A TRANSCULTURAL VIEW OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

THE LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN

SANJAY PRAKASH*, AROMAR REVI, ASHOK KHOSLA Development Alternatives, 22 Palam Marg, New Delhi 110 057 (India)

* Also: Studio Plus,. S-239 Panchshila Park, New Delhi 110 017 (India)

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ABSTRACT

Sanjay Prakash, Revi, A., and Khosla, A., 1986. A Transcultural View of Sustainable Development:

the Landscape of Design.

Landscape planning, which deals with the design of spaces --from laying out small individual gardens

to assessing land use impacts of large-scale development programmes -- is one of many design

activities amenable to a common set of meta-tools and methods, which also apply to the design of

objects, products, buildings, settlements, spaces, industrial plants, social institutions, and many other

human concerns.

Progress in the systematic theory of design over the past two decades has led to new types of multi-

disciplinary applications of great academic interest and practical value. They have, however, been

based primarily on economic and aesthetic criteria. To meet the emerging concerns of human well

being, the practice of design must now also have the goal of incorporating a broader set of societal

objectives including sustainability and the other criteria it implies, such as equity, ecological

resilience, and development.

The paper explores a range of methods and strategies that can enable the designer to achieve this goat

and thus contribute to reorienting the development process. It presents a general model for

investigating the behaviour of social and environmental systems and for generating and selecting

options, which conform to the requirements of sustainability. Sustainability is defined in terms of

variables such as change and resilience, which have some possibility in the future for

operationalisation, analytical study, and empirical verification. The model appears to have a wide

range of applicability, geographically and sectorally, and examples from a number of different

countries and fields of concern are used to demonstrate its principle features.

Because of the particularities of the social, cultural and resource environments in the Third World, the

discussion largely focuses on the practice of design in a specific developing country, India, With the

aid of four case studies and numerous short examples, it covers the range of issues which must now be

taken seriously by the designer: the goals of his profession, the rights and responsibilities of the

professional, and the need for developing peer group mechanisms and reward systems aimed at

improving his ability to respond to the interests of both his client and society at large. The character of

Indian education for design is analysed and some of the new directions needed for it are identified.

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A TRANSCULTURAL VIEW OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

THE LANDSCAPE OF DESIGN

INTRODUCTION

As a time of deep and pervasive change, the present offers unique opportunities for developing the

tools for creative management of the inevitable, inexorable transitions which are now taking place on

almost every front: resources, technologies, institutions, development approaches. Me can deal with

such transitions, as most societies have historically done, reactively and adventitiously making

piecemeal adjustments, which allow us to cope with change -- at least temporarily. Alternatively, we

can, as the World Conservation Strategy recommends, restructure our affairs at a more fundamental

level and incorporate into them the exigencies of a longer-term vision.

The theory of design has taken giant steps over the past two decades (with notable contributions from

Fuller, 1963; Jones, 1963, 1970; Alexander, 1964, 1977; and Archer, 1965). Its continuing

development and systematisation lead to widening ranges of application, and depend in turn on the

cross-fertilisation that this most trans-disciplinary enterprise of alt itself generates.

The thesis of this paper is that a new concept of design, based on certain general principles, has direct

application across a great many of the transitions now faced by mankind. It is our view that these

principles must set forth not only the attributes of both the process of design and the substantive issues

it must address, but also articulate clearly the inseparability of the process from substance.

We consider good design to be that which is

- sustainable, and consequently contributes to a more just, equitable, economically viable and ecologically resilient development

Te achieve such a goal, design must be

- adaptive, self-regulating and evolutionary, and should not close options valued or likely to be valued by society

- based on the convergence of individual and societal interests, and in turn reinforce these

- in tune with the variety, scale and institutional environment of the problem

- able to synthesise opposing or dichotomous objectives into an integral whole

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TYPE OF

SOCIETY TRIBAL FEUDAL NATION-STATE

GLOBAL

VILLAGE

Social Needs Survival Subsistence Security Surplus

Rulers Chief King President Citizen

System Controls Ritual/ Taboos Mores/ Hierarchy Bureaucracy/

Policing

Autopoietic/ Self-

Regul.

Source of

Knowledge Traditional Wisdom

Church Market

place Empirics/ Science

Icon/ Total

Inclusive Image

Learning Family/ Tribe Apprenticeship Schooling Freedom to Learn

Kinship Clan Extended Family Nuclear Family Planetary

For a Tribal Council Congregation Workers’ Union People’s

Participation

Resource Base Nature Materials Energy Information

Resource Use Extraction Manufacture Manu/ Distr Creation/ Becoming

Economic Sectors Primary Secondary Secondary/ Tertiary Quarternary

Production

Methods

Harvest:

Homestead Craft: Houseshop Draft: Factory

Info Process: Home

Office

Distr Systems Communal Trade Market Network

Economic

Mechanisms Barter Monetary Credit Cashless/ Exchange

Sensors/ Processors Tactile/ Oral Visual Instrument Based Monitoring

Networks/ AI

Design Values Myth Aesthetics Materialism Sustainability

Scale of Concerns Local Community Regional/ National Planetary/

Biospheric

Design Methods Recipes/ Thumb

Rules

Formulae/ Theories

of Proportion Standards/ Codes

Context/ Models/

Heuristics

Professional

Groupings Individual/ Group Cooperative Guild Expert Committee Collaborative Team

Basis of Design and

Management Preservation Assessment Administrative Conservation

Table 1: Representative types of systems over time

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Within the context of this broader pattern, the planning of landscapes becomes one of a large number

of design activities amenable to a common set of meta-tools and methods. The same meta-tools and

methods broadly apply to the design of objects, products, settlements, spaces, industrial plants, social

institutions, and a host of other human concerns. While the specific tools and substantive issues will,

of course, vary from one sphere to another, the common principles underlying them are invariant.

Table 1 summarizes the evolution and metamorphosis of various representative types of systems over

time. It attempts to convey the breadth and depth of concerns which we believe a professional

concerned with design in any of its facets must address in coming to terms with the processes of rapid

and accelerating change.

THE INDIAN SITUATION

There exist some fundamental differences among the worldviews of eastern and western peoples,

some of which have profound implications for the designer and his work. These differences show

themselves at many levels: values, perceptions and behaviour.

India, for instance, has a long tradition of living in harmony with nature and its people even today

continue to maintain a relationship of husbanding the land and its resources. It is true that exposure to

external, more materialistic cultures, changing concepts of private ownership, growing economic

pressures and displacement from the land have in recent times begun to erode the values that sustain

this tradition, but the primary values of conservation are still deeply embedded in the genetic codes-of

society. Designers in India, with their largely western education have both the opportunity and

problems of harmonising with these values of working with nature.

Although a rapidly increasing urban minority has acquired a visual bias at the perceptual level, Indian

culture is still largely oral and folk-art based. Perceptions of time and space use are changing but still

fundamentally different from those of the West, time being seen as cyclic, non-linear and continuing,

and space as largely indivisible.

In spite of a relatively high level of technicity, particularly in the cities, the average Indian does not

give much priority to the care or maintenance of physical objects or landscapes, perhaps because of

the ancient view that the physical world is transient (Maya). This belief may also be associated with

the lack of popularity of D.I.Y. technologies, especially when sold through the marketplace. While

these attitudes may have had few consequences in the village economy, their continuance in the

formal economy implies a shorter useful life for industrial products -- a factor of great importance to

designers.

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Above all, Indian society is extremely diverse in that several epochs co-exist simultaneously, from the

tribals with their slash and burn agriculture to the space age with its orbiting satellites (Figure 1). The

proverbial bullock cart travelling at 5 Kph must share the same road space with the 40 Kph auto-

rickshaw and the 100 Kph automobile, not to mention the dawdling pedestrians and foraging cows

moving at around 1 Kph and overloaded trucks seemingly travelling at the speed of sound. Thus any

design approach must accommodate this variety by working simultaneously at different levels of

technology, social instrumentality, and aspiration.

