P/P | Suggested links

William McDonough + Partners
http://www.mcdonoughpartners.com/

Earth Day Voices: William McDonough

Cradle to Cradle: A Call for a Revolution of Abundance
by William A. McDonough

"Design is the first signal of human intention. And we need a new design.
As Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind
of thinking we used when we created them.”

The sun’s abundant energy perpetually generates growth and is transformed
by photosynthesis into food for living systems. Within each system, the waste
of one organism provides nourishment for another—waste equals food. The
earth’s water, too, flows in renewing cycles. All the processes that animate
living systems are effective, cyclical, synergetic, and regenerative.

Inspired by these natural flows, Dr. Michael Braungart and I developed what
we came to call the Cradle to Cradle design principles in lieu of conventional
cradle-to-grave thinking. Applying these principles to social, economic, and
ecological needs, we promote the creation of regenerative objects of human
artifice—products, architecture, and even communities. We can envision and
design, for example, buildings that purify air and water and produce more energy
than they use. Design can eliminate the concept of waste, producing perpetual
assets rather than perpetual liabilities. An architecture of abundance would create
objects and energies that are socially, economically, and ecologically delightful." [...]

Future of Design [CNN]

William A. McDonough FAIA
http://www.mcdonough.com/full.htm

Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things
http://www.mcdonough.com/cradle_to_cradle.htm

"William McDonough's book, written with his colleague, the German chemist Michael Braungart,
is a manifesto calling for the transformation of human industry through ecologically intelligent
design. Through historical sketches on the roots of the industrial revolution; commentary on science,
nature and society; descriptions of key design principles; and compelling examples of innovative
products and business strategies already reshaping the marketplace, McDonough and Braungart make
the case that an industrial system that "takes, makes and wastes" can become a creator of goods and
services that generate ecological, social and economic value.

In Cradle to Cradle, McDonough and Braungart argue that the conflict between industry and the
environment is not an indictment of commerce but an outgrowth of purely opportunistic design.
The design of products and manufacturing systems growing out of the Industrial Revolution reflected
the spirit of the day-and yielded a host of unintended yet tragic consequences." [...]

Cradle to Cradle: Greeting Cards

"Imagine a world without waste."

The Next Industrial Revolution:
William McDonough, Michael Braungart
and the Birth of the Sustainable Economy
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/next.html

Directed by Chris Bedford and Shelley Morhaim
Produced by Shelley Morhaim for Earthome Productions
Narrated by Susan Sarandon

"One of the most informative, brilliant and hopeful films about the transformation
of industrial and economic activities." Anthony Cortese, Sc.D., President, Second Nature, Inc.

While some environmental observers predict doomsday scenarios in which a rapidly increasing
human population is forced to compete for ever scarcer natural resources, Bill McDonough sees
a more exciting and hopeful future. In his vision humanity takes nature itself as our guide reinventing
technical enterprises to be as safe and ever-renewing as natural processes.

Can't happen? It's already happening...at Nike, at Ford Motor Company, at Oberlin College, at Herman
Miller Furniture, and at DesignTex...and it's part of what architect McDonough and his partner, chemist
Michael Braungart, call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.' [...]

THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION [order DVD]
http://www.thenextindustrialrevolution.org/

"THE NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION is a new 55 minute film, produced
by Earthome Productions to communicate the work and vision of architect William
McDonough and chemist Dr. Michael Braungart, two leaders in a growing movement
to transform the relationship between commerce and nature.

McDonough and Braungart work with corporations with over half a trillion dollars in
annual sales, companies like Ford and Nike, to redesign buildings, processes, and products
to work according to nature's rules.

"When we follow nature's rules, growth is good," says Bill McDonough. "The question
before us is not growth versus no growth, It is: what would good growth look like? And
this is a question of intent, of design. What if we grow health instead of sickness, home
ownership instead of indigence, education instead of ignorance?" [...]

New Dimensions Media
http://www.ndbroadcasting.org/

MONTICELLO DIALOGUES, PART 6: CRADLE TO CRADLE; GOING GREEN

Guest: William McDonough Steve Bradfield
Program #2988

Host: Michael Toms
Interview Date: 5/2/2003

bigpicture.tv
http://www.bigpicture.tv/

Sustainable Cities: William McDonough

"The Chinese plan to build housing for as many as 400 million of its citizens by 2017.
With this in mind the Chinese government commissioned world famous eco-architect
Bill McDonough and partner Michael Braungart to design a prototype city. Here,
McDonough explains describes his vision for a sustainable, thriving metropolis." [...]

AIArchitect: “Being Less Bad Is Not Being Good”

"He also paid homage to Thomas Jefferson, our only architect president. When McDonough
served as dean of the architecture school at the University of Virginia, he said, he had the privilege
of living in a residence designed by Jefferson. It was an extraordinary experience, he said, “because
you realize that Jefferson considered himself foremost a designer.”

That also is evident in Jefferson’s last design: of his own tombstone, McDonough said. He included
on it only three of his myriad accomplishments, and they all were things he designed: the Declaration
of Independence, Virginia’s Statute of Religious Freedom, and the University of Virginia. It’s interesting,
McDonough noted, that he didn’t include two terms as president of the United States! Jefferson’s eloquence
recorded for all posterity the fundamental human rights of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Moreover, McDonough said, Jefferson believed that earthly resources belong to the living, and it is our
responsibility to leave to the next generation, when our lives are through, at least as much as we
started with." [...]