Creative Commonwealth

(Points of View by Jason Mena)

Rory Hyde is “an architect, researcher and broadcaster from Melbourne, Australia but currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands”.  He is a regular contributor to theHuffington Post and The Architects radio show.  The piece (after the jump) is a call to arms for designers alike to raise their awareness about how their skills and ideologies can benefit the communities and societies within which they live, on a level beyond the status quo.  Hyde talks about how there has been a need for a new kind of designer, one who follows Buckminster Fuller’s description as a “synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist”.  Hyde believes that this calling, which dates back to the middle of the 20th century, has been attended to by emerging designers around the world “eagerly carving out opportunities for new kinds of engagement, new kinds of collaborations, new kinds of practice and new kinds of design outcomes.”  Due to the economic collapse of 2008, the international design community has had to take a long hard look at itself and ask, “who am I and how are my skills beneficial to those around me?”.  I hope that for many who read his article, the thoughts that emanate from his words act as a catalyst for their own vision quest; so that they may better suit their methodologies to empower designers to actualize societies aspirations.