The work of the designer is further complicated by factors specific to Third World countries like

India, such as the geo-climatic, resource and demographic circumstances. Important among these is

certainly the population -- large and growing numbers of people, clustered in settlements often of high

density, and of great variations in culture, technological level and economic status (Figure 2).

The societal systems which provide the basis for human interaction and decision-making are

unusually complex in India. It is not simply that they are more or less intense, but that they are of a

different kind, with links and connections which do not correspond in any meaningful way to those

which exist elsewhere. The rituals underlying the relationships between trees and people, for instance,

can vary widely between neighbouring villages or even between castes in the same village. Design

which ignores the existence of such rituals can only succeed by chance.

The designer in India is faced by an increasing expectation (and a growing capability, particularly of

the formal sector) to cause large-scale change. Given the inadequate feedback loops inherent in such a

system, it is imperative that the design process should incorporate, explicitly and integrally, the vital

considerations of risk which characterise the outcome.'

The context of landscape planning in India

Recent satellite data show that India is losing some 1.3 million hectares of forests every year. This has

led not only to shortages and continuing price rises of biomass fuels but has also had direct impact on

people such as potters, fishermen etc., whose livelihood depends on the use of wood. In the State of

Madhya Pradesh, the age-old traditions of making country-roofing tiles are now rapidly disappearing

precisely for this reason. Recent transfer of land to the plantations of fast growing trees such as

Eucalyptus and Leucaena are beginning to reverse the tide of deforestation, but mainly to the

advantage of commercial interests and rarely for the benefit of the poor.

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With a rapidly growing industrial economy (already among the top ten in the world), India has

extensive programmes for the development of dams, mines, industrial areas, transportation systems

and water resources. Each of the several thousand projects initiated every year can and many are

likely to have large-scale impacts on the neighbouring landscape, environment and society. Many of

these impacts are, of course, highly positive in terms of the national development objectives, but it is

rapidly becoming clear that a large number are also likely to be negative. Dams silt up rivers and

estuaries, irrigation schemes lead to salinization of soils, and mines to great wastelands of tailings.

The leak of poisonous gas at Bhopal is an example of faulty industrial siting policies, as also of

inappropriate decision-making at higher policy levels which determined the choice of technologies

and methods for improved agricultural productivity.

India today has the fourth largest urban population in the world. By the end of the century, it is

expected to be the largest. Of all the causes of desertification, towns and cities are among the greatest,

eating up precious agricultural land at the rate of 50,000 hectares per year. Cities like Bangalore, Pune

and Dehradun for long praised as idyllic, cool, green and quiet are today boom towns, congested,

noisy, dusty and hot. Hill stations are dying everywhere, surrounded by denuded hills, quarries and

mines.

People from the villages stream into cities with little industrial employment opportunities and bring

their rural occupations with them. In the once great and beautiful city of Allahabad, the number of

livestock grows faster than humans.

The number of people living in Indian slums today is perhaps 30 million and growing. Bombay is

certainly an extreme case, but may well be representative of the future city in the Third World. Its

slums (which on present trends will comprise 75% of the city's population by the year 2000) have no

houses with private toilets and less than 70% of them have drainage. Disease is naturally rampant.

Urban areas also suffer from great shortages of essential resources such as water, energy and food. In

Madras, during severe drought, water can become the single largest expense in the family budget. The

micro climate of Bangalore, Bombay and other cities have changed significantly because of the large

scale construction of high-rise buildings, road networks, denudation of greenery and change of albedo

(C.S.E., 1985).

In this period of transition, rapidly changing populations and a poor sense of belonging lead to few

feedback loops which would allow the community to respond in the most effective possible manner

and adapt to the rapid change taking place.

The average city in India is an excellent example of large scale landscape change, but not much

planning.

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The designer in India

The resources and needs within which the designer in India must work are unfortunately not

adequately reflected in the professional educational curriculum, presumably because of the western

models on which it was based (See Case 1 below). Despite nearly four decades of independence, it

continues in its now fossilized state because it is largely geared to supporting an equally fossilized

pattern of economic growth. The irony is that the original models on which this curriculum was based

have themselves evolved and changed beyond recognition in response to their own contexts. The

reason is, of course, that it was the superficial, immediate model, which was adopted but at the level

of the meta-model, the transfer was incomplete: it was not adapted.

Since the western models of growth, either earlier or at present, dearly have no future in India, this

leaves the Indian design profession and society at large with only one option --to evolve both its

curricula and its contexts to match its own realities. Some mismatches in the current situations are

described below.

Cultures tend to codify their practices through a progressive formalisation of their internal structure.

They usually do so not by eradicating vestiges of earlier, less formal systems but rather by overlaying

upon them systems of greater formality. Mass communications and rapid change over an extended

period have made it possible for the West to suppress many of the earlier layers, but in a country like

India these continue to coexist, piled one on the other, and provide a large number of subsystems

catering to different sub cultures. Figure 3 shows how the family and tribe has been subsequently

overlaid in various degrees in the course of time by trade, craftsmen's guilds, the factory system and

now the information society -- and all the epochs are present today.

In contrast, the designer, whose professional ancestry stretches over the less than two centuries of

industrial history, has concerns which have grown in the opposite direction: from the manufacturer's

problem, through the sales function and user requirements to recycling.

The mismatch between the design professional and his environment in India can therefore be

described as one of loss of control since he is unable to fully function as a comparator for the very

large quantity of information flowing to him from all the other components in the system. His training

and the paradigms with which he operates make it difficult for him to cope with the levels and rates of

change he is faced with. The feedback he receives is limited and highly lagged by the barriers set up

by the structures of society, and the formal system, which is designed for administering control in

situation of good feedback, is unable to help him.

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Analysis as taught in lectures to students makes for working out rules-of-thumb applicable only to

stable situations and where the systems do not change. Worse, these quasi-static methods soon

become bye-laws and inviolable truths, discouraging any original thinking by the professional.

Lack of maintenance, mishandling, vandalism, or other "non-confirming" behaviour, are often

manifestations of a poor understanding, on the part of a user, of the purpose or value of a designed

object. This leads to a cycle of further non-use and non-maintenance, as in the case of public toilets.

The problems arises from the lack of transparency in design methods and solutions, which is the

inevitable result of the mismatch between the attitudes of the educated professional and the needs of

the people which itself is a consequence of the elitist nature of formal education in Third World

nations.

Any large-scale landscape effort involving the plantation of trees cannot serve fundamental social or

environmental objectives unless it also addresses the problem of basic needs.

The design process should be accountable. There are many ways to build in accountability in the short

term into a format sector activity, with the medium of money in various forms being used to measure

efficiency or effectiveness. In fact it is these types of accountability which lead to the "cosmetics vs.

cashbook trade-off" type of design. However, it is only if accountability is based not on immediate

financial flows but rather on the larger social and economic benefits and costs that the design

profession can have adequate tools and criteria for measuring the full impact of their work. Since such

criteria are quite difficult to quantify and therefore to apply, simplified versions become important.

One such concept is "Putting the last first, allowing the designer to make decisions which at least are

not too damaging in their redistributive impact"(Chambers, 1983).

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NEW DIRECTIONS FOR DESIGN

While few would deny that development should-be sustainable, the concept of sustainability itself is

subject to many different interpretations. The variety of definitions possible is implicit in the number

of different lifestyles and development paths that societies, consciously or otherwise, have chosen.

Yet, despite a great apparent diversity among and within the nations of the world, the paths taken by

most demonstrate at least one underlying commonality. In a nutshell, they tend to indicate

considerable basic faith in the ability of the biosphere to recover from gross ecological insult, and in

human ingenuity to find technological solutions to the unintended societal, economic and

environmental problems which the so-called development strategies themselves may create.

