Design and Spirituality

If the path to spiritual integrity lies through the way we use material things, every aspect of our relation to what is around us is significant. The challenge for us as human beings is to work out how we live humanly, taking our part in a larger and more mysterious set of processes - not trying to stand above or outside the world that makes us real. In a mixture of reflection, recollection and poetry, Stuart Walker anchors us in that 'real world' - so different from what we often mean by the phrase - and reintroduces us to our physical and spiritual selves. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, author of 'The Way of St Benedict' Stuart Walker takes us on a captivating journey through places and times where he addresses what might be at the very core of the next revolution: spirituality and imagination. Design and Spirituality is highly refreshing, thought provoking and a most needed game-changer in the field of sustainable design. As a designer and researcher, I was thrilled by the challenging and inspiring form of the manuscript that demonstrates how design ways can also extend to academic writing. While recognizing and celebrating diversified worldviews, Walker shares with us a unique and profound reflection on the place objects occupy, and could occupy, in our lives. This book addresses critical aspects of dominant material cultures and the associated devastating production-consumption systems. It offers rare insights for designers by exploring alternative approaches to the world of objects, including ones that can lead to human fulfillment. I haven't read anything like this in the field. It is about time that design - and other disciplines that share in its early history of the industrial revolution - delve into the important body of knowledge that age-old spiritual and wisdom traditions have to offer. Design and Spirituality is a wonderful and timely read, yet a work that will undoubtedly become timeless. Anne Marchand, Associate Vice-Rector, Research, Discovery, Creation & Innovation, Universite de Montreal In these short essays, Stuart Walker stimulates us to think more deeply about both design and the daily objects we take for granted. He argues that these are not just technical issues. They need to be considered in relation to wider questions about the kind of society we want to live in, the values we want to live by and in the end what we think and feel about the mystery of human existence. Richard Harries, former Bishop of Oxford, author of 'Art and the Beauty of God' This book is timely and important. Many professions are making a turn to spirituality to engage questions of sustainability, ethics, authenticity and integrity in their practice. This book addresses such questions with depth and creative insight for those working in architecture and design. Bernadette Flanagan, Chair, Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE), Ireland This book is a wonderful example of how creativity and imagination that emerge from the academic study of design show the way to spirituality and to values of meaning and purpose, reconciling these two paths of knowledge. Rossano Zas Friz De Col, SJ, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome Design and Spirituality explores the realm of meaning and symbolism, bringing back a transcendental dimension of humanity that has been eroded from our professional environments in the modern Western world. Through the lens of spirituality, Walker challenges us to look beyond the surface of our material existence to access the infinite layers of beauty and wisdom available to all who dare to seek. Walker shows that, despite cultural and philosophical differences, we all share universal truths. Design and Spirituality opens a new era and vision for design well suited to the new societies we envision, calling us to transcend our creative concern - from commodity to communion, from despair to hope, from fate to destiny. Laura Santamaria, Director, Design and Culture, Loughborough University London We should renew our material culture to be more ecological and human-centered. By bringing spirituality into the discourse, Stuart Walker's book is an excellent contribution to the accomplishment of this urgent task. Laszlo Zsolnai, President, European Spirituality in Economics & Society Institute (SPES), Leuven, Belgium This book provides a holistic picture of a novel way of how design can be informed by the past to move into the future. It provides a practical and pragmatistic direction towards the kind of sustainability that is necessary to solve unsustainability. To have a tenured veteran engaged in this type of thinking and research carves out a meaningful space for early career researchers to be bolder with their own research and practice. Spyros Bofylatos, Adjunct Lecturer, Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece