Can Design Change?
Design has to change. By design, I’m including all disciplines. There may be those of you who disagree, but I’m not talking about iteration or evolution, adapting, or pivoting. Design, as a whole, must change. And to be completely frank, I’m not sure if it can. Which begets another question…can design save the planet. Our building industry is still producing almost 40% of the greenhouse gas emissions globally, and we have for a very long time. Last year was still a banner year in carbon emission, a level not seen for millions of years. Based on this narrative, can we say that LEED works? Does WELL work? Can architects and designers pull the building industry out of this slide? Have you already stopped reading the minute you came across the word “carbon”?
By now many of you have read and seen images of the horrible fashion statement captured earlier this year in Paris, when Kylie Jenner wore a Schiaparelli dress adorned with a life-like lion’s head. People were appalled to see the fashion industry seemingly showcasing dead animals. There’s more to this story. It turns out that Schiaparelli Creative Director Daniel Roseberry was inspired by Dante’s Inferno and these animals represent the lion, the leopard and the she-wolf. Here’s the problem, most of us won’t look deep enough into this story to understand what’s happening here. This is marketing. It’s Paris fashion week and there are six shows a day. You have to make some noise. But is any press good press? In this case, on the surface, a major fashion brand looks like they’re endorsing big game hunting or romanticizing the adorning our clothing with dead animals.
Schiaparelli must have known this would send a message. They may have succeeded in creating some resonance during a very competitive week, but is it worth the price we all pay? Should they have thought it through and decided that, while it may have created a productive stir, it may not have been the right thing to do. What would our rection be if Kylie Jenner had worn a dress adorned with life-like human body parts? Would we have been appalled? It is still offensive to see dead animals, even those expertly fabricated, on the fashion runway. Cyrill Gutsch, a working designer for BMW and Adidas who founded the nonprofit environmental organization Parley for the Oceans, had this to say:
“We all feel it. Something is dead wrong with the way we live on this plane, killing off the life that allows us to exist….But now humans need to look in the mirror. Designers, artists, and models have a responsibility to use the catwalk as a media stage for presenting new ideas, like those that can end war against nature, which we humans have been fighting for too long. It’s not sexy to kill, to pollute, but to protect and defend. And fashion has the power to define this purpose as the new luxury.”
You may now remove the word fashion and replace it with design and architecture. Please remove catwalk and replace it with our buildings and spaces and industry events. It’s not cute anymore to tell us that your customers aren’t asking for it, or that your company is still “working on it”, or that it’s just too expensive. I’ll tell you what’s expensive, fixing all the damage we’ve done to the planet.
I talked recently about change in my latest Break Some Dishes podcast with Verda Alexander. Sustainability is such a complicated subject these days, we could talk about so many issues that tie into it. But now, at this moment, I think it’s about change. We think we can re-engineer the planet so that we can avoid change, and I’m not so sure that’s the right approach. Follow the money. As long as the one percenters want to jet set, build big and consume at a record pace, companies will support that life style. Those companies will buy our politicians who will continue to ensure that the fossil fuel industry continues to get the funding it needs to continue to dig up dead dinosaurs.
Designers need to change. We aren’t necessarily adorning our spaces with Lion’s heads, but are we still using PVC? Are we still addicted to plastic? Are we specifying nylon and other petroleum-based products? Are we using our spaces as a media stage to present new ideas? Or, are we letting our clients off the hook because they need to save money, or show a lack of interest? If so, aren’t we just as guilty as Schiaparelli?
Don’t let me bring you down. Margaret Meade said it best “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