It is our view that these assumptions are not justified, and that a framework is now needed within

which the designer can identify, for each problem, clear objectives which are consonant with the

requirements of sustainable development. To be useful the framework must, further, enable the

designer to generate plausible alternatives for meeting these objectives, and to develop the tools for

selecting the best possible alternative.

The average designer will, of course, need tools which are much more specific than a generalised

"conceptual framework", and these do not, at the moment exist. This is perhaps the major reason for

the little progress made in implementing conservation based design. At the same time, the nature of

the design problem and its inherent complexity also requires methods which cannot be simply reduced

to rules of thumb or formulae of convenience. The trade-offs implicit in most conservation issues are

rarely simple, and the ability to design for sustainable development must be built on the solid

foundation of a capacity to innovate.

Several seminal contributions have been made in the past twenty years to the theory and practice of

design. Alexander (1977) has contributed valuable insights into the basic patterns which underlie a

great variety of designs. Jones (1970) identified the mult1disciplinary prerequisites of design, and

showed the importance of group collaboration. Fuller (1963) was among the first to recognise the

resource constraints -- and opportunities -- within which the designer must work. During this period, a

number of other authors also developed tools and methods applicable to one or more aspects of design

(see Jones, 1970).

Many of these methodologies are quite actionable, and give the designer extremely useful operational

guidance. They are, however, good primarily for solving the immediate problem given to a designer,

generally by a client They help him very little in designing to anticipate or pre-empt situations which

are not predefined in the design brief. They help him much less in designing a solution, which

satisfies the less tangible criteria

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of sustainability, such as rational management of resources, equity and self-reliance. Most of these

methods are too literal and mechanistic to provide a theory of the underlying causal factors without

which the design process can only address a narrowly-conceived, specific and usually superficial

problem.

On the other hand, the environmental concerns, which have become increasingly visible over the past

decade have led to the development of paradigms which emphasise the global, societal and resource

issues more squarely. Among these, perhaps the clearest definition of the preconditions which must be

satisfied for living resources to be managed for sustainable development is given in the World

Conservation Strategy (1980). None of these efforts has, however, yet led to the development of

methods or tools which are adequately operational.

What are needed now are tools, and the meta-tools to shape them, which allow the designer to identify

and solve the specific problem posed to him, while at the same time satisfying the requirements of

sustainable development.

The approach we propose here does not, in its present form, entirely fill this gap. It is simply intended

as a first step towards the development of a new process for design which can reconcile the

imperatives of the immediate with our obligations to the long term, the needs of people with the

constraints of natural resources, and the interests of the client with those of society.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Figure 4 presents a simple taxonomy of the factors, which must underlie design for sustainable

development. It attempts to connect (rather than logically deduce) such factors at successive levels of

increasing operationality.

It is the patterns and rearrangements of the underlying structures and functions of a system which

determine whether changes in it are likely to be sustainable, not the immediately observable

phenomenal behaviour it exhibits on the surface. These structures and functions are represented by the

state variables and flows within the system and the number of possible states, flows and connections

among them represents its "variety".

The basis of sustainable development lies in change (for development), and resilience (for

sustainability). To represent the concept of change through regulation, adaptation and moderation, we

use the term "Modulation", but "transmutation" in the Darwinian sense could have equally served the

purpose. "Resilience" is used with its ecological connotation of an ability to deal with perturbations

without major structural change.

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Modulation depends on the "Variety" of the system being designed and its environment, and to some

extent on the method by which changes in this variety are selected. By contrast, resilience is achieved

by the "Selection" process, within the general constraints set by the potential modulation of the

system/environment complex.

Variety in turn consists of two component factors, "Diversity" and "Connectedness". In simple terms,

diversity is the number of states, and connectedness is the number and strength of the flows or "links.

Selections of desirable options are made on the basis of the information received through "Feedback"

loops in the system, using "Values" (and criteria) chosen so as to increase the likelihood of

sustainabi1ity. Feedback loops provide information on the performance of the system, often in

response to external inputs. The values provide the basis for selection in terms of pro-defined

objectives, aimed at achieving resilience and modulation.

We therefore have four fundamental variables which are necessary bases for good design:

- diversity

- connectedness

- feedback

- values

DESIGN FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

From the point of view of design methodology, the application of selection procedures (feedback and

criteria) to the variety variables (diversity and connectedness) lead to three pairs of operating concepts

for good Design: the first for its Goals, the second for its Methods, and the third for its Strategies.

In the short space available here it is not possible to demonstrate the full operationality of these

concepts but we will attempt to give, by reference to some well known examples, some indications of

cases where some of these concepts have been tried out.

Design goals

The two fundamental goals of design for sustainability appear to us to be one, the generation of

feasible and desirable Alternatives and two, the conservation of Options.

An alternative can be seen as one possible set of states, which in itself constitutes an entire

development trajectory and contains a viable range of potential for change and flexibility

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within it. Each alternative contains within it a complete set of options which are feasible within the

constraints of society and resources. The art of design lies in generating the maximum possible set of

meaningful alternatives -- ones which are in broad consonance with the objectives of the design. The

existing design methodology has addressed this issue in some depth, although it has not yet been able

to incorporate the broader societal issues adequately into the definition of the design objectives.

The conservation of options, in close analogy with the conservation of genetic resources, is a matter

of keeping open any option, which is currently, or might in future be, of value. In addition to the basic

requirement of not closing important options, particularly those which may be irreversibly lost,

conservation also implies making maximum use of the potential of the biosphere to satisfy human

needs. This is the part of a designer's work, which might be called the science of design.

The Jataka Kathas of ancient India are fables much like Aesop's, but which stress the oneness of

humanity and the environment. In an ancient society these were probably the best tools available to

ensure that future options were conserved for succeeding generations. The retention in India until very

recently of practices in tune with the conservation of environmental options built into the religious

practices of communities such as the Jains and Bishnoys, are vesitiges of such traditions.

Recently, the work of Holling (1978) can be seen as a major attempt towards defining sustainable

development goals as implementable parts of the design process. Holling describes an entire

methodology based on adaptiveness for the generation of alternatives and the conservation of options.

He stresses transdisciplinary collaboration, in contrast to the concept of competition, which generally

tends to reduce rather than raise the variety of the solution. His methodology could be termed

anticipative rather than reactive.

In the field of design education, we have experimented with the design of an under-graduate course

for which one of the primary explicit aims was to develop the ability of students to generate

alternatives (See Case 2).

What could be the physical hardware for achieving valued diversity in any designed system at

acceptable short-term costs? In analogy with natural systems, modularisation is one way for the

designer to achieve a system which can upgrade its obsolete components. Pearce (1976) has worked

out an entire minimum inventory, maximum diversity set of hardware which, though not yet

comparable to the complexity achieved in the molecules of living cells, is nevertheless indicative of

future possibilities. Biotechnology promises soon to take the process much further.

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Design methods

Two basic methods for effective design, often overlooked, are the application of appropriate Scale in

matching tools to problems, and the conjunction of a viable Mix of final solutions. The concept of

scale is relevant to the generation of feasible alternatives, and the term mix pertains to an appropriate

combination of options. At the simplest level of spatial scale, Figure 5 shows a matrix of tools (down

the columns) which are appropriate at different scales of planning, and demonstrates the typical mixes

(along the rows) required for adequate design.

Our concepts of scale and mix are even more general, and refer not only to spatial, temporal,

quantitative and organisational variables, but also to levels of aggregation in information analysis and

hierarchy in the decision making process. Many design problems are mishandled because the tools

chosen are inappropriate at the actual scale and mix of the problem. Others can be made trivial or non-

existent by viewing them from a vantage point of higher level policy.

