The Concept of Design

William McDonough is a world-renowned architect, designer, and winner of three U.S. presidential awards: the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development (1996), the National Design Award (2004); and the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award (2003). Mr. McDonough was the speaker at the 2000 Bioneers Conference. In this video, Bill McDonough talks about the concept of design.

Bill McDonough opened the conference up with two questions:

" How do we love all children of all species for all time?"
and
"When do we become native to this place?"

Mr. McDonough explained these questions by saying that the world is full of tragedies- such as global warming and plutonium. As designers, we have to take responsibility for such tragedies, and come up with strategies of change. McDonough used Thomas Jefferson as an example of a designer. Jefferson was a designer and an architect, as well as the President of the United States- although Jefferson will always be remembered as an architect and designer more than as the President of the United States. One of Jefferson's greatest accomplishments was designing the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson designed three major things in his lifetime- the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the federal government. Jefferson stressed three key ideas in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Although Jefferson designed the federal government and America on these three principals, Jefferson did not anticipate that humans would later ruin his original design. Had Jefferson known what the world would be like several hundred years later, he might have designed a Bill of Responsibilities instead of the Bill of Rights.

Jane Jacobs has also come up with two syndromes for survival.

• The Guardian
  
• Commerce

The guardian is in charge- the knights of the round table. It is slow, serious, legal, and shuns commerce. Whereas commerce is business. Commerce is quick and honest. When you put the two of these syndromes together, you create a monstrous hybrid.

Emerson asked,

" If humans are natural, therefore are all things done by humans part of nature?"

Emerson then concluded that nature is all things that are immutable, such as the ocean.

Bill McDonough then began to talk about how all sustainability will eventually be local. Designers need to become leaders, and leaders need to become designers. We as humans, need to think about design as intention. Some design criteria that McDonough has come up with is:

• Cost
• Performance
• Aesthetics
• Ecological Intelligence
• Justice
• Fun

After looking over this list, Mr. McDonough came to the conclusion that design is connected to the founding of America because Ecological Intelligence is life, Justice is liberty, and Fun is the pursuit of happiness. Bill McDonough concluded that as humans, we need to be more conscience of our designs and the environment. We need to free ourselves from all of the "bad design."