ABSTRACT
From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from conservationism to climate change, from ecology to ethology, from genetic engineering to the Great Pacific garbage patch, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling, from urban exodus to urban farming – the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has a pertinent yet precarious position in environmental discourse. It is part of the problem, but also an indispensable part of the solution. Despite this long-standing centrality of design to environmental discourse, and vice versa, these interrelations remain underexplored in design historical scholarship and environmental history alike. This book aims to articulate such conversations and stimulate reflections on the design of nature and the nature of design.
