Design Like Nature: a Sustainable Endowment
Alejandro Caballero, MBA1
Issue date: 12/3/01 Section: News
- Page 1 of 1
"I was born in Japan after the war. I grew up in Hong Kong. When I was a kid, during the dry season we had four hours of running water every fourth day. So we saved water in our bathtub and anything else that would hold it. I thought that was ordinary life.
Unfortunately, the threat of nuclear war has taught us all to live life as if there is no tomorrow. I try to live as if there is a tomorrow: And my design is inherently optimistic in that way. You shouldn't be a designer if you're not optimistic"
These were some of the words that William F. McDonough, neatly dressed and in a bow tie, pronounced in his November 15th conference at the Teaching Center at the Science & Engineering Quad, Stanford University. Before an almost full auditorium with people of different ages and origins, among whom were about 25 GSBers, this internationally acclaimed sustainability designer and architect presented his thinking and some of his most recent work, based on his belief that building with more, not less, is nature's true design.
Founder of two architectural firms and the prestigious Institute for Sustainable Design, McDonough, 49, is no stranger to controversy. In 1985, he shocked the architectural world with his "green" design for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York City, sparking a movement in architecture and design that continues today. Recently, Ford Motor Co. asked McDonough to "green" its Mustang-making Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Now, the first and only recipient of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development and Time magazine's 1999 "Hero of the Planet" is turning his attention to nature’s design and what he calls "the next Industrial Revolution."
McDonough sees environmental problems as "design problems." He proposes that we sequester certain amounts of material for our own use in safe cycles, to use them over and over again rather than constantly attacking the world for what we call "resources." For McDonough the question is not, "How do we use nature to serve our interests?" It is "How can we use humans to serve nature's interest?"
With a well-constructed discourse and unusual assertiveness, McDonough explained that the main question we now face is not whether "I am doing what I am doing right" (efficiency), but, most importantly, whether "I am doing the right thing" (effectiveness).
Efficiency is pernicious because it allows us to perpetuate the existing system. Under the current "eco-efficiency" system, he says, the idea is to have a showerhead that spits out the minimum amount of water, so that you feel good about yourself even though you're not comfortable and you're not happy and you're not celebrating in the abundance of solar energy and clean water. McDonough proposes to move into "eco-effectiveness," celebrating in the abundance of the world. Going ahead and having a long, hot shower as long as it's solar-powered and you're putting the water back cleaner than you found it. Accordingly, his firm designs buildings every day that make more energy than they use. That way, McDonough says, "We celebrate that abundance."
There are two fundamental design questions that McDonough puts to potential clients when he undertakes any of his architectural projects. One is "How do we love all children, all species, all time?" The other then comes through: "What does it take to be native to this planet?" Or, in other words, "What does it mean to be indigenous?"
A particular concept of being indigenous that McDonough has: when architectural firms began to compete for the Gap office complex in San Bruno, California, McDonough saw it as a competition of ideas rather than for a contract. "Our idea," he mentioned, "was that if a bird flew over the building, it would not know that anything had changed." Therefore, the roofs of the building are planted with native grasses and wildflowers atop 6 inches of soil that both fools the birds and serves as a thermal and acoustical insulator.
After three hours of McDonough's lecture in much more than architecture, one sees that his utopianism is based on an emerging philosophy that tries to change the design of the world. Indeed, the three points of his abstractly designed theory reflect that people who used to be impelled to make things by the old impulses of social and economic interests now must add the environment. "But not as an ism," he cautions, not as an extreme. "What we're trying to do is balance ecology, equity and economy."
As he puts it, "We have not rendered visible our joyful intentions. If we don't love this world and all the abundance within it, we will most certainly destroy it." The spirit of the declaration of independence is now renewed by McDonough: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is no longer only for the current generations but also for the future ones.
Unfortunately, the threat of nuclear war has taught us all to live life as if there is no tomorrow. I try to live as if there is a tomorrow: And my design is inherently optimistic in that way. You shouldn't be a designer if you're not optimistic"
These were some of the words that William F. McDonough, neatly dressed and in a bow tie, pronounced in his November 15th conference at the Teaching Center at the Science & Engineering Quad, Stanford University. Before an almost full auditorium with people of different ages and origins, among whom were about 25 GSBers, this internationally acclaimed sustainability designer and architect presented his thinking and some of his most recent work, based on his belief that building with more, not less, is nature's true design.
Founder of two architectural firms and the prestigious Institute for Sustainable Design, McDonough, 49, is no stranger to controversy. In 1985, he shocked the architectural world with his "green" design for the Environmental Defense Fund in New York City, sparking a movement in architecture and design that continues today. Recently, Ford Motor Co. asked McDonough to "green" its Mustang-making Rouge Plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Now, the first and only recipient of the Presidential Award for Sustainable Development and Time magazine's 1999 "Hero of the Planet" is turning his attention to nature’s design and what he calls "the next Industrial Revolution."
McDonough sees environmental problems as "design problems." He proposes that we sequester certain amounts of material for our own use in safe cycles, to use them over and over again rather than constantly attacking the world for what we call "resources." For McDonough the question is not, "How do we use nature to serve our interests?" It is "How can we use humans to serve nature's interest?"
With a well-constructed discourse and unusual assertiveness, McDonough explained that the main question we now face is not whether "I am doing what I am doing right" (efficiency), but, most importantly, whether "I am doing the right thing" (effectiveness).
Efficiency is pernicious because it allows us to perpetuate the existing system. Under the current "eco-efficiency" system, he says, the idea is to have a showerhead that spits out the minimum amount of water, so that you feel good about yourself even though you're not comfortable and you're not happy and you're not celebrating in the abundance of solar energy and clean water. McDonough proposes to move into "eco-effectiveness," celebrating in the abundance of the world. Going ahead and having a long, hot shower as long as it's solar-powered and you're putting the water back cleaner than you found it. Accordingly, his firm designs buildings every day that make more energy than they use. That way, McDonough says, "We celebrate that abundance."
There are two fundamental design questions that McDonough puts to potential clients when he undertakes any of his architectural projects. One is "How do we love all children, all species, all time?" The other then comes through: "What does it take to be native to this planet?" Or, in other words, "What does it mean to be indigenous?"
A particular concept of being indigenous that McDonough has: when architectural firms began to compete for the Gap office complex in San Bruno, California, McDonough saw it as a competition of ideas rather than for a contract. "Our idea," he mentioned, "was that if a bird flew over the building, it would not know that anything had changed." Therefore, the roofs of the building are planted with native grasses and wildflowers atop 6 inches of soil that both fools the birds and serves as a thermal and acoustical insulator.
After three hours of McDonough's lecture in much more than architecture, one sees that his utopianism is based on an emerging philosophy that tries to change the design of the world. Indeed, the three points of his abstractly designed theory reflect that people who used to be impelled to make things by the old impulses of social and economic interests now must add the environment. "But not as an ism," he cautions, not as an extreme. "What we're trying to do is balance ecology, equity and economy."
As he puts it, "We have not rendered visible our joyful intentions. If we don't love this world and all the abundance within it, we will most certainly destroy it." The spirit of the declaration of independence is now renewed by McDonough: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is no longer only for the current generations but also for the future ones.
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