philosophy

My research philosophy is based on the desire to seek understanding of the complexity of issues affecting the community-based design movement today. Through my investigation, interpretation, and analysis of those issues, I strive to communicate the fundamental successes and failures of this movement across the fields of design. Collaboration has been fundamental to my work in this area and has helped to expand my definition of design relative to this research. Today, I work across the related fields of design (architecture, industrial design, communication design, landscape architecture and urban planning) so as to better understand the broader implications of the diversity of work that is fundamentally rooted in community. I look forward to contributing to the critical debate and development of theory and guidelines for practice that facilitates a deeper, more meaningful understanding of how design best impacts life through the triple bottom line of social justice, economic development, and environmental conservation. If every design development project maintained these touch points, the face of design would be forever changed.