The Idea of Environmental Design Revisited

In China, environmental design is a discipline that traditionally focuses on tangibly built environments in an artistic view. However, when the environment is regarded as a condition under which people intentionally enact with their surroundings, environmental design means a course of actions to stimulate or realize that condition. This article promotes a new environmental design culture that focuses on using holistic, human-centered, and interdisciplinary approaches to create and enable a sustainable life/space ecosystem, including experiences, communication, and places, that optimize the interactions of humans with their surroundings. The article also examines the trends of environmental design in the Chinese context.