The Culture of Nature in the History of Design

The Culture of Nature in the History of Design confronts the dilemma caused by design's pertinent yet precarious position in environmental discourse through interdisciplinary conversations about the design of nature and the nature of design. Demonstrating that the deep entanglements of design and nature have a deeper and broader history than contemporary discourse on sustainable design and ecological design might imply, this book presents case studies ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and from Singapore to Mexico. It gathers scholarship on a broad range of fields/practices, from urban planning, landscape architecture, and architecture, to engineering design, industrial design, furniture design and graphic design. From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling - the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has always been part of the environmental problem, whilst also being an indispensable part of the solution. The book ventures into domains as diverse as design theory, research, pedagogy, politics, activism, organizations, exhibitions, and fiction and trade literature to explore how design is constantly making and unmaking the environment and, conversely, how the environment is both making and unmaking design. This book will be of great interest to a range of scholarly fields, from design education and design history to environmental policy and environmental history. "The Culture of Nature in the History of Design confronts the dilemma caused by design's pertinent yet precarious position in environmental discourse through interdisciplinary conversations about the design of nature and the nature of design. Demonstrating that the deep entanglements of design and nature have a deeper and broader history than contemporary discourse on sustainable design and ecological design might imply, this book presents case studies ranging from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and from Singapore to Mexico. It gathers scholarship on a broad range of fields/practices, from urban planning, landscape architecture, and architecture, to engineering design, industrial design, furniture design and graphic design. From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling--the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has always been part of the environmental problem, whilst also being an indispensable part of the solution. The book ventures into domains as diverse as design theory, research, pedagogy, politics, activism, organizations, exhibitions, and fiction and trade literature to explore how design is constantly making and unmaking the environment and, conversely, how the environment is both making and unmaking design. This book will be of great interest to a range of scholarly fields, from design education and design history to environmental policy and environmental history."--Provided by publisher Conceptual environments -- Design's ecological operational environments / Simon Sadler -- Pattern watchers I : environmental seeing, c. 1970 / Larry Busbea -- Computing environmental design / Peder Anker -- Ludic pedagogies at the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley, 1966 to 1972 / Timothy Stott -- Ecotopian landscapes -- A cityless and countryless world : the total appropriation of nature in Victorian utopias / Nathaniel R. Walker -- Clean and disciplined : the garden city in Singapore / Jesse O'Neill -- Desertification, or designing new worlds in the dust / Fattori Fraser -- "There's a world going on underground" : ecotopian realism in subterranean design -- Even Smith Wergeland -- Design in the garden -- Contested development : ICSID's design aid and environmental policy in the 1970s / Tania Messel -- Power in the landscape : regenerating the Scottish highlands after the Second World War / Frances Robertson -- Design for the garden : questioning gardening as environmentalism / Jette Lykke Jensen -- Permanence and magic : super-natural metaphors of stainless steel / Nicolas P. Maffei -- Design as ecology -- Forms of human environment (1970) : Italian design responds to the global crisis / Elena Formia -- Environmental design pedagogy in Leningrad in the 1980s / Yulia Karpova -- Throwaway houses : garbage housing and the politics of ownership / Curt Gambetta -- The unmaking of Autoprogettazione / Avinash Rajagopal and Vera Sacchetti __The Culture of Nature in the History of Design__From adobe architecture to the atomic bomb, from the bonsai tree to Biosphere 2, from pesticides to photovoltaics, from rust to recycling - the culture of nature permeates the history of design. As an activity and a profession always operating in the borderlands between human and non-human environments, design has always been part of the environmental problem, whilst also being an indispensable part of the solution.The book ventures into domains as diverse as design theory, research, pedagogy, politics, activism, organizations, exhibitions, and fiction and trade literature to explore how design is constantly making and unmaking the environment and, conversely, how the environment is both making and unmaking design. This book will be of great interest to a range of scholarly fields, from design education and design history to environmental policy and environmental history. The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science provides articles by leading scientists, researchers, and experts. The origins, traditions, controversies, advancements and methodologies of the science are augmented with a digital online format. A reader can access articles for perspective on topical areas within and across the science that are regularly updated, and linked to associated topics, themes, and resources