Green-minded architect and designer William McDonough asks what our buildings and products would look like if designers took into account “all children, all species, for all time.”
William starts out by describing the design of a child toy duck that has the warning – This product contains chemicals known by the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
He then turns to trees and asks the audience to imagine this design assignment – Something that makes oxygen, sequesters carbon, fixes nitrogen, distils water, accrues solar energy as fuel, makes complex sugars and food, creates micro climates, changes colours with the seasons and self replicates.
Williams tempers the TED Talk with a positive point for each negative point raised.
