User Centred Design: Towards a New Sustainable Architecture

I’ve previously mentioned the design ethos of Dieter Rams and this blog post on blacktansa.blogspot.co.uk made for a delightful reintroduction User Centred Design: Towards a New Sustainable Architecture.

This quote from Dieter Rams contained in the post draws a really important line between designer and artist…

A designer who wants to achieve good design must not regard himself as an artist who, according to taste and aesthetics, is merely dressing up products with a last-minute garment. The designer must be the “gestaltingenieur” or creative engineer.

The phrase creative engineer sums up the hands-on grittyness coupled with blue-sky thinking that is required of a good designer.

Dieter’s 10 commandments of what constitutes good design are well worth listing…

Innovative
Honest
Useful
Long lasting
Aesthetic
Thorough to the last detail
Understandable
Environmentally friendly
Unobtrusive
As little design as possible!

The blog post goes on to make some interesting points in regard to user centered architectural design, that is design that requires the designer to…

…create spaces specifically designed around the needs of their users, which reinforce the cultural and philosophical values that they hold. They are not interested initially in what the building will look like, but how it works and what benefits it will bring in terms of reinforcing their values and how it will deliver measurable improvements in the way they conduct their core activities.

The post continues with a call-to-arms for…

a radical new sustainable architecture, moulded and shaped to satisfy the needs of its intended users. It will be rational, logical and inherently beautiful and most importantly, capable of responding to the massive challenges that our society faces.

…that is User Centred Design through which we can establish a new Sustainable Architecture.

Worth a read.


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