The Nature of Design: Ecology, Culture, and Human IntentionThe environmental movement has often been accused of being overly negative--trying to stop "progress." The Nature of Design, on the other hand, is about starting things, specifically an ecological design revolution that changes how we provide food, shelter, energy, materials, and livelihood, and how we deal with waste. Ecological design is an emerging field that 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 large concept having to do as much with politics and ethics as with buildings and technology. The book begins by describing the scope of design, comparing it to the Enlightenment of the 18th century. Subsequent chapters describe barriers to a design revolution inherent in our misuse of language, the clockspeed of technological society, and shortsighted politics. Orr goes on to describe the critical role educational institutions might play in fostering design intelligence and what he calls "a higher order of heroism." Appropriately, the book ends on themes of charity, wilderness, and the rights of children. Astute yet broadly appealing, The Nature of Design combines theory, practicality, and a call to action. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... once identified the Inuit people of northern Alaska as the best designers in the world. They are, he believed, “forced into excellence by climate, environment, and their space concepts. At least equally important is the cultural baggage ...
... once identified the Inuit people of northern Alaska as the best designers in the world. They are, he believed, “forced into excellence by climate, environment, and their space concepts. At least equally important is the cultural baggage ...
Page 9
... once noted, the deadly sins have mutated into “virtues” that feed economic obesity. When the two cultures have clashed, settled people have regarded industrial people as seriously deranged. But more often than not settled people are ...
... once noted, the deadly sins have mutated into “virtues” that feed economic obesity. When the two cultures have clashed, settled people have regarded industrial people as seriously deranged. But more often than not settled people are ...
Page 10
... once described by English wheelwright George Sturt ([1923] 1984, 66) as “the age-long effort of Englishmen to fit themselves close and ever closer into England.” Beneath what we can see in settled cultures, there is a deeper worldview ...
... once described by English wheelwright George Sturt ([1923] 1984, 66) as “the age-long effort of Englishmen to fit themselves close and ever closer into England.” Beneath what we can see in settled cultures, there is a deeper worldview ...
Page 16
... transcend ecological limits altogether. Humanity will then take control of its own fate, or more accurately, as C. S. Lewis once observed, some few humans will do so, purportedly acting on behalf 16 THE PROBLEM OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN.
... transcend ecological limits altogether. Humanity will then take control of its own fate, or more accurately, as C. S. Lewis once observed, some few humans will do so, purportedly acting on behalf 16 THE PROBLEM OF ECOLOGICAL DESIGN.
Page 22
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Contents
II Pathologies and Barriers | 33 |
III The Politics of Design | 83 |
IV Design as Pedagogy | 125 |
V Charity Wildness and Children | 169 |
Bibliography | 221 |
Index | 233 |
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The Nature of Design:Ecology, Culture, and Human Intention: Ecology, Culture ... David W. Orr No preview available - 2002 |
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Aldo Leopold Amish Amory Lovins become believe better billion biological diversity biophilia building century chemistry civilization climatic change competence conservation conservatism consumption corporations costs create culture current solar income denial earth ecological design economic growth effects efficiency energy environment environmental evolution example fact farm fast knowledge forests fossil fuels future global higher human ibid ideas increasingly industrial industrial ecology information superhighway institutions intelligence Jefferson John Lyle kind land landscape language larger limits live logical materials means ment mind natural capital nomic Oberlin once organizations particular places patterns Paul Hawken political economy possible preserve problems protect reality Regenerative require result Rocky Mountain Institute scale sense slow knowledge social society species speed sustainable things tion ture urban velocity waste wilderness words
Popular passages
Page 102 - Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites ; in proportion as their love of justice is above their rapacity ; in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption ; in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves.
Page 187 - And so that never again can we have the chance to see ourselves single, separate, vertical and individual in the world, part of the environment of trees and rocks and soil, brother to the other animals, part of the natural world and competent to belong in it.
Page 96 - Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Page 196 - Oh, what a catastrophe for man when he cut himself off from the rhythm of the year, from his unison with the sun and the earth. Oh, what a catastrophe, what a maiming of love when it was made a personal, merely personal feeling...
Page 98 - You. will observe, that from magna charta to the declaration of right, it has been the uniform policy of our constitution to claim and assert our liberties, as an entailed inheritance derived to us from our forefathers, and to be transmitted to our posterity ; as an estate specially belonging to the people of this kingdom without any reference whatever to any other more general or prior right.
Page 57 - A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.
Page 103 - Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.