This post appeared in a previous blog and is here for posterity’s sake.

This month’s Metropolis Magazine is devoted to asking the fundamental question: is design school working, and educating a new generation of designers, or has it lost its relevance. As a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati, I can say that design school – at least at UC – is entirely relevant. The questions posed in the graduate thesis studio were wide ranging in topic and scope. Of course not every student was preoccupied with posing, or questioning, ideas and concepts, which are fundamental to the design world at large. There were many who just wanted to graduate – thesis document and rigor be damned.
Yet, what struck me reading this month’s Metropolis, was an article about how the public at large views architecture. And the fact that there is little to no popular discussion on important issues dealing with urban/suburban issues, the avant garde [or death of], and a general malaise of important issues dealing with built form. The only glimmer of hope was borne out of tragedy. The designs for the redevelopment of Lower Manhattan briefly brought design and architecture to the front pages of America. Yet the populace was unable to fully grasp the designs put forth, or to adequately criticize them.
There is not one course in middle or high school, which introduces the populace to the essential nature of design and architecture. No history linking the Greeks, the founders of democracy, with the city exist in the minds of the populace. For the Greeks, people were the city, and the city the people. There was no distinction. If one was to strike at the city, or build a structure that disrupted the city, it was a direct attack on the populace. This is no more – the disjunction between body and the city, which Richard Sennett discusses at length in Flesh and Stone, is complete.
With the lack of design knowledge and the disdain of design itself, it is up to us as design professionals to educate the populace. If you walk around and wonder why people shop at “big box” retail, or who drive H2’s, or suburbanites who build chateaus in the middle of Ohio – do something about it!
As trained professionals, we must begin to write and disseminate material for the populace. Think of it as legal briefs, or brochures, or sound bites ranging on topics from sprawl to American Architects to the homogenization of America and the world. Small enough that people could read at a sitting or two, but packed with information and ideas. Think of a place where you could point your friends, your parents, or any of the laity. We must educate others on why design matters – from lifestyle issues to comfort to safety to efficiency – topics which can connect with the populace.
This will not be easy – who wants to sit down and write a short essay on the history of the open plan? Someone must be able to, and at the same time, distill history and ideas, which connect with people. Issues, which bring design, back into the limelight, must be addressed. The goal must not be to drag the laity into the realm of the professional, but to arm them with information and a critical eye so that they can make proper judgments. Or more Aztecs and McMansions will be churned out.