The relationship of design to cultural, economic and environment - Essay Example

School: Topic: The relationship of design to cultural, economic and environment Lecturer: The relationship of design to cultural, economic and environment Introduction Sustainability is one of the world’s fastest growing phenomena when it comes to cultural, economic and environmental influence on people. Sustainability could simply be explained to be a capacity to last (Walker, 2008). Designers have been blamed for most of the world’s waste produced, even though only a few percentage of the world’s population are designers.

In his estimation, Margolin (1998) posits that the somewhat 5% of the world’s population made up of designers contribute to as many of 25% of the world’s waste. In effect, a call for sustainability could be a direct call on the designer to act in such a way that the eventual outcome of his work does not become fit only for the waste ground. There are indeed several aspects of sustainability that the designer may play a role, including cultural, economic and environment sustainability (Chris, 2004).

This paper shall therefore put emphasis on how good design that is produced as a product of the lifecycle analysis can contribute to achieving cultural, economic and environmental sustainability. Design and Cultural Sustainability Cultural sustainability is achieved in an environment where the basic principles of inter-human connectivity and appreciation given to a concept re maintained (Margolin, 1998). In design therefore, cultural sustainability can be said to have been achieved if the societal appreciation given to a piece of design or product of design is made to last over generations.

In most cases, works of design have not stood the test of time and thus become changed even within the same generation in which it was created. Once this happens, cultural sustainability is said to be defeated. Judging from the life cycle analysis, the need for there to be impact analysis has been outlined (Chris, 2004). In the context of cultural sustainability, a critically framed impact analysis will not only make considerations of how a work of design will impact the social provisions of the audience in the immediate sense but in long lasting manner.

A typical example that can be given to the relationship between design and cultural sustainability is how the early designers who created the pyramids of Egypt have been able to sustain the cultural value of the products in such a way that centuries after creation, the pyramids remain an integral part of the social structure of the people Egypt and the world at large. Design and Economic Sustainability Economically, people are expected to gain value for money. What this implies is that with the availability with the scarcest resource, it should still be possible for a person to make choices with acquisition and purchases (Whiting, 1989).

On the other hand, how frequently a person uses a resource, commonly money to purchase a product to serve him the same purpose accounts for sustainability of the resource (Walker, 2008). What this means is that economic sustainability is achieved when money used to purchase a product will last a common use for a very long time. In relationship to design therefore, designers can be said to be agents of economic sustainability if the works of design they produce can be purchased and used over a very long period of time without the need to purchase another product to serve the same purpose for which the previous material was purchased.

With reference to the lifecycle analysis, another case can be made for the need for inventory analysis, which when critically used by designers can help them achieve economic sustainability (Whiting, 1989). Design and Environmental Sustainability Environmental sustainability is perhaps the commonest form of sustainability that is trumpeted through various media and platforms. Environmental sustainability has become so common that the mere mention of the word sustainability makes one think of the environment (Chris, 2004).

Environmental sustainability may be explained as the use of the environment in such a way that it becomes preserved and conserved for future generational use (Margolin, 1998). To achieve this, all forms of pollution and degradation of the environment such as water pollution and degradation, land pollution and degradation, and atmospheric pollution and degradation must be eliminated to the barest minimum. In the figure below, there is a dumpsite where various products and good have been disposed.

Clearly, such attitudes toward disposal of waste impacts on the environment negatively and hampers environmental sustainability. Meanwhile, several of the products or materials found on the dumpsite are the results of works of design. If designers will make use of improvement analysis to ensure that there is improvement in the quality of their works, such sites of waste will be minimized. At least, their products would become good for re-use or recycle. Conclusion This essay has made several important revelations on the role of designers in cultural economic and environmental sustainability.

Generally, it will be concluded that the task of achieving cultural, economic and environmental sustainability should be seen as an integrated task that can come about if designers will inculcate quality designing into their life cycle analysis. Most often than not, designers have been criticized for being myopic in their application of the life cycle analysis because they refuse to see the need to inculcate sustainable creation in their works (Walker, 2008). The result of this action has been found to be situation where shortly after producing a piece of work of design, the work becomes abandoned, creating an immediate cultural change instead of cultural sustainability, and also creating economic pressure instead of economic sustainability.

Worse of it all, most of these abandoned products refuse to go through the environmental sustainability process such as recycling and reuse, thereby becoming an environmental liability. Cited Works Chris, John J. designing designing in Information. Design Journal 7 no. 2 2004. Print. Margolin, Victor. “Design for a Sustainable World”, Design Issues, vol14, 2. 1998. pp. 85. Print. Walker, John A. Cross-Overs: Art into Pop, Pop into Art. These Times. November 2008. Print. Whiting, Cecile. Antifascism and American Art.

These Times. October 1989. Print