Designing a Future Without Being Devoured

One of the biggest mistakes of contemporary design is to remain consistent with the environment by promoting and accelerating the lostness of our epoch through the construction of labyrinths of open space, dialogical and participatory processes, perpetual movement, and so on. We sorely need to introduce materials and processes that promote independent survival — the ability to carve out spaces for ourselves — in a world that would otherwise devour us. We need to promote ‘know-how’ vis-a-vis walls: knowing how and when to build them, and knowing how and when to take them down. If we do not design spaces that reflect these principles, we shall continue to promote thinking that either remains stifled by the walls of yesterday or else devoured by our boundaryless future.