Design is Nothing Special

“The problem today—which has nothing ‘philosophical’ about it—is that of the real life ‘of’ the city and ‘in’ the city. The true issue is not to make beautiful cities or well-managed cities, it is to make a work of life. The rest is a by-product. ”

After reading Raymond Ledrut’s conclusion, I start to think about the reality of design. What is the right strategy to design a city? Does design need to be either strategy or tactic, or anything else? Is the “real life” defined by designers real enough? Is it junk space if the designer creates the utopia? Why do we always define daily life nothing special, and nobody wants to design background building? Is there any spontaneous creativity within daily life?

Those questions remind me of a small book I read. It is "Urban Code: 100 lessons for understanding the city". The author used simple diagrams to show the observation of everyday life. We always ignore daily life and treat ourselves as potential experts of everyday life. But what reveals in the book is something I never think about even though I experience the same thing every day in my life: street grid, the building pattern inside one block, transition space in front of a storefront, street vendors, people’s walking loops. There should be plenty of urban moments in springing us to make a work of life, rather than following universal design guidelines. 

I think that’s the meaning of “dialogism”—to dialogue with the urban environment, everyday life and people. Design is nothing special. Be an observer before a designer.