Green Design is Anti-Design?
Design consultant Martyn Perks claims that green design is making design weaker in the latest issue of spiked (nee Living Marxism):
"Let the government, politicians and policymakers take the flak for the consequences of design, while leaving the designer with the job of recreating the world around us. The designer, while living in the real world, cannot be constrained by it, because it’s his or her job to make it better. "
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5604/
cough http://url.ie/mtb
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posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 19 September 2008
Let's see the proof
Martyn Perks doubts that Starck's proposed wind turbine can possibly deliver what is claimed for it. That may or may not be true, we'll have to see. It's certainly true that critics of Starck designs are quick to make reference to their aesthetics rather than their functionality, and consequently the commonly held view is that Starck's designs are beautiful objets d'art but don't really work so well. Personally I find Starck's work is remarkably well thought through, in terms of functionality, before he turns to the aesthetics, which s as it should be.
Perks also believes that a personal wind turbine is "no answer to energy production". I may be naïve, but having as an objective that every consumer of energy become responsible for generating it in the first place seems like a common sense approach. It's a bit like growing all of your own food. Not so good for a capitalist world, maybe (unless you can over-produce and bring your excess to market), but good on social responsibility surely?
posted by Matt Cooper
on 23 September 2008
flawed
In his closing statement Perks reveals the fundamental flaw in his argument:
"The designer, while living in the real world, cannot be constrained by it, because it’s his or her job to make it better."
This is the description of the artist not the designer. The designer is entirely constrained by the real world.
posted by Malcolm Garrett
on 24 September 2008
agreed
It is the designer's job to reveal the real world, and to help make it more comprehensible and ultimately more useable.
In that sense s/he may well make it better in the process, but the designer is nevertheless entirely constrained by the real world and its needs.