Design Ecologies: Essays on the Nature of Design by Lisa Tilder

Design Ecologies: Essays on the Nature of Design by Lisa TilderDesign Ecologies: Essays on the Nature of Design by Lisa Tilder

Design Ecologies: Essays on the Nature of Design by Lisa Tilder

Publication Date: December 14, 2005

Contemporary architects are under increasing pressure to offer a sustainable future. But with all the focus on green building there has been little investigation into the meaningful connections between architectural design  ecological systems  and environmentalism. A new generation of architects  landscape architects  designers  and engineers aims to recalibrate what humans do in the world according to how the world works as a biophysical system. Design in this sense is a larger concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with aesthetics and technology. This recasting of the green movement for the twenty-first century transforms design into a positive agent balancing societal values with environmental needs.                 Design Ecologies is a ground-breaking collection of never-before-published essays and case studies by today's most innovative designers and critics. Their design strategies--social  material  and biological--run the gamut from the intuitive to the highly technological. One essay likens window-unit air conditioners in New York City to weeds in order to spearhead the development of potential design solutions. Latz + Partner's Landscape Park integrates vegetation and industry in an urban park built amongst the monumental ruins of a former steelworks in Duisburg Nord  Germany. The engineering firm Arup presents its thirty-three-square-mile masterplan for Dongtan Eco City  an energy-independent city that China hopes will house half a million people by 2050. An essay by designer Bruce Mau leads off a stellar list of emerging designers  including Jane Amidon  Blaine Brownell  David Gissen  Gross.Max  Robert Sumrell and Kazys Varnelis  Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake  R&Sie(n)  Studio 804  and WORKac.