The quest for appropriateness should not be seen as an exercise in finding a single "correct" scale or

mix, but as a resonant combination of different levels, all of which take part in providing a resilient,

viable solution, not unlike Bohr's Complementarity Principle in Physics which sees the wave and

particle as equally correct, coexisting facets of the same electron. For the designer, this concept offers

important new insights and opportunities, and will be explored further in the discussion below on our

proposed transform grammar

Designers have all too often ignored the higher levels of design and decision making within which

their own design activity is embedded and the levels below them, which will be affected by the

product of their work. Unless the flows of information up and down between the different levels are

substantially improved, from the societal point of view, design can at best be sub-optimal. A transport

systems designer who ignores the possibilities of reducing peak loads through interventions at the

community level such as staggered working hours, and at the operating level such as improved

motivation of line staff through appropriate incentive schemes, may well improve the routes and

schedules but will still fall far short of the possible improvements in overall service.

An excellent application of the principles of appropriate scale and mix was the design, mainly by

Mahatma Gandhi, of the independence movement in India. Combining local (indeed, individual) level

action with operations of national scope, time horizons which spanned periods from the immediate to

the inter-generational, and concerns which extended from the aesthetics of the common broom to the

creation of a nation, he was effectively able to mobilise the people of the country to adopt a set of

values which did not have any apparent short-term return. In a sense, he tapped the spirituality within

every individual to give rise to a value-set which guided behaviour at every level of private and public

life. The success of the non-violent path to Indian independence was largely the result of his success

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in resolving the major conflicts between individual and societal objectives, and creating a synergistic

resonance between them.

In the field of agriculture, Fukuoko (1985) describes his development of a natural agriculture based

upon high diversity and high productivity by the use of diverse species at the correct scale and in the

proper mix.

Probably one of the best examples of an appropriate mix might be that of the lowlands near Lonavala

in Western India where the aeria l seeding of native species was able very effectively to reverse the

trends of deforestation in the area. In a dramatic demonstration of nature's resilience, even a

catastrophic forest fire which swept the area some years later could not destroy the ability of the

endogenous species again to take root in the ashes of the fire, and there is evidence that recovery and

succession are proceeding much faster than could have been expected had exotic species been planned

(Matthai, 1986).

Case 3 presents the example of a design for a school undertaken by the authors in which resonance

between various scales of activity and a dynamic mix of options was a method chosen specifically to

help us in coming to terms with the complexity inherent in the project

Design strategies

The two work strategies, which the designer today needs are Participative design and Collaborative

design. The interplay of variety and selection make it increasingly necessary for the designer to work

in a cooperative environment. The needs of the client and the complexities of satisfying large numbers

of societal criteria, many possibly conflicting, and the necessity of feedback in selection and

operation, require the closest possible participation of those who will be affected by the outcome of

the design effort.

The increasing variety of societal considerations and technical information, which must be accessed

now make it virtually impossible for the single designer to manage the data he requires and the criteria

he has to use. Design must therefore necessarily involve an increasing amount of teamwork and

collaboration. Collaborative teams also carry the responsibility of representing interests, usually of

longer-term values, not likely to be represented by participation alone.

Correct scaling is essential to meaningful participation (and, of course, vice versa). For example, large

centralised municipal corporations cannot expect participative feedback from citizens if they do not

set up the intermediate levels, which can connect them through proper information flows with the

people.

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It is for the lack of these interfacing institutions, that municipalities so often end up making

regulations at the micro-level, and then setting up wasteful and futile policing systems to enforce

them.

As a process for the creation of alternatives, diversity, appropriate feedback, and values for

sustainable development, the participative use of human resources appears to hold great promise. The

Chipko movement in the foothills o-f the Himalayas is a people's movement largely fueled by the

environmental values of village folk. "Chipko" in Hindi literally means to stick to or to cling. In order

to thwart large-scale deforestation, individuals of the local community cling to trees as government

contractors approach them for felling. A political counterpart of this ecological movement can be

found in Gandhi's 1920s technique of Satyagraha, which had the people of an entire nation involved in

non-cooperation with the Government whose values they did not subscribe to. The design process for

the school described in Case 3 utilises community resources to transform and monitor at various

levels of the designed system.

In many tribal societies one finds that myth helps to form a deeply internalised Weltanschauung

which conditions individuals and groups to see themselves as stewards of nature, the plant of a major

Indian industrial corporation. Escorts, at Ballabgarh near Delhi is a good modern day example of the

concept of designing with nature. It uses landscape design to create long term environmental wealth

through measures such as desalination and afforestation. The project is run participatively through the

workers' efforts, with adaptive interventions from time to time by the management which provides

catalytic resources for implementing it. Diversity is nurtured by the use of multiple species and mixed

age plantation. As one of the project descriptions notes, "not only does a concern for the environment

discipline the mind and give one a respect for nature, it gives a measure of involvement and a sense of

belonging. Those who work at the site plant new trees themselves, and take care of them. It is as if

people have put down roots, as if they have a stake in the land and its yield. There can be no better

motivation" (Anon., 1985).

Holling (1978) has also has worked out a methodology, referred to earlier, which is almost entirely

based upon the use of non-competitive collaboration in a workshop of experts to identify option-

conserving adaptive techniques in the field of landscape management. This may be one of the first

major leaps in the use of collaborative strategies for which, in an earlier era, mankind had no fallback

but its rituals and myth.

The descriptions in Indian mythology of the selection of the site for Ram's Vanvas at Chitrakoot,

Mansara' s thumb-rules for building, and a rich tradition of caring for species of trees and livestock

was probably the only strategy available to ancient man to represent in the design process values

21

which went beyond short-term social objectives. This is the responsibility that we feel the professional

today has to take on himself.

In this respect we have tried (again Case 2) to integrate collaboration as a major force in education

with a fair degree of success.

The integration of goals, methods, and strategies

In view of the foregoing arguments, it appears to us that the concerns of the professional landscape

designer must be broadened and made more inclusive.

In the context of Landscape Architecture, it is-worth noting how the sense of the term "organic" has

changed over time. A design used to be considered "organic" if it literally made use of living matter.

Soon it came to be applied to all designs using, imitating, or reminiscent of nature in form. We now

tend to use it in the sense of designed processes and systems using principles similar to natural

systems in their organisation, irrespective of the physical form. These principles are, basically

integrity through Diversity, Feedback, Connectedness, and (selection) Values.

A few design exercises have attempted to fulfill most of these operational design concepts (the goals,

methods, and strategies). Among these an example of landscape design which has many of these

features is the work of the eminent Indian architect/planner B.V. Doshi in the Central Indian city of

Indore. By using an open-ended approach to planning which led the local community to make most of

the design decisions for themselves within the boundary conditions, which were defined in the

broadest possible terms, the Indore Project was able to generate a great number of alternatives and

produce an excellent mix of well scaled landscape components. The central feature of the design

approach was participation and collaboration and it is only in the area of conserving options that the

project could be said to have fallen a little short.

Case 4 describes the structure and function of an institution. Development Alternatives, designed

specifically on the basis of the principles developed above. In the course of its two year existence, it

has already been able to demonstrate the viability of many of these concepts.

Design criteria

Our experience as designers in a Third World country shows that to meet the goals, and develop these

methods and strategies for design, we need to generate and choose alternatives which fulfill the

economic, social and environmental criteria listed in the final box of Figure 4.

22

Any design that 1s likely to succeed "in fulfilling both the expectations of the client and the

requirement of sustainabi1ity must in some way optimise its contribution to the above criteria. This

can be achieved if it is adaptive and trans-disciplinary.

The bottom portion of Figure 4 attempts to develop a theoretical structure based on ecological

modelling techniques (e.g. Holling, 1978). It is based on the mapping of various types of design

problems in terms of the variables which most clearly characterise most clearly their variety and their

capacity to contribute to societal objectives.

