Sustainability can't be like some sort of a moral sacrifice or political dilemma or a philanthropical cause. It has to be a design challenge.
Bjarke IngelsRead
Design our world so that we have positive social and environmental side effects.
Interpretation
We should create environments that enhance our society and protect the planet.
This quote emphasizes the importance of thoughtful design in our world, advocating for solutions that foster positive social interactions and environmental sustainability. It challenges us to rethink how our creations and infrastructures can contribute to a healthier and more supportive society while also respecting the ecological balance of our planet.
In practice
In a conference about sustainable development, this quote can be shared to inspire attendees.
Sustainability can't be like some sort of a moral sacrifice or political dilemma or a philanthropical cause. It has to be a design challenge.
One of the dilemmas of architecture in general is that there is a Catch-22 - you can't actually get to be commissioned to do certain types of building until you've already built that type of building. So it seems to be incredibly hard to get going.
For me, architecture is the means, not the end. It's a means of making different life forms possible.
In the big picture, architecture is the art and science of making sure that our cities and buildings fit with the way we want to live our lives.
I don't have to come up with the best idea. It is my job to make sure that it is always the best idea that wins.
I believe that architecture, as anything else in life, is evolutionary. Ideas evolve; they don't come from outer space and crash into the drawing board.
The world as we know it is falling apart at the seams, because it's an inadequate container for the truth of who we are.
Changing communities and changing our country is going to last a lot longer than how many footballs you catch or how many touchdowns you make.
One only wishes Wayne LaPierre and his NRA board of directors could be drafted to some of these scenes, where they would be required to put on booties and rubber gloves and help clean up the blood, the brains, and the chunks of intestine still containing the poor wads of half-digested food that were some innocent bystander's last meal.
Failure is never fatal. But failure to change can and might be.
Because it is such a huge crisis, because it puts us on a firm science-based deadline, it's a once-in-a-century opportunity to build a better society and address raging inequality, create huge numbers of jobs, rebuild our public infrastructure. But, we can't do it unless we break every single rule in the free-market playbook. Which is why the worst people in the world all deny climate change.
Yet when we achieved, and the new world dawned, the old men came out again and took our victory to remake it in the likeness of the former world they knew. Youth could win, but had not learned to keep: and was pitiably weak against age. We stammered that we had worked for a new heaven and a new earth, and they thanked us kindly and made their peace.
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