The Interdependence of Design
Design is a response to all of the forces acting in a particular context. The designer aims to harmonise these forces. using some "form". When this process succeeds Christopher Alexander calls the resulting form one of "good fit".
Good fit is an emergent property of the system. When you consider all elements of the context - including the designer - there is some real property, expressed as the "form", that exists in the whole and was not present when considering each decomposable part in isolation.
In other words, there is a non-reducible relationship between the component parts of the system. The designer, the context and the final created form have some connection that is causal and essential. These are not billiard balls that happen to have been thrown against each other momentarily by a random act of the universe but playing cards that cease to make sense when taken out of the deck. In graph terms, there are invariant edges between these nodes.
This relationship between designer, context and form resonates with the Buddhist notion of Pratītyasamutpāda1. Pratītyasamutpāda is often translated as "dependent origination", but can be better thought of as "interdependence". The basic principle states that all things are dependent on all others for their existence. As I sit here I am breathing. My breath depends on the oxygen in the air. The oxygen depends, ultimately, on cyanobacteria across the world's oceans and waterways. These bacteria depend on currents of warm water. These currents change depending on the overall warmth of the planet. The warmth of the planet is significantly affected by the quantity of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which I, sitting here, have the power to meaningfully change.
Pratītyasamutpāda is traditionally a meditation by which Buddhist monks and laypeople can realise their reliance on the beings around them. As you consider all the ways that this self is intimately tied to its context, you generate both gratitude and compassion. In a similar way when we take on the role of designer and attempt to find harmony, it gives us a chance to recognise the forces beyond our control that we must respond to.
For example, say you want to cook a meal of asparagus and salmon. It's one of your favourite dishes and easy to make. However, you are in Laurentia2 and it is early Spring. The wild-caught salmon season ended before Christmas and we have yet to bring in the new year's asparagus.
Nonetheless, you buy the ingredients, you take home the goods, chop up the garlic, season and bake the pairing. The flavours are a perfect complement and the cooking was done just right. Yet, something is out of place. Taking the ends off the asparagus you couldn't help notice they were five times the size of the sharp spears you were hoping for, and very woody. Unsurprising, as it must be the third cutting flown in from Peru. Bringing the salmon out of the oven you can see that the fishes' diet has left it seriously engorged on water - now shrunk to a fraction of the size when you started baking - and with visible strands of fat. Not a shock, considering the fish was farmed rather than wild-caught. The meal was executed to perfection, yet no amount of fine cooking can do anything to overcome the context. The links between the designer and their environment are indelible.
By taking our jobs as designers seriously, we can not only find new forms of good fit but in the process learn to see our dependence on the context leading to those forms. In this way we can generate consideration for the real relationships that undergird our lives.
Thanks to Casey Li for reading a draft of this essay
‘consider all the ways that this self is intimately tied to its context, you generate both gratitude and compassion’
‘The links between the designer and their environment are indelible.‘
Appreciate these insights, relates to the idea of niche construction I think.
- RIP sovereign individualists.