(IDEO)
Focusing upon three mutually reinforcing elements of a successful design program - insight, observation, and empathy - author and design thinker Tim Brown's new book 'Change by Design' provokes me to ask, "Are Landscape Architects up to the task of relinquishing our role as simply "designers" to embrace a new ethos of "design thinking"?
Suggesting that the design challenges of the 21st Century require 'design thinking', not more designers, Tim Brown speaks more to an audience involved in the creation of products and aesthetics, not places. However, it dawns on me that these principles are particularly relevant to the design challenges we as Landscape Architects are faced with today - ones that require solutions beyond the traditional and expected; not simply another park with a new wrapper. Rather than the creation of products (space), it may be that we need to concentrate ever more vigorously on the relationships and empathic relevance between people and products (place).
As a profession, we already emulate a model of 'open-source design' that seeks to enhance the level of collaboration between consumers and creators, but it is too often misplaced. The ability of LA's to engage the greater community creates a scenario in which customers or consumers begin to think of themselves as active participants in the process of design and creation is an empowering tool within one's skill-set. The erosion between proprietary and public domains is a direct result of our inherent abilities and multi-faceted backgrounds to gain insight, observe, and where possible empathize with our client constituent(s). The charette, or "unfocus group" as termed by Mr. Brown, is one such tool that seeks to enhance this synergistic fusion.
It strikes me as troubling that today's 'site designers' are divided, however. There are those who follow a strict regimen of research-based design - gaining empirical insights, but limiting their empathic understanding of a client group or culture. Second, those who engage in 'traditional practice' - meeting the immediate needs of their clients but forever perpetuating our reputation as followers or "bush-pushers", not leaders. Thirdly, in an insecure attempt to pursue the fame and fortune of our 'more esteemed' architect colleagues, armed with egos the size of our technological and visual apparatus', we fall short of our ability to affect real change - instead simply pushing the boundaries of design while creating a culture of 'need' rather than 'demand'.
As so eloquently acknowledged by Benjamin Zander, it is "one of the characteristics of a leader that he not doubt, for one moment, the capacity of the people he is leading to realize whatever he is dreaming". This does not mean that we are to misguide, or dupe people into digesting what we create like an evangelist presiding over his followers. Instead it is my belief that we can move toward a culture of participation and not consumption. Engaging our client groups and consumers in a way that allows us to give them what they need - analogous to a website that 'serendipitously' appears at the exact moment we've begun searching for that which we seek. We have the ability more than many others professions to gain and create inspiration simply by observing, empathizing, and moving beyond the individual; to create places that move beyond consumption and back into the realm of participation. That is a paradigm shift, and it is on our horizon.
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