Beyond Sustainablility - Design Elegance

The acceptance and application of sustainable design practices is growing exponentially. Still, the built environment must be vastly improved: curbing climate change and stabilizing our energy future depend on great strides in building design, construction and operation.

First, a critique: Sustainability efforts often focus on “less”: using less energy, causing less pollution, making less impact - perfectly fine and necessary goals. However, these goals can house an unconscious, insidious bias: that we are trespassing on the earth, our presence is harmful, and we must work hard and suffer to be better. The root of this bias is fear. While fear is an excellent motivator in the short-term, it is not sustaining; it will not take us to the next level. I argue that fear drives the very process of destruction we strive to change through sustainable design. What to do? Examine our motives.

The world we build is created by small acts. Since action is initiated by thought, elevating the quality of that world requires new thinking, not just new ways of building. Thoughts are affected and generated by underlying beliefs and attitudes. These filter perception and limit or enhance thought, then design, and finally creation. The world is changed by consciously crafted intention combined with focused energy. In short, we become what we think about; so does the world we build.

How about a fresh direction, a wholesome philosophy? How about abundance without depletion, celebration coupled to conservation, effectiveness enhanced with efficiency and beauty? How about living and thinking beyond fear, motivated by genuine love for this good green earth, family and friends, and the long-term joy of thriving? What if making these changes in thinking, designing, building and living was easy? What if it was fun?!

This is the core of Design Elegance.

(More to come)