ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book attempts to make a contribution to the debate about designing sustainability through an interwoven process of thinking and doing, writing and designing. It discusses a basis for design values that is congruent with age-old understandings of human meaning as well as with contemporary notions of sustainability. The book explains the design on a Darkling Plain, which looks at the relationship of contemporary products to issues of sustainability and enduring meaning. It describes the creation of Contemplative Objects, which offers as a means of reflecting upon today's mass-produced version of human-made material culture, and particularly technological products that are ostensibly for human benefit. The book discusses contemporary calls for including spiritual considerations in people's understandings of sustainability. It suggests that, to deal more effectively with today's environmental and social challenges, a new attitude or outlook has to be developed.
