Their 'curriculum' would be a loosely woven mesh of those activities and skills needed for creative problem-solving. There could be no
separation between their 'work' and their leisure- time activities. The newest methods of data-processing, film- making, etc., would be
available to the team. Such a centre of design research and planning would have to be able to offer its hospitality freely to specialists from
many disciplines. Such concerned workers could then be drawn into the working and living experiences of the team for a few days, weeks, or
even a year. Because of the experimental nature of the various structures making up the environment, such a centre would best be located in
the country, by close enough to major urban centres to participate in studies internship work, and experiences in the city environment. What is
studied, and how, would evolve organically out of the needs of society. There could never be a static 'plan of study'.
There is no question but that within two or three years some members would leave, their minds full of ideas for a better way of running such
an environment. This is unavoidable, and would bring about dynamic changes. For it is my belief that if such a centre were to be established,
soon similar centres would 'spin off'. These new centres would be able to address themselves to local and regional problems around the world.
They would form the first links in a network of such environments. At each centre, young people would be encouraged to travel widely. Such
travel could well include a few months' or years' stay and participation in the work at another centre. Two things are proposed here: the
establishment of a learning-working environment for thirty young people; and, optimally, a new life-style for the peoples of the world.
In the preceding chapter I have explored the dynamics of the integrated designer's methods OL problem-solving, and diagrammed them. By
now, it will be obvious that I have written this entire book according to this same diagram (as shown below).
It has been derived from the in-put of many flow charts. (If it lacks a smooth, linear sequence, it may be put down to that.) The task at hand
has been to present you, the reader, with a collection of jig-saw puzzle pieces, which I urge you to put together in whatever pattern seems
most relevant. There is no other way of presenting the simultaneity of events.
Books like this are expected to end with a dazzling view of the future, and ordinarily this would be the place to speak about vast cities under
the ocean, colonies on Mars and Proxima Centauri, machines that will provide us with an everlasting cornucopia of electronic gadgets. But
that would be insane.
Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical (going back to the roots) in the truest
sense. It must dedicate itself to nature's 'principle of least effort', in other words, minimum inventory for maximum diversity (to use Peter
Pearce's good phrase) or, doing the most with the least. That means consuming less, using things longer, recycling materials, and probably not
wasting paper printing books such as this.
The insights, the broad, non-specialised, interactive over-view of a team (heritage of early man, the hunter) which the designer can bring to
the world must now be combined with a sense of responsibility. In many areas designers must learn how to re- design. In this way we may yet
have 'Survival Through Design'.