The End of Design and the Architectural Final Project

Abstract

Design is the dominant model of operating upon the world. Few human and non-human spheres remain untouched by its marvelous and terrifying power to reshape the world in which we live. From cities to embryos, everything depends on design. Given its ubiquity, the question of design becomes an ontological matter, despite its outward appearance as a technician's game. The very act of designing gathers a complex network of relations that includes the technical and productive realms but moves outside those concerns to envelop the political, social, spiritual, and material, as well as the everyday.