MODELS

Study of the behaviour of a real world system (physical, social or any other) can be greatly aided by

the use of models which describe its evolution in terns of the interaction of the variables and

parameters which constitute those models. In fact some cyberneticians have gone as far as to suggest

that without a model, control of complex systems is not even possible (Beer, 1979) For a model to be

useful, it must at the least be able to describe faithfully the system's known behaviour, and for values

of the variables outside the ranges for which empirical data exist, it must be able accurately to predict

its behaviour.

The great success of science comes from the ability it has developed to map the real 'world onto

continually improving abstract images (models). The growing capacity of scientists and engineers to

transform information from real world systems to ever more abstract spaces, and then to retransform

them back into operational reality has made possible extraordinary contributions to human welfare.

The higher level models are not ends in themselves, but means of expanding the span of control of the

designer to cope with higher level effects, increasing complexity, proliferating variety and the broad

sweep of time. We do not, however, consider abstruse formal mathematical constructs necessary to

form the base of these meta models. The recursive and increasingly complex nature of these models is

such that they are amenable to heuristic and pattern recognition based methods, which can be equally

rigorous, as in music and chess.

For models to meet the increasing expectations of accurate imaging of reality, they must be able to

handle error without ignoring it. Self-regulating systems are based on just such an ability to use

feedback on error as a method to avoid failure. Moreover, since the test of a model can be based only

on falsification, the education and practice of design must not be afraid to accept error as a means for

improving its understanding of nature. This concept has great ramification for the education and

practice of a designer.

23

The transform grammar of design

One very useful type of model, generically called "phase space" uses an n-dimensional space

(described by n orthogonal axes) to show the evolution of a system. The number n is called the

"degrees of freedom", and 1s the number of independent variables (indicators) which are needed to

describe the system at the level of recursion (aggregation, scale) of the model under study. Starting

with classical mechanics and the theory of gases in the early nineteenth century, many sciences have

used such models to great advantage for gaining insights into the behaviour of natural systems.

In the field of design, such attempts to use models and experimentation in the manner of the physical

sciences and statistics were also made sporadically starting in the nineteen fifties. These were

influenced by the seductive universality of the then fashionable industrial methods for construction

(management and materials) and the deterministic research approaches of Skinnerian psychology.

This model had, for a time, significant impact on the work of the design professional, both by

constraining his options with a set of fixed codes and by promoting mechanistic design solutions. This

led to an outgrowth of what was later evaluated as "faceless mass housing" and excused in terms of

the extreme shortage of post-war housing supply. At its climax, the futility of applying this model

resulted in the dynamiting of the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis or system failures such as

the collapse of the high-rise apartments at Ronan Point in the U.K.

Despite this unfortunate experience, we believe that well-designed models, properly conceived, can

have considerable value as aids to the designer concerned with sustainable development.

Among the models we have found most useful in our work, is one based on an analogy with the phase

space approach mentioned earlier. It draws on recent theoretical advances on several fronts, and in a

number of different disciplines, the most salient of which are reflected in the work of Shannon (1962),

Ashby (1956), Beer (1979), Priqogine (1985), Zadeh (1965), and de Laet (1985).

Our own practical experiences in the fields of appropriate technology, building design, and

organisational development, have helped us gain some understanding of the practical constraints

within which such models must work. Our model is still clearly far from complete. As yet, it might be

more accurately described as an approach rather than a model. But even in its present, rather

rudimentary state of development, the model clearly offers considerable potential for illuminating the

processes which affect sustainability in a great many types of systems.

24

Our model uses four dimensions to describe systems of interest: variety (along the X-axis),

productivity (Y), wealth (Z) and time (t). The meaning of these variables are summarised in Table 2.

To demonstrate the broad applicability of this method, examples have also been given from different

areas of human concern.

This method provides a means for plotting variables of importance to the design objectives over time

on a volume in XYZ space, each point of which denotes a different situation, as in Figure 6(a). The

four corners of the X-Y plane are representative of extreme states of the system which are named in

Fig 6(b). These corners correspond closely with the four states of society mentioned in Table 1.

The interesting feature of this space is that the trajectory of a system over time can be plotted on it to

yield valuable insights into its behaviour and potential. The space is characterised by gradients which

represent various forces of nature and society. The contour lines shown in Figure 7 are the iso-

potentials of a typical such force field. A system acted upon by such a field would tend towards the

state with the lowest potential. The transforms, which act upon the system and attract it towards any

one of the four corners can also be named, Fig 6(c).

Table 3 sunmarises the meaning of the four corners in terms of analogous states of a system or

equivalent transforms.

These transforms, which are like the topography, which can channel and direct the movement of the

main course of a river, are simply the combined effects of different combinations of action and

feedback. There are 16 generic transoms of this type (Fig 7). The topography itself is, of course,

continually changing as a result of successive action and feedback.

If on looks along the X-axis in order to observe the Y-Z plane, one sees only the aggregate growth

curve. The integral of this curve plotted against time is usually a logistic S-curve. In fact, as shown is

Figure 8, a spiralling system, such as a company in an economic spiral, translates into multiple jump

shifts of S-curves when plotted against time.

The Y-Z plane, viewed alone, represents the general perception of the feudal/ industrial society and

may be reasonably appropriate when X is small and chancing slowly.

However, where X is large, or changing rapidly a view limited to the Y-Z plane cannot explain stag-

nations or catastrophes which can easily be understood by "looking at the X-Y plane (Figure 9). It is

for this reason that the hitherto neglected view; along the Z-axis of the X-Y plane becomes an

important area for study.

25

AXIS X Y Z

GENERAL VARIETY PRODUCTIVITY WEALTH

ANALOGY “Quality” “Rate” “Quantity”

MEANING FOR

DESIGN

Options Connectedness Resilience

ECOSYSTEM (States) Number of Species

(Diversity)

Net production Standing Biomass

ECOSYSTEM

(Processes)

Number of Links in

Trophic Chains

Change in Quantity of

Flows

Quantity of Flows

SOCIAL SYSTEM Number of Informal

Structures

Degree of Dynamic

Change

Social Capital of

Cultural Heritage

ECCONOMICS Mix of Technologies

Creating GNP

Addition to GNP Total Wealth, Assets,

or Resources

Table 2. Meaning and analogies for the X, Y and Z axes.

26

27

28

1, 0 0, 0 0, 1 1, 1

Systemic Level

Type of Change Structural Stable Operational Stage

Operational

Dynamic

Structural

Dynamic

Type of

Transform

Preserve Assess Administer Conserve

State of System Homoeostatic Static Growing Developing

Probability of

Arising and

Vanishing of new

State Variables

Large Small Small Large

Change in State

Variables Small Small Large Large

Examples of

Transforms

Stabilise

Maintain

Protect

Beer

Evaluate

Appraise

Monitor

Laplace

Rule

Govern

Cultivate

Forester

Adapt

Innovate

Anticipate

Holling

States

Naturalism

Mature

Trop. Forest

Crystal

P.N.G.

Stagnation

Nascent

Virgin Lands

Rock

Albania

Boom

Youthful

Chem. Agric.

Upwelling

Japan

Anarchy

Evolving

Nat. Agric.

Biosphere

China

Feedback Cybernatic Aesthetic Electronic Adaptive

Cognition Right Brain Left Brain Left Brain Right Brain

Gender Female Male Yang Yin

Table 3: The Description of the four corners of the X-Y plane (Cf. Table 1).

29

30

31

To make the foregoing analysis more concrete, and demonstrate the application of this model,

consider the possible proposals for the use and management of a tract in the hinterland of a large city.

The solid trajectory in Figure 10 represents the natural development of a general terrestrial ecosystem.

The hinterland under consideration will have to be characterised on the X-Y plane by an appropriate

point (state), in this case, say the point A. The options available can then be analysed in terms of the

effect that their respective transforms have on this initial state.

