Columns:: Worth Repeating

since 12/15/98

Columns::November 12, 2001

Worth repeating

Architect and designer William McDonough delivered this year’s Environmental Ethics lecture for the Center for Humanities and Arts, focusing on what he and his design partners call “the next industrial revolution.” Some excerpts:
“As a designer, I see design as the first signal of human intention. And I think we can look back at many of the artifacts of our human production and start to ask ourselves ‘Did we really intend to achieve the results that we have achieved? Is this our strategy?’ Because when we see the tragedies that we see in the world--global warming, persistent toxifica-tion, endocrine disruption, bioaccumulation, heavy metal contamination, polluted rivers, polluted air, terrorism--we have to ask ourselves, did we intend for these things to happen? Is this part of our strategy? Is it part of our design? And at what point do . . . our designers say, ‘I don’t intend to be part of that. In fact, I intend for something else.’ And how do we move toward that?
“We’re asking two fundamental design questions now with every project we have, and they . . . are ‘how do we love all the children of all species for all time?’ . . . and the second question we’re asking is ‘when do we become native to this place?’ . . .
“From a strategic perspective what we realize is that the tragedies we see in the world we now own. It’s no longer possible to say ‘Global warming? It’s not part of my plan.’ It’s part of everyone’s plan--it‘s the thing that’s happening because we have no plan. . . . The culture has become effectively strategically tragic. We’ve adopted a strategy of tragedy. . . .
“Perhaps it’s time for a strategy of change. . . . Perhaps we could have a strategy of hope. If you look at our culture you can find examples of strategies that have changed the way that we live. . . .”

--Beth Roberts

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