William McDonough on China EcoCities February 15, 2008
Posted by kevinpaulmorris in Uncategorized.Tags: architecture, China, cradle to cradle, ecocities, TED, William McDonough
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A TED Talk where William McDonough speaks about flaws in our usage of designs, and goes on to introduce his new design for cities and communities in China.
Just prior in this clip, McDonough uses his incredible way with words to emphasize just how much we can learn from the ‘design’ of trees, especially with respect to architecture and civil planning:
“Imagine this design project:
Design something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distills water, provides habitat for hundred of species, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates microclimates, changes colors with the seasons, and self replicates.
Yeah…Why don’t we knock that down and write on it…”
Check out the entire Ted Talk here.
Bill McDonough’s “Imagine this design project:” is my favorite quote of all time in relation to trees. It perfectly drives home the reality that using trees for paper is an outmoded practice. It prevails only because we inherited our paper mill infrastructure from a bygone age, and to make the shift requires a hefty capital investment. Nevertheless, the first place the shift has to occur is in the mind; the more people grasp the complex service that trees provide us, the sooner our pulp mill facilities will reflect our broader understanding.