William McDonough
William McDonough
William Andrews McDonough is an American designer, advisor, author, and thought leader. McDonough is founding principal of William McDonough + Partners, co-founder of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistrywith German chemist Michael Braungart as well as co-author of Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things and The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability—Designing for Abundance, also with Braungart. McDonough's career is focused on creating a beneficial footprint. He espouses a message that we can design materials, systems, companies, products, buildings, and communities that...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionArchitect
Date of Birth21 February 1951
CountryUnited States of America
There is no question that the U.S. economy, especially in relation to the world economy, is beginning to exhibit signs of imbalance and strain.
I dont think theres any likelihood in the world that he will reject the list,
At this point I don't want to discuss any future other than saving the shipyard,
If anybody here has trouble with the concept of design humility, reflect on this: It took us 5,000 years to put wheels on our luggage.
Consider this: all the ants on the planet, taken together, have a biomass greater than that of humans. Ants have been incredibly industrious for millions of years. Yet their productiveness nourishes plants, animals, and soil. Human industry has been in full swing for little over a century, yet it has brought about a decline in almost every ecosystem on the planet. Nature doesn't have a design problem. People do.
Waste equals food, whether it's food for the earth, or for a closed industrial cycle. We manufacture products that go from cradle to grave. We want to manufacture them from cradle to cradle.
We have carbon in the atmosphere. That is a material in the wrong place problem. It's just like what I said about the lead. Lead in the biosphere is not good. Carbon in the atmosphere (over natural levels) is a problem.
In the end, the question is not, how do we use nature to serve our interests? It's how can we use humans to serve nature's interest?'
The surest way to heal an eco-system is to connect it to more of itself.
The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones. It ended because it was time for a re-think about how we live.
You don't filter smokestacks or water. Instead, you put the filter in your head and design the problem out of existence.
Sustainability takes forever. And that's the point.
Designers are inherently optimistic people who try to make the world a better place
I think as designers we realize design is a signal of intention, but it also has to occur within a world and we have to understand that world in order to imbue our designs with inherent intelligence.