Architecture & Nature: Essays 1-5, 2002

Architecture and Nature
Essay No 2 : Commercial Society and Designers

“In the present society the quantative and qualitative criteria for judging design can be summed up as: does it attract the consumer?
Designers have always had more noble standards of appreciating their creations, but in practice the question of functionality, as in doing the job set out for it, of originality of design, of cultural sensitivity or of environmental impact are in this society predicated on the ultimate determining factors ­ does it in a direct or indirect manner generate financial wealth and/or serve to perpetuate the political and economic status quo? (Pippo Lionni 1993)

I have a sense that education is becoming a leisure activity in that more and more people are choosing to `fill’ their time consuming knowledge and information rather than material things? Thirty years ago shopping was a necessity. That necessity has been extended and much of it transformed into a leisure activity.
Are we witnessing the birth of a new enlightenment, or simply another tendency to follow fashion, this time an extension of life-long education as `time-filler’ into retirement?

Through extended education people have more knowledge and understanding and this should lead to more respect for the environment. As a result, could they develop a more philanthropic and altruistic attitude generally?
In cultivating this new attitude, are we seeing a paradigm shift whereby many more individuals appreciate the arts ­ where to be able to appreciate them one has to be capable of being generous- emotionally and intellectually. This characteristic of generosity is a pre-requisite for a better world.
I continue to hope and sense that these characteristics are developing in more people, especially those from the `troisième age’, who are seeking more further education, particularly in the arts.

© Ian Ritchie 03/2002