SUSTAINABILITY AND

DESIGN

WIDIASTUTI
• We are living beyond our means. As a people we have
developed a life-style that is draining the earth of its
priceless and irreplaceable resources without regard for
the future of our children and people all around the
world (Margaret Mead,1901 - 1978), U.S. anthropologist.
• The restorative economy unites ecology and commerce
into one sustainable act of production and distribution
that mimics and enhances natural processes (Paul
Hawken), U.S. author.
• The policy challenge of sustainable development
consists of finding a path towards a positive social and
ecological coevolution. (Richard Norgaard,1943 - ) U.S.
author.
• We're willing to place some bets because the world
cannot avoid needing sustainability in the long run
(Robert B. Shapiro,(1938 - ) U.S. business executive.
• Longevity is the revenge of talent upon genius (Cyril
Connolly,1903 - 1974), British writer and journalist.
• Sustainable development challenges the entire
industrial and commercial system to restructure itself
(Warren Bennis,1925 - ), U.S. educationalist and writer.
 CONCEPT
• The 1987 Brundtland Commission on Environment
and Development defined sustainable development
as "development that meets the needs of the
present, without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs."
The ideal of sustainable development is not
confined to agriculture, but agriculture is an
important part of it.
• A key concept of sustainable farming :
environmental capacity, determined by assessing
how much use a particular environment can
withstand before it starts to decline in productivity.
The overall aim is for an agriculture that maintains
the integrity of agro-ecosystems through a
reduced dependence on chemicals, greater care
of the soil, and conservation of water
 CONFLICT OVER LAND USE
• The ownership of land is not always clear in law
• Rising rents and other costs
• The development of dams for hydroelectric
power and water conservancy projects, the
conduct of forestry and mining, the
establishment of parks, the construction of
transportation corridors, and the growth of urban
centers (World Bank)
• Only a revolution in attitudes concerning the
uses of land, and the long-term consequences of
those uses, will optimize benefits for the greatest
number of the planet's inhabitants, including
humans.
 • capitalism,
• Christianity,
• colonialism,
• development,
• the population explosion,
• science and technology,
• patriarchal culture
• A Holistic response to the
environmental crisis that makes
much needed connection between
nature, culture, values, power
relationship, and technology
• An idea that absorbs our genuine
hope to create cultures and places
with enough integrity to persist for
our grandchildren and beyond
 Two Approaches
• The province of global policy-makers and
environmental expert flying at thirty-five
thousand feet from conference to
conference (technological sustainability)
• The domain of grassroots environmental
and social groups, indigenous peoples
preserving traditional practice, and people
committed to changing their own
communities (ecological sustainability)
Characteristics of ecological sustainability
• People are finite and fallible
• Sustainable word can be
redesigned and rebuilt only from
the bottom up
• Traditional knowledge that
coevolves out of culture and place
is critical asset
• The true harvest of evolution is
encoded in nature’s design
 THE DESIGN CONNECTION
• Design as the intentional shaping of matter,
energy and process to meet a perceived need or
desire
• Design is hinge that inevitably connects culture
and nature through exchanges of materials,
flows of energy, and chices of land use
• The designers are : architects, landscape
architects, city planners, farmers, chemical
engineers, industrial designers, interior
decorators, others.
 Environment vs. Design
• The environmental crisis is a design crisis
• It is a consequence of things are made,
buildings are constructed, and landscape
are used
• Neglected its relationship with our fellow
creatures
• Degrade the living world, our own healt
• Standardized solution
 Dumb design
• Design that fails to consider the health of
human communities or of ecosystem, let
alone the prerequisites of creating an
actual place.
• Wasteful of energy and resources
• Polluting, extravagant, profoundly
dangerous
• Respect to cost or convenience,
neglecting environmental consideration
Environmental criteria of design process
• to salvage as many building materials as
possible during the construction process
• to design the renovated building it self to
be easily recyclable
• to maximize daylighting and passive solar
heating
• to use nontoxic paints and finishes
• to facilitate the recycling of office materials
during the entire life of building