Design fully participates in the interplay of organisms and environments. In an increasingly urbanized globe, we begin with the observation that design, its artifacts, and its methods are fully intertwined as materials, and evolve ecologically with “natural environments.” Further, designers are constantly implicated in the processes and results of design. In the scale and complexity of this situation, global ecology needs design that is able to propose and direct these intertwined fields with great agility; it needs an ongoing discursive space for the presentation and debate of design’s ecological implications; it needs practices, techniques, and sensitivities to propose alternative scenarios for new global ecologies.
ECoDe is a global research and design lab geo-located in New York and Istanbul and networked on the World Wide Web. ECoDe produces urban Design research, offers consulting services, and provides education/incubation opportunities. It is focused on investigating relationships between design, ecology and technology. Its purpose is to create a unique research environment based on three principles:
- Design-led: design takes the lead to address “wicked” ecological issues
- Organism-driven: research and design focus on all living things
- Poly-disciplinary: different disciplines develop new collaboration modes to work closely together
Current partners and collaborators include; Rutgers University; State University of New York, Stony Brook; Arup; Hudson River Park Conservancy
Philip Parker, Co-Director
Sulan Kolatan, Co-Director