My design philosophy is nothing more than an aspiration. I aspire to create a better world. One of the greatest philosophers of all time, Aristotle, proclaimed that, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” and I think that this is a great place to start in determining my own philosophy. I believe that design should work to maximize all of the benefits and minimize all of problems within the three tenets of sustainable development (culture, environment, and economy). The only way to accomplish this is through a holistic lens that recognizes and magnifies the multiple functions each design element has to offer.
I believe most of what we build today isn’t worth caring about at its inception, let alone fifty, one hundred, or even two hundred years from now. Most places being created aren’t dynamically interesting, don’t respond to their environment, and don’t evoke a “sense of place.” At the crux of this problem is that we have approached design like we have science, and used reduction to employ design elements in their most elementary forms. By using synthesis as a guiding force, we can begin to recognize the multifunctional interconnections involved in design. One example of this is the linking of one element’s output to another element’s input. This type of philosophy is inherently collaborative, but we as a society are more than capable of digesting information across multiple disciplines, analyzing how each piece plays its part, and determining how to best let each piece relate to the whole.
I believe that we can synthesize amazing places with the ability to produce a perennial abundance of food and life, hold a long lasting economical value, and create a vibrant culture that honors the past while inspiring the future.
At Mississippi State we have a slogan, “This is our State!” I would add, “Who would we be if we didn’t try to make it better?”
