ABSTRACT
This final chapter attempts to sum up the argument of this book by returning to the ideas presented in the first chapter and considering what being a design professional means. It reflects on the nature of change and science and design and how the interplay between them impacts and is impacted by designer as an individual and by design writ large. The idea of what designers ought to do in light of what is being learned about sustainability and the environment is discussed—what do these ideas mean to day-to-day design practice?
Since designers are only one part of the overall process of design and change, just how much burden and responsibility should they bear? In this last chapter, the final analysis, as it were, the book suggests that designers are certainly suited to take leadership roles in designing the future if not ethically obligated to do so. The emergence of “green” design is discussed and used not only to evidence progress but also to demonstrate the degree to which more is needed. In the end, cost-effectiveness, performance issues, and life cycles of materials and projects are not the only measures of sustainability. The values of the society in which activity occurs and the values of the designers responsible for the form of the society, as well as the artifacts of an economy, are every bit as important as the technical knowledge. This book ends by calling upon the work of John Ehrenfield in his book Sustainable by Design. His thought that perhaps a better way to express the concept of sustainability is to call it “flourishing” instead. In the end, the greatest hopes we have, as designers, as consumers, as citizens, and as just people can be summarized as the desire to flourish. Perhaps the best measure of a designer’s work is to what extent it contributes to that one idea.
What ought we do?
Designer as teacher
Design Value
Designer as student
Jean Russ
