Design and Environment- A Primer (Third Edition)

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About the Author H. KUMAR VYAS was born in 1929 in Uganda and had his early training as an industrial designer at the Central School of Art and Design, London. He worked as a professional designer at Douglas Scott Associates, London, before joining the National Institute of Design (NID) as a faculty in 1962. At NID, Vyas established the Faculty of Industrial Design with an aim to initiate training programmes for the first cadre of industrial designers in India. In 1970, Vyas helped innovate and introduce NID's first undergraduate programme—the 5 1/2- year Professional Education Programme. From 1977 onwards, Vyas was actively engaged in acquainting the youth with the concepts of design and design thinking.

His book, Design and Environment: An Introductory Manual, was first published in 1982 as a training kit for young designers. It comprised an introductory manual and a series of short films which was telecast on the national network as a part of Doordarshan nationwide classroom series in the late 1980s.

In 2011, Vyas was conferred the prestigious Sir Misha Black Medal for his distinguishing contribution to the fields of design service and design education. From 2011-13, Vyas held the position of Honorary Research Fellow at NID.

The resounding success of Design and Environment: An Introductory Manual (1982) and the huge demand for the same, led to the publication of the second edition titled—Design and Environment: A Primer in 2009, and subsequently to this third edition in 2016.

Preface This book is the third edition of my earlier book, Design and Environment: An Introductory Manual that was published in 1982. The Introductory Manual was originally designed as one of the three components of a design awareness kit; the other two components were a short introductory film and a set of filmstrips. The film and filmstrips have since been converted into a self-standing audiovisual programme consisting of eight film modules to be offered without the help of the Introductory Manual.

I decided to revise its content due to this particular development and also because of the feedback from the participants of several design awareness workshops held between 1981 and 1992, where, the Introductory Manual was actively used. In 2009, the second edition of the book was published as Design and Environment: A Primer. Yet, anyone who is acquainted with the Introductory Manual can see that notwithstanding the changes, the overall objective of the book remains the same: To sensitise the readers of the Primer to the inevitable interdependence between the design process and the ordering of the human environment. It is also important to make the readers aware of the fact that design, in the final analysis, is an agent of change that enhances and improves our material, psychological, and socio-cultural environments while maintaining harmony with the ecology of our planet.

While the basic structure of the Primer remains almost the same as that of the Introductory Manual, there have been noticeable changes in the content of the former. Six new chapters have replaced the first two. The chapter explaining the design process has been revised and an extra chapter has been added to inform and guide those readers of the Primer who may later aspire to become designers.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages