Special Supplement to the October 2001 issue: A report on the proceedings of the Metropolis West Conference, February 7+8, 2001, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, "Finding the Thread of Sustainability."

Metropolis West Supplement
October 2001

 
William McDonough: The fundamental questions we're asking right now are, "How do you love all children of all species for all time?" "When do you become native to this place?" "What would it mean for us to become native to the planet?" "How would we imagine that?" The idea of being native to a place is a different way of thinking.

Green Dialogues
» Introduction
» We're All Connected
» Sustainability
» The Big Picture
» Education
» Politics
» Grassroots Activism
» Economics
» Architecture
» Products
» Branding
» Mobility
» Collaboration
» Challenges
» Definitions & Resources
Sim Van der Ryn: We are making a leap in design from mechanistic object-driven solutions to ecological systems-driven solutions. Part of this transformation is empathy: a love for beauty and the mystery of life in all its manifold forms.

Geoff Wardle: Designers have two very powerful contributions to make: they instinctively see the big picture before they solve a problem, and they're able to produce complex ideas or solutions for a wide audience in a format anyone can understand. For these reasons, a good designer can contribute far more to an organization or a cause than just the form and function of products. Solving the world's mobility problems emphatically requires understanding the big picture.

William McDonough: If design is a signal of intention, then that implies a responsibility. When we see global warming we can't say, as designers, that it's not part of our plan, because it's part of our de facto plan. It's the thing that's happening because we have no plan. Environmental tragedies become strategic tragedies. We have actually adopted a strategy of tragedy as a culture and it's time for strategies to change. There's great humility in this, because we really don't know what to do. That's why we all have to get together to figure it out. It isn't as if one person will be able to come up with the answer-it's going to take all of us. And it's going to take forever because humans aren't really that smart. If you need to reflect on the concept of design humility, reflect on the fact that it took us 5,000 years to put wheels on our luggage.

Chris Riley: In the age of the Internet, businesses can no longer hide behind their marketing.

William McDonough: In 1987 I was asked to design the Holocaust memorial at Auschwitz. When I stood at the center of the camp and looked at the gas chambers and crematoria, I saw that designers had come together to signal the worst of human intentions. This was a giant killing machine. I want designers to honor the concept that we design for something that's alive.

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