to achieve than just beautiful form and function but paradoxically not often identified as good design. The folks at www.worldchanging.com have put together a great book documenting some of the world’s best sustainable and practical solutions. To me, there are better examples of good design in that book than any other traditional artsy fartsy design publication. We humans invented trash with our crude industrial systems and still today we are the smartest creatures on earth but also the dumbest as we stumble to realize the side effects of our shallow addiction to our superficially manufactured need for crap we don’t need. These ideas are not new; Papanek and Fuller figured this stuff out 30 years ago… Checkout my manifesto and blog at www.sustainableday.com Thanks Allan. I don’t think that you were being to rough on consumerism as a mater of fact I would go further as to say that it is an illness of the developed world especially in the US where culturally we measure happiness with the amount of “crap” we can afford to surround ourselves with. Media and corporations have taught us to believe that happiness and quality of life lies in owning an Audi or being the first to sport the I-phone, not to mention all the other far less useful and badly designed products we think we need.

Just one example is Cuba, a place where consumerism of any kind practically does not exist but yet they are a one of the healthiest nations in the world both physically and mentally. I traveled there for a few weeks last year and was so surprised how few materialistic possessions they have and yet how happy they are as people.

I believe that as designers we must take on the responsibility of redefining the meaning of good design. You are right, it’s about context and appropriateness and balance of all the meaningful variables. This is much harder to achieve than just beautiful form and function but paradoxically not often identified as good design.

The folks at http://www.worldchanging.com have put together a great book documenting some of the world’s best sustainable and practical solutions. To me, there are better examples of good design in that book than any other traditional artsy fartsy design publication.

We humans invented trash with our crude industrial systems and still today we are the smartest creatures on earth but also the dumbest as we stumble to realize the side effects of our shallow addiction to our superficially manufactured need for crap we don’t need.

These ideas are not new; Papanek and Fuller figured this stuff out 30 years ago…

Checkout my manifesto and blog at http://www.sustainableday.com

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