Contemplations: Beyond Human-Centered Design | Kalon Studios
Artist: Ian McHarg
“Thinking beyond human-centered design means thinking outside of ourselves and our immediate desires, impulses, and preferences. To think beyond human-centered design, we zoom out to consider communities, the planet and its resources, as well as future generations. The decisions a designer makes have an ecosystem of impact that reverberates far beyond the acts of ideation and creation, and every choice is a chance to support something — or not support something.”
We live in a designed world, surrounded by built systems and objects. No object, no matter how small, is designed in a vacuum. Design is in close conversation with other complex forces like labor, the environment, our planet’s resources, technology, communities on a local and global scale, and more.
Historically, design has centered the human experience. The value of a product has come from its beauty and/or its ability to make life ‘better.’ With roots in early 20th century functionalism, this perspective was an attempt to think about the lives of everyday people. However, over time, we have seen that even this people-centric approach has unintended, though nevertheless destructive consequences. When we design solely with humans in mind, it is all too easy to forget that humans are not the only ones affected by what we make. In an effort to make our world easier, faster, and cheaper, we have compromised our health and the well-being of our communities and the planet.
But can something be truly good design if it’s bad for the planet, wildlife, local communities, and workers? What if the perceived value of design was inextricably bound to these considerations? Early pioneers like Buckminster Fuller, Hundertwasser, Sim Van der Ryn, Lina Bo Bardi, the New Alchemy Institute, and landscape architect Ian McHarg, among others, were interested in weaving a more harmonious relationship between design and various ecologies.