For example, a decision to use the site for a landfill will be retrogressive, taking the system

"Assessively" back to the more Static and therefore less valuable state D. The decision to convert the

land to a Eucalyptus plantation for fuelwood would Administer the system to the Growth (boom) state

B. Preservation by fencing the site would allow the system to mature into stable Homoeostasis E. By a

well-designed mix of compatible uses, such as recreation, fuel-generation, aquaculture, cropping,

landfill and protection, the area can be Conserved into a Developing system C, which is likely to be

more sustainable than most other options.

Incidentally, the generality of this method is demonstrable by the completely different example to

which this same figure applies, as described in its caption.

Figure 11 applies this method to social systems. Figure 12 is a similar plot but uses connectedness as

the property on the X axis for comparing the movements of two kinds of industrial plants.

Figures 13 - 19 develop the technique for pitting trajectories, transforms, and states in various

systems: economic, cultural, project design and management, and general models (shown by author).

Figure 20 is a comparative study of the perceptions of two lobbies on the urban housing problem in

India. It plots an incremental transform method elaborated in the next section.'

Do the requirements of sustainability imply static states in the X-Y plane? Figure 21, based on

Moiling (1978) shows many possible states of equilibrium and disequilibrium in such a situation. In

fact a more detailed analysis shows that a single "solution" which can be represented by a static point

on the X-Y plane rarely satisfies the conditions of sustainable development. Generalising the concept

of resonating states alluded to earlier in the discussion on design, it is likely that good design draws

strength from the particular advantages of each of several possible states. It is for this reason that

while the upper right hand corner (1,1) might appear to development-oriented conservationists to

represent the ideal to be aimed for, often a more sustainable situation exists in the form of a stable

trajectory some distance from this corner.

32

33

r

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

A model for decision-making

In arriving at a decision, the decision maker needs to have some concept of what is the present state of

the variables (issues) which are to be acted upon, the possible states to which they should be

transformed, and the options available to achieve this transformation.

In a simplified but useful scheme this may be represented in symbolic terms as :

T

A Z

where A is the present state,

Z is the desired future state, and

T is the set of transformation process

options available to the decision maker.

Needless to say, the realities of decision making are quite complex, and the present model must be

understood within their context. Each of the above symbols, and the dynamic links, which connect

them can, in fact, itself represent such complexity.

First, the present state, A, comprises a host of variables A(i), many of which may be relevant to the

decision at hand. Furthermore, each component A(1) is a dynamic variable, changing with time and

circumstances.

Second, the desired future is also a set of variables Z(j), themselves evolving over time with changes

in perception, aspiration and understanding of the resource base.

Third, the transformation process cannot be a single intervention, but rather a matrix of interventions

T(i, j) which together define a reliable path from the A(i) to the Z(j).

Fourth, and perhaps most important, development-related decisions can rarely take society directly

from its existing state to the final one, but rather through a series of intermediate states, say, B, C, D,

...W, X whose sequence may not be obvious, but must be understood by designers and decision

makers if they are at some point to achieve their goals.

Thus the limitations of this model should be recognised. However, even in such a simplified form, this

model is helpful in identifying the information and methodological needs of the designer, especially

when visualised on the X-Y plane.

45

THE DESIGNER AS A PROFESSIONAL

Why should the designer subscribe to the values of sustainable development, for which the tools

described above have been designed? Ultimately, the answer to this question lies in the values held by

society, and in how well its educational and reward systems help the designer incorporate these values

into his own.

Sustainable development on a global scale can only be achieved if each society chooses development

options, which respond to its aspirations and needs within the opportunities and constraints of its

resources. Countries of the third world have now, therefore, to evolve their design priorities in the

light of their own realities, instead of continuing to use borrowed ones either from other traditions

whose context is entirely different, or from former colonial masters whose aim was to exploit

resources, not conserve them. It is for this reason that self-reliance, the capacity to choose and design

one's own future, becomes a necessary pre-condition for sustainable development. In other words, it

must be able to formulate clear concepts in its own terms regarding A, Z and T.

The more advanced economies have been relatively successful in understanding A, and in developing

their responses T. The environmental problematique has now increasingly brought home to them the

need to define more explicitly and carefully their future choices, Z.

In developing countries, particularly those with a national planning machinery, the situation is largely

reversed. Many of them have been able to formulate a reasonably clear (though not necessarily

appropriate) idea of where they wish to go, but they neither have adequate access to information

regarding their present resources or needs, A or regarding the means to transform these to the desired

state, T.

For a society to design its development path, in other words, to formulate its own A, Z, and T, it must

build new kinds of institutions, which deal with administrative, scientific and technical issues. In this

effort, it is the more powerful agents of change, and particularly the design professions which must

play a leadership role.

Because of the dominant role of the client/sponsor in setting out the criteria, frames of reference, and

terms of contract, and because of his position, in a market economy, of being the major agent of

reward, the following types of poor practices at present tend to get legitimised in the design

profession:

46

- Sub-optimal: The designer operates with a narrow design brief to satisfy his client, even if

that means consciously or unconsciously sub-optimising the larger system In which he works.

- Non-collaborative: The designer does not consult other specialists, nor offers his special

knowledge to them, either because of contractual obligation or professional insecurity.

- Non-participatory: The designer avoids participation of manufacturers, users, and operators

of his products and society at large by claiming to know better, to save costs, or simply to

avoid information overload. He also cuts off longer term feedback loops, since his design

brief is generally narrow and short term.

- Non-systemic: The designer is not expected to anticipate, adapt, or innovate for changed

circumstances or threshold effects, and he can blame these acceptably on "chance".

- Unsustainable: The designer does not work for a term longer than or a frame of reference

larger than given by his immediate client. He need not take the burden of acting on behalf of

a future society for a sustainable future.

Some good design practices, on the other hand, discouraged by the existing punishment systems are:

- "putting the last first"

- giving priority to societal values

- designing for variety

- designing through collaboration and participation

As shown by three centuries of western science, a reward system administered by the pressure of

peers is perhaps the most effective way to ensure quality and integrity, without hurting creativity. But

even the scientist has not been totally successful in internalising societal values into his enterprise.

What both the scientific and design communities now have to develop are value systems, enforced if

possible by their own internal mechanisms, to ensure that their work does not undermine the

objectives of the wider society within which they operate, but rather reinforces them.

What are the rewards (or punishments) which motivate the individual designer? In India, they

certainly include, in rough order of influence, commissions (or loss of them), publication in the art/

elite press (or non-publication), development of personal aesthetic (or its erosion). Probably at a

lower level, but still important, are recognition by various constituencies ranging from actual or

potential clients and manufacturers through users to the peer group and the public.

47

CONCLUSIONS

The inter-linkages and complexities of environmental issues cannot be dealt with by traditional

knowledge systems, which are based on compartmentalised disciplines unable to deal with the totality

of a natural or social system. While the need for multi-sectoral, trans-disciplinary, cross-cutting

approaches has been a commonplace statement for some decades, the exigencies of designing for

sustainable development makes this, perhaps for the first time, a concrete imperative.

Educational institutions responsible for professional training in some developing countries are

beginning to recognize this, and to make provision for a broader education but the process has a long

way to go (See Cases 1 and 2). No doubt it will be accelerated as the demand for broad spectrum but

technically competent designers grows.

Throughout the world, and more particularly in the developing countries, there is an urgent need to

reorient the design professions so as to make them more responsive to social reality, and more

attractive to the most creative minds. When the professional institutions, such as the value and reward

systems, succeed in reorienting the designers basic approach towards issues of sustainability, the types

of tools developed in this paper become useful, and even necessary. They might even be of some help

in designing the institutions themselves.

