Design and Environment [Dizajn i okolina]

This article discusses the differences between ecological and environmental approaches to design, where design is understood as a practice of vital importance both for human society and for the natural world. The author argues that an environmental approach to design is a sort of holistic method as articulated by the key thinkers of the Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm (the Ulm School of Design). By defining the differences in intellectual understandings of ecological and environmental categories, the author brings the epistemic discourse of design theory and practice to the level of scientific discourse on social and economic relations. Through his critical discourse, the author tests the advantages and shortcomings of the Western scientific approach (embedded in capitalism), concluding that in order for change to occur it is the sociopolitical system and means of production that need to be changed first—not just design method.