William McDonough: Reenvisioning Design as Human Intention
For William McDonough, founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, design functions as a signal of human intention.
In his address to the World Future Energy Summit, McDonough ruminated further about his own intentions and stated that his vision was:
“…a delightfully diverse, safe and healthy and just world with clean air, water, soil, and power economically, equitably, ecologically, and elegantly enjoyed. Period.”
This may sound like a lofty goal, but McDonough wouldn’t have it any other way.
McDonough noted that initiatives like MASDAR are incredibly important in contributing to this vision as they “inspire us around the idea of optimized sustainability” and that they set a challenge that is very high.
“Just being efficient will not be adequate. Efficiency is insufficient to the task at hand. We need to extend beyond tuning existing systems. We need a new system.”
True to his cradle-to-cradle philosophy, McDonough would like to see natural fibers and materials return to the soil and for man-made artifacts such as cars and computers to recycle back into industry.
In closing his compelling address, McDonough made a simple, resonant proclamation:
“We have to have a new industrial revolution and it will be led by the people in this room.”
Curtiss P. Martin grew up in a geodesic dome on the side of a mountain in Southern Appalachia. Now he serves as ScribeMedia's clean technology editor in a tall building in downtown Manhattan.
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