48

CASE STUDIES

EDUCATION

Case 1. The professional landscape planner in India

To gain a glimpse into the work of a landscape planner in India, it is worthwhile to follow the

encapsulated biography of a typical young professional working in this field. After graduating from a

course in architecture or town and country planning, or in a biological science or geography, he can

join the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi (the only Institute in the country offering a

course in landscape planning/ architecture at the postgraduate level). The courses he will take cover a

broad range of topics from plant taxonomy and physiology through landscape construction,

specification and estimating to site ecology, topography, hydrology, and geology. He will also attend

courses on social dimensions in landscape architecture, landscape legislation, ecosystem analysis,

conservation, human settlements policy, rural development and village planning.

The major learning methods are lectures for formal analysis and studios, which are meant to simulate

office environments. However, most of the features and linkages, which characterise the real world

are left for the student to sort out for himself.

The degree he gets at the end of 2 years does not guarantee to him the kind of work he has been

trained for. Sponsors and clients tend to see landscape architects basically as over-qualified gardeners

and it does not take long for him to start conforming to this image himself. At this point, the

professional finds it necessary to develop a degree of mystification around his practice, hoping that

the more technically esoteric his work appears the more he will be sought after.

The limited contents and orientation of the more widely read professional design journals testify to

this description. Very few of the professionals in this field contribute either to the academic and

research journals or to the popular magazines. The form and presentation of communication by

various professional designers in this field tends to be graphic and rarely presents non-visual criteria

for the selection of viable alternatives.

The basis of design and its evaluation in this field has tended to be predominantly on overt, cosmetic,

purely aesthetic criteria. Though these may well have considerable value, filtering out as they do

certain inappropriate responses, they cannot be adequate in countries such as India where the primary

reason for most projects has to be the need of survival. In this context, an aesthetic approach can

quickly become an elitist route to the solution of the problems of the formal sector.

49

Practitioners, in private conversations, often confirm this view on their profession. It is perhaps for

this reason that they have in recent years been making increasing attempts to codify and standardise

their work methods. While this is certainly a laudable initiative, it can hardly hope to keep pace with

the growing complexity of the solutions required.

Case 2. A design for design education

In the western educational tradition, the medium of lectures is designed to "prove" a point and to teach

the analysis of problems. The examination system is meant to evaluate how well the principles have

been understood.

This model has been adopted in India but with neither its philosophical underpinnings nor its societal

prerequisites. The lecture has not succeeded in inculcating in students an adequate sense of

questioning and creative thinking. Arguments for and against are often seen as codes to be learnt up

by rote for spewing out in the examinations, which themselves have become rituals for obtaining

degrees which will earn the student prized jobs and positions of control in society.

Due to the alienation that can be caused by such meaningless learning, students in India rarely put in

their intellectual best, and fall into using short-cuts as substitutes for logical thinking. This provides

them with the security of the "tribal myth" (in the form of ritualistic thumb rules), but impedes their

intellectual development and capacity to work creatively from first principles.

It is in this context that we tried out an experiment in education through facilitation for undergraduate

architectural students with the aim of identifying real world linkages between fields of knowledge.

The objective was to complement lectures and design studios, not to replace them. The most

important goal was to sensitise students to issues which would allow them to get the best out of a

formal curriculum.

To encourage students to handle diversity and to think about their design problems creatively, we set

up a workshop where they had to identify relevances and work out the possible connections between

them on their own. In what way does our concept of facilitation differ from the environment of a

design studio? The design studio does, of course, help to build up linkages between diverse fields of

knowledge and simulates today's practicing environment. However, its concerns are primarily at the

aesthetic level, and it is designed to foster competitive behaviour not entirely appropriate to the multi-

disciplinary needs of the present. Our effort has been to stress team work, collaboration, and learning

by doing, as means of increasing options for study. In this way, the teacher is also placed in the

position of the learner. An outline data for each of the courses mentioned is tabulated (Table 4).

50

NO. COURSE

NAME

YEAR/

CLASS

TOTAL

WEEKS

HRS PER

WEEK

NO. OF

STDENTS

NO. OF

FACUL

NO.

GUEST

1 Introduction to

Design

I B Arch 15 2 37 1 0

2 Design

Methodologies

III B Arch 15 2 34 1 3

3 Advanced

Design

Methodologies

IV B Arch 13 9 14 2 0

4 Design

Methodologies

III B Arch 9 5 51 2 2

Table 4: Basic data for four collaborative undergraduate courses

51

The courses, not only by their content, but by their very approach and conduct, were designed to

demonstrate the principles of good design. They did not therefore follow predetermined syllabi 1, but

adapted and innovated incrementally as they went along. The open-ended objective of the courses

became Development by Conservation, and the participants, including students, facilitators, and guest

lecturers, zigzagged over time towards formulating that objective. The authors are grateful to the

authorities of the School of Planning and Architecture in Delhi to allow and even encourage a course

which flouted the otherwise accepted norms of accountability, standardisation, and evaluation.

A typical session could consist of a 5-minute period of loosening up, mentally and physically, through

general discussions and physical warm-ups. This would be followed by what was termed the

"freewheel" session, lasting 15 minutes, where any matter of interest to any participant could be

brought up. A regular system of voting was established to discontinue any discussion which was felt

to be a waste of time; voting at its peak efficiency could be accomplished within 15,seconds of

initiating a motion.

After this might come a pre-arranged lecture by one of the participants on a subject that would have

been chosen the week before. The spirit of this exposition was to be exploratory, of sharing rather

than imparting knowledge, of informally discussion rather than a display of brilliant rhetoric.

At this point, the "core" work session would start, and the participants would break up into flexible

teams, taking responsibility for specific areas of the Master Design Problem, or into super teams

collaborating on interstitial matters. The facilitators role was primarily to maintain a non-competitive

(though not necessarily conflict-free) environment. After two to five hours, depending upon the

situation, the group would gather around a table again to conclude and summarise that day's

developments. It would then agree upon future sessions.

It is important to note that the sessions were not mandatory and did not follow any strict time-table,

starting on any afternoon fixed over the telephone by a small administrative committee of students,

and going on sometimes to midnight. Even so, the participation was extraordinarily high.

This set of courses clearly demonstrated the value of learning by doing and the importance of non-

competitive learning environments for tapping hidden individual and team talent. Collaboration, as

opposed to simple group work, also emerged as a useful technique for working in depth on specific

issues, particularly those involving several disciplines.

52

The collaborative design, by the participants of one of the courses, of a sophisticated simulation game

for modelling a city was exceptionally successful in engendering creative thinking about non-visual

urban issues often forgotten in the design studio. A spin-off of this exercise has been an innovative

approach to the composition of collaborating teams based on the individuals' patterns of thinking.

The generation of options and building up capabilities to cope with complexity, change scales, and

design adaptively, seems to be related in a large part to collaboration. Our experience shows that

teams as large as 40 can develop self-sustaining dynamics in a non-competitive environment and

generate a whole host of options extremely efficiently. For analysis, smaller teams of one to six

participants are more effective.

The courses described were themselves models of adaptiveness, being open-ended in their targets and

"menu-driven" in the selection of their successive options. They had a strong capacity to correct

themselves using the many types of feedback loops established among the participants.

In a sense, if the tribal fire was the setting for design teaching in ancient times, the apprentice's

workshop in medieval times, and the classroom in modern times, then the future may hold for us some

kind of interactive workshop in learning and innovation as the centre of design learning.

PRACTICE

Case 3. A design: the Mirambika school

We have had the opportunity to apply many of the principles of design set forth in this paper in a

recent, ongoing project to design an experimental "free progress" school for children between 4 to 12

years of age along with its attached education research and resource centre. The school is part of the

Delhi Branch of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and practices the concept of learning by participation.

Such learning depends on unobtrusive, but constant, guidance and the student:teacher ratio can be as

low as 1:6. The teachers are of varying ages, and like the students they come from a diverse

economic, social and cultural background.

