On Design Thinking An Essay by Maggie Gram www.nplusonemag.com Design means something even broader now. Sometime around World War II, it came to mean making things that “solve problems.” With the influence of mid-century global social movements and the rise of digital technology, it began to mean making things that are “human-centered.” And as of recently, design doesn’t have to involve making things at all. It can just mean a way of thinking. Of all these developments, the idea of design as a broadly applicable way of thinking—the idea of “design thinking”—may end up being the most influential…At Stanford’s d.school, as cofounder Robert Sutton has said, “design thinking” is often treated “more like a religion than a set of practices for sparking creativity.” Was Design Thinking Designed Not to Work?Undoing the Toxic Dogmatism of Digital DesignSermon for WIAD Bristol 2021 designux
Blessed by the four elements The Indian stone temple also included, in its architectural form, the means for being blessed by the four elements—earth, wind, water, fire. Before entering the temple gates, one removed one's shoes to touch and be blessed by the earth. Then upon passing through the temple gateway, one is blessed by the air with a gust of wind. A blessing by water is obtained by bathing in the temple tank, or at least descending its steps to touch the water. Finally, on entering the cool interior of the sanctuary, the worshipper is given a mark on the forehead with ashes taken from a sacred flame by an attendant priest. Even this blessing by fire has a slight cooling sensation to it. Perhaps it is only coincidental that each of these four blessings is associated with a cooling sensation; and yet, the use of forms and materials that inevitably create coolness is quite remarkable. Lisa Heschong, Thermal Delight in Architecture Avatar: The Last AirbenderThe Legend of KorraA hierarchical system of sense elements