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4.2.1 Design Based on the Sense of Nature
Historically, humans have feared nature's uncontrolled power and might, which at
times wrought immense damage on humans. However, man also benefited from
nature. Patterns and periodicity exist in the natural world; thus, humans have sought
to extract useful knowledge from it. The engineering design of today has also
benefitted from understanding nature, and as such, this knowledge has formed the
core principles of engineering. However, our principle knowledge of design is not
completely extracted from nature. Here, design principles that protect the global
environment are lacking.
The meaning of nature has shifted from something wild (barbarous, rough,
simple, etc.) to something comfortable, useful, healthy, and valuable. Landscape
paintings, healthy food, green gardens, wind power generation, and wooden
kitchens are examples of this paradigm shift. These artifacts are valued according
to their degree of “naturalness,” and while they represent natural concepts, they are,
interestingly, created by human technology. Therefore, humans can capture a sense
of nature not only from natural objects, but also from manmade artifacts. The
implication is that we can design artifacts that resonate with an embedded sense
of nature. Conventional design hints at a sense of nature, but advanced design offers
the potential to identify the essence of nature to create new designs that resonate
with humans' inner sense. The idea that “design creativity” is essentially
empowered by abstraction at a conceptual level is assumed. Indeed, fine art
developed this type of creation in the twentieth century, for example, through
abstract paintings that do not represent exact or actual sites of the natural world
embedded sense of nature. The basic motivation for art expression is fear of nature
and hope for peaceful natural wellness.
This section focuses on the Pre-Design phase underlying social motives. This
phase is strongly connected to motivation in cognitive processes and to reason in
society. We can identify an inherent reason for design in humans—namely, the
desire to survive and to expand into endless desire: in other words, a desire for a
happier, wealthier life. During this expansion of desire, design motives have been
identified as part of a general motivation for change to achieve an improved
situation. Thus, in the conventional design framework, a design problem represents
an undesired situation that must be solved by physical improvement (Rosenman
et al.
1990
). The seriousness of the problem—survival, convenience, or fame—is
not usually discussed. Once the problem is determined, the goal of the design
process is to immediately target it as an issue to be solved.
Usually, “changing the world” is interpreted in a positive way. However, we
should recognize the negative side of this aspiration as well. For a long time,
humans have designed the world and altered nature. We are afraid of the results
of the long-term design activities of an industry-oriented society. Three hundred
years ago, the social motives for design were primarily to protect humans from
nature. However, in contrast, the social motives of today are to protect nature from
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