OVERVIEW
Citizen Designers
May 4/5, 2009Mission: Architects and designers are redefining their relationship to community and the environment and are becoming leaders for positive change.
Moderator: Maurice Cox, National Endowment for the Arts
It is a cultural imperative that design becomes integral to social, economic and political forces shaping our world. Within the architecture and design professions, a public-interest design movement is visibly taking hold as designers redefine their relationship to the environment and to their communities.
An intentionally diverse group of leaders, including the academy, foundations, and civic leaders, gathered for a genuine dialogue about design and leadership. They discussed this shift as an opportunity for design education and practice as well as for society.
How do you put the words “citizen” and “designer” together in education, in practice and in society?
The growing public interest in design is an opportunity for the design community, in partnership with education, to prepare all citizens to use design processes and design thinking to promote positive change and to become better stewards of their communities and the environment. An integration of design literacy into K-12 education will foster citizens who better understand how design impacts their lives every day. Design literate citizens will demand good design.
The group recognized this moment in history as a unique opportunity for action. A call to service is one of the defining elements in the new administration. How can we direct architects and designers who are inspired by this call? How can we shape architecture education so that designers in the future redefine their profession through community service and action? Opportunities in AmeriCorps, design service corps and pro bono work were explored.
Community service and appealing to the desire to participate in the greater good was discussed as an important component of a robust business strategy, to recruit and to retain satisfied employees in all businesses.
Foundations representatives encouraged the design leaders at the table to identify a community need that the field can meet with clear outcomes and services. Opportunities abound in education, energy, housing, health care, communication and social entrepreneurship. Architects and designers should work in partnership, across fields, to better understand what matters to people and what they need. What are the tools that designers and architects have to be helpful to their communities and to the environment? Planning for positive action positions design not just as the end point, it is how you get there.
Many current initiatives where design is working in partnership with social, civic and educational leadership were discussed. Design and innovation are cornerstones of the United States and participants referenced the Mayors Institute, Healthy Cities initiative, Rural Studio, and Architecture for Humanity as just some examples. Senator Patrick Moynihan demonstrated leadership that understood the relationship between design excellence and democracy. The government should support the best minds in architecture and design so that public projects reflect the American spirit.
This is an activist agenda promoting the mobilization of designers within their communities. “The Glass House offers an inherent creative tension.” The right people in the room can transform a conversation into action.