Scarce Resources

One definition of Economics is the allocation of scarce resources.  This is where Design and Economics interact – how we make choices about how we use what we have to get what we want.

There will always be a lively debate about how much to spend on design rather than on other things.  Making those choices is what democracy is for.  What design is for is to make the best use of whatever resources we have for the best outcomes. Good design delivers exceptional solutions in the face of extraordinary constraints. Every single building you see around you had the potential to deliver this.  Every brief contains the seeds of extraordinary architecture.

And every building ever built is a result of passion engaging with compromise.  That’s democracy.  That’s life. That’s how great design happens in the real world.