1993-2000 | Ambient Design
With Don, there was always the thread of something deeper happening beyond the specifications of the project being designed. It was his familiar thread that ties together history, culture, people, and place. He wove this thread with every project and person he collaborated with — it was made of the wholeness of what makes us human. If one is able to create from this thread then there is the potential of what Don described as, “a free residual of human nurturing,” that arrives as part of its outcome.
This is the grandest of ideas — tall as the redwoods and as vast as the ocean vistas from back in his hometown of Eureka, California. The thread connects what is done as designers and artists — as creators and communicators — with the understanding of what our needs are, and potential is, as human beings. It had always been a part of his working method, but now, in the later stage of this prolific career, he finally had the focus and desire to give this process a voice.
In 1993, that voice took shape as what Don phrased, “Ambient Design — towards the nurturing environment.” It would become the name of a new business, Ambient Design Company, which he started in 1995 at the age of 65. Its cornerstone belief was rooted in the deep and inseparable connectivity of three timeless ideas:
The nature of nature
The nature of humans
The nature of design
Over the next six years, the Ambient Design Studio took on a variety of projects that varied in medium or application. They were all established from the vantage point of this process — the Ambient Design process — each with the intent of further exploring its understanding and application as a healing agent of change in our modern time. Notable among them was for Fetzer Institute of Kalamazoo, MI. The five-year (1996-2000) research project focused on the environment that we experience and its connection to health and healing. The output took form through interior and architectural developments at the Institute’s site and grounds.
“I believe that design is a powerful process in the service of the spiritual and functional needs of humanity. That the basis of good design is in fact a rational balance of fit and function and the poetic and personal. That nurturing is in fact the natural by-product of the Ambient Design process and solution.” –D.A.S.
Personal Statement on Ambient Design
Don Shepherd, February 5, 1997
“We are at a moment in history — on the very cusp of significant and profoundly challenging socio/cultural change. Because our human nature is strongly biased to the status quo, we are experiencing various levels of angst and excited anticipation. Socio/cultural change is not a new phenomenon — it is one of the commonalities of evolving humanity. There is one extremely important factor that is new: the increasingly rapid acceleration of change and the increasing gap in our inability to absorb it.
“I believe that our present global society is replete with signs of an impending health crisis that is quite literally eroding the essence of our humanness and the quality of life now and in the future. I call it ‘pervasive denurturization syndrome.’ It is the accumulating residual phenomenon of many social and ecological issues combined with rapidly accelerating cultural change, and it is making us ill. We are overwhelmed and frustrated by its scale, complexity, and blind irrationality. In our daily lives, we are ensnared in the unhealthy and unsatisfying reactive mode with little restorative time for planning or many other of our vital human needs.
“Ambient Design identifies a dynamic, visionary strategy. It is both pro-active and restorative. I believe that nurturing is a predictable and quantifiable natural by product of human centered design. There is a need, however, to create new research methods around measuring the inherent paradox in all things — i.e. the tangible and intangible understanding. I suspect that in a future where knowledge is one of the most valuable commodities, delivering nurturing will become one of the most valuable products and an increasingly imperative human need.
“But what is nurturing? I believe that nurturing is a basic necessity and is intimately linked to human survival. There are many levels of nurturing attributes possible. The Ambient Design thesis is rooted in identifying and demonstrating how the highest levels of nurturing can be consistently generated. It recognizes a direct link between the levels of personalization within a solution and the gradient of nurturing achieved.
“Many aspects of our current culture are moving toward the more homogenized and less personal. Ambient Design has the uncommon attribute of personalizing everything that it comes in contact with, both process and product. I believe that parental love, a mother’s milk, and all things designed by humans have equally the same potential to nurture. We are just beginning to understand what this really means.
“Ambient Design is a bold, nature-linked humanist construct that redefines design. It identifies design as inextricably linked to all things and especially medicine. The cornerstone concept in Ambient Design is based on a dynamic synergy and interaction of three timeless ideas, ‘the nature of nature,’ ‘the nature of humans,’ and ‘the nature of design.’ You could describe this level of the concept as a potentially volatile chemical formula looking for the catalyst.
“Ambient Design asks the question, ‘Why design?’ I believe that design is a powerful process in the service of the spiritual and functional needs of humanity. That the basis of good design is in fact a rational balance of fit and function and the poetic and personal. That nurturing is in fact the natural by product of the Ambient Design process and solution.
“It is of fundamental importance to understand that nurturing cannot be imposed. It is a subjective issue where the client/’catalyst’ validates the solution if it nurtures them. The role of the designer becomes one of design facilitation in a sensitive team partnership with the client.
“Out of the flux of our current global culture shift will emerge a completely different human society. Fundamental change in ways of working and thinking will affect everything that we now know. The paradox of the leap frogging technologies that are driving this phenomenon is that they are simultaneously creating remarkable new opportunities and significantly challenging human issues. These very technologies will be the vehicle that will manage building complexity and make possible Ambient Design’s natural maturation — providing opportunities for an increasing quality of nurturing. I am personally convinced that in its full maturity, Ambient Design will be a recognized as a branch of modern medicine.” –D.A.S.