For the design of Mirambika's permanent building (it is currently housed in temporary but highly

innovative sheds and rooms), we have made use of an approach whose aim is to conserve, adaptively

and to the greatest extent possible, the options available to the users. This involves the extensive use

of both collaborative and participative methods. The site for the development is about 4 Hectares

with an approximate requirement for 7000 sq. m. of covered space.

53

The core design group consists of three individuals. The first is an Ashramite, who besides being the

resident in-charge of construction also happens to be the campus doctor. The second is an architect,

devoting part of his time to the project. The third is a trainee architect. The core group sets appropriate

scale-based responsibilities for various contributors and controls the mismatches of plans and actions

between various teams, without making too many value judgments on the physical form of the.

building. It takes on the role of system controller, prodding, pushing, pulling, monitoring, and feeding

back from the other functions in order to create resonance between different levels.

The basic physical concept has been worked out by an architect from Pondicherry. The detailed

design work is done within the Ashram premises, with Ashramites doing not only the planning and

ideation but also the drawings, models, and construction work. There are large doses of random or

directed contributions from outside specialists, teachers, administrators, and students. In the last four

years there have been inputs from many people, ranging from architects, civil and electrical engineers

through philosophers, academicians, amateur gardeners, to the teachers, students, parents and the

patrons of the school. We intend to leave enough scope for innovation from the contractor and his

workers.

There are also attempts to involve the children in the building process. They bulldozed part of the

earth to be able to start the construction work, and undertook the entire construction of the sports track

and the plantation work. Recently, they have worked upon the floor pattern designs of the building.

The Mirambika process has been very instructive in helping us develop methods to define the

appropriate scale at which action must be taken by different levels of role players. For instance, it is

completely unnecessary for an Architect to specify the internal finishes of the rooms of such a

building, since the residents can build in their own variety by doing this themselves. On the other

hand, it is impractical to think of customising the basic structure and service carriers for local room

inhabitants because interstitial linkages lace the entire hardware together at this scale.

The physical systems are modularised at the higher levels to allow flexibility at the lower levels. The

overall concept is quite simple: duo-decagonal courtyards surrounded by covered areas composed of

squares and equilateral triangles each of side 7.2m, with 12 of these making up the development. This

pattern has been modelled on the symbol of the Mother which has great symbolic significance for the

Ashramites. Each one of the squares is divided by 8 ribs running across the structure, giving a ceiling

pattern ending with planters on both sides. The main R.C.C. frame carries the electrical and sanitary

conduits.

54

There is a possibility of interchanging windows in some 10 different ways and a possibility to lay out

walls for differently sized rooms in at least 20 basically different ways without compromising the

overall aesthetique. However, if one were to count all possible acceptable permutations of wall and

window within the space around each courtyard, the number of possible configurations would be

about 6 to 10 digits long.

The wall and electrical sub-systems are designed to be largely independent of the structure and of

each other, and the starting configuration of the walls is being worked out by the teachers of the

school. The landscape elements, choice of shrubs and plants, floor and ceiling patterns, internal

finishes, and external paint would be specified in various combinations by children alone or with

guidance from teachers and professionals.

Participative design in this sense becomes very "contributive". The physical designer has to be able to

merge enough configuration possibilities to match the corresponding life cycle of any subsystem. In

the case of Mirambika, we have developed an entire series of possible window, wall, and electrical

sub-system configurations using available hardware. In this way we hope avoid locking any of our

mistakes permanently into the structure.

Sensitive users of any landscape know how dynamic natural landscapes can be. We would like the

building to behave in a similar fashion. The building is designed to grow and evolve gradually, and

not be installed suddenly as a catastrophic change in an existing landscape. A phasing plan extending

up to about 1996 has been worked out for this.

Amongst the long-term advantages that can be gained from such an approach are the generation of

alternatives without destructive competition. In the short-term, the automatic imparting of

maintenance information to the users during the process of design and construction is an important

tangible benefit, which also makes the process of design more transparent and accountable, and would

reduce vandalism of the building by its users.

It seems that the building can be seen as a natural system of whom the users are stewards.

Fundamentally, such a view allows for change to take place harmoniously, without affecting the

system as a whole, but rejuvenating its parts from time to time. Changes always come about in all

buildings either due to the misunderstanding of certain requirements during design, or due to the

changing requirements, users, and use; due to the dynamics of the environment or the internal

dynamics of the building-user system.

55

56

In Mirambika, we have consciously operationalised some principles: generating alternatives,

conserving options, scaling appropriately, getting wide participation for the design, installation,

operation, upkeep, and modification of the system, and working collaboratively with design

professionals and teachers. It is too early to try any evaluation of the operational hazards, but one area

which has not surfaced overtly so far in the design is a respect for nonrenewable resources and related

global concerns.

The design process may thus be embedded within the user community. The building may become a

dynamic, self-correcting, adaptive process, and not a static installation needing constant surveillance

to keep it in its original state. This should make for more rational resource use without policing over

every possible addition, change, and development of the building or its physical form.

In terms of the Transform Grammar described in this paper, a plot of the project intentions compared

with a normal project is made in Figure 22.

Case 4. A design for a design institution

The Society for Development Alternatives is a not-for-profit organisation attempting to combine the

respective strengths of organisations in the corporate, public and voluntary sectors, avoiding where

possible their weaknesses.

Its objective is to design and promote sustainable development through practical programmes which

actually deliver products to the poor through the application of science and technology, and modern

marketing methods to the problems of poverty.

Development Alternatives has the capacity

- to think globally and act locally

- to link R&D to the realities of production and marketing in the special circumstances of rural

and urban poverty

- to close the gap between innovation and application

- to contribute to the design and implementation of development programmes which are more

sustainable and which lead to greater equity and social justice, economic efficiency,

ecological harmony and self-reliance.

57

Development Alternatives has been established to help foster a new relationship between man,

machine and nature, based on need and sustainability.

To fulfil this mission. Development Alternatives has clearly defined development goals and business

objectives, which are considered equally important in the programming and implementation of its

work.

The structure and programme of Development Alternatives are organised around three inter-related

facets of societal change:

- Technology Systems, which design, manufacture and market appropriate technologies

- Environmental Systems, which provide services and advice on the rational management

of resources

- Institutional Systems, which design and implement effective organisational structures and

strategies needed to achieve the organizational goats.

Since development is an integrated process which synthesises so many human, social, economic and

biospheric goals. Development Alternatives is structured as a nation-wide network of semi-

autonomous units, and employs a multi-disciplinary systems approach to devise workable and long-

lasting solutions to the problems of national development.

Development Alternatives selects and carries out its activities so as to maximise their positive impact

on development-related factors such as:

- basic needs, particularly of the poorest

- employment and well-being

- self-reliance and self-determination

- participation and involvement

- physical and social capital

- institutions and infrastructure

- energy and material resource use

- environmental quality

To achieve its development and business objectives, the strategies of Development Alternatives bring

together:

58

The private and the public

The organizational methods and motivation of the private sector drive the engine of Development

Alternatives, and the social, developmental purposes enshrined in its mandate direct its efforts.

The big and the small

Local, small-scale facilities for innovation, manufacturing and marketing linked together comprise the

nation-wide Development Alternatives franchised network.

The old and the new

By involving those who will benefit by its activities integrating in the innovation process, the process

derives maximum advantage from the opportunities offered by both traditional knowledge and

modern science.

During its two years of existence. Development Alternatives has been able to demonstrate the

effectiveness of its approach by achieving significant results in such diverse fields as the design,

manufacture and marketing of rural wood-burning cookstoves, low cost construction technologies,

and other rural products; design of environmental management organizations; and studies for tribal

development programme.

59

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to acknowledge deeply sensitive and collaborative inputs from our colleagues at

Development Alternatives, Studio Plus, School of Planning and Architecture, Mirambika, and our

wider network. The preparation of this paper itself provided an opportunity to develop and test the

models proposed in it.