About this issue:
What is our relationship with nature? Is it humanity versus nature, nature teaching humanity, or nature and humanity existing as separate entities? Let’s explore humanity’s relationship with nature through the lens of design.
Humanity vs. Nature
The concept of humanity versus nature is a recurring theme. Since time immemorial, humanity has worked tirelessly to bend nature to its will. Life would be exceedingly uncomfortable without our innovation to ease nature’s indifference toward our existence. We have designed ways to make life easier to live: mass production of food, the development of various types of shelters, harnessing temperature control, etc. However, this relentless push to dominate nature has come at a cost. Our innovations have disrupted the natural order, creating challenges that now require further design and innovation to restore balance and find a way to coexist with the nature we have strived so hard to control.
Nature as Teacher
In our hubristic effort to control nature, we have often stopped listening to it. Yet, some designers have mastered the art of drawing inspiration from nature, creating efficiencies and beauty that come naturally but require great effort from humanity. Visionaries like Antoni Gaudí, Norman Foster, and Thomas Heatherwick have embraced the complexities inherent in nature, building upon them to create something special for the manufactured world. Biomimicry, another approach, utilizes nature’s expertise to influence human creations, teaching us how to make our products less wasteful and more harmonious with the world they inhabit.
Harmony With Nature
What if it’s not a competition? Perhaps nature has its way of doing things, and humans have theirs. Nature has had millions of years to refine its processes, while humanity has only just begun. Despite this, we have made significant progress. Our innovations, which initially were dirty and wasteful, are now increasingly focused on cleanliness, efficiency, and intelligence. We stand on the precipice of a new chapter in human creation, one informed by the entirety of human knowledge. The AI revolution might provide the advantage we need to catch up to nature’s superior abilities, enabling us to coexist in harmony with it. Both entities can respect and complement each other.
Reflecting on Design and Nature
This discussion has given us much to ponder for this month’s issue. How do we think about nature and its relationship to design? Climate change is a pressing concern, but it’s just one facet of this complex relationship. What defines something as unnatural? Is biomimicry true to nature, or merely a computer’s approximation? Is AI an unnatural force or simply a new tool in a designer’s toolbox, no more unnatural than the ideas that inspired its creation? As designers, we are uniquely positioned to navigate these questions, using our craft to bridge the gap between humanity and nature. Let’s embrace this opportunity to create a future where design harmonizes with the natural world, fostering a sustainable and beautiful coexistence?
—Paul Diehl, IDSA, Member of the Publication Committee
Guest contributors:
- Production Through Reduction: Waste as Material by Yu Nong Khew, IDSA
- Exploring Durational Design by Mark Baskinger, PhD, IDSA
- Near Future Laboratory Projects by Julian Bleecker
- Introducing NIA by Lisa Krohn
- Design Is Fluid by Per Magnus Sköld, IDSA
- Designing Out of Climate Fatigue in Data-Infused Ways by Tiange Wang
- Supersensing: A Poem by Bruce Hannah
- Near Future Laboratory Projects by Julian Bleecker
- Reflecting on Water by Emilie Williams, IDSA
- Industrial Design Needs to Evolve by Maximillian Burton, IDSA
In every issue:
- In This Issue by Paul Diehl, IDSA
- From HQ by Donté Shannon, FASAE, CAE
- Beautility by Tucker Viemeister, FIDSA
- Women on Design by Rebeccah Pailes-Friedman, IDSA, and Elham Morshedzadeh, PhD
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