Environmental Design

Environmental design is the process of addressing Natural environment parameters when devising plans, programs, policies, buildings, or products. Classical prudent design may have always considered environmental factors; however, the environmental movement beginning in the 1960s has made the concept more explicit.

Environmental Design has been defined: "We live in the world by design. Creating the everyday environment in which we live involves complex systems of cultural meaning, visual communication and the use of tools, technology and materials. As a field of study, Environmental Design encompasses the built, natural, and human environments and focuses on fashioning physical and social interventions informed by human behavior and environmental processes. Design asks us to find answers to the most fundamental of human questions: how should we live in the world and what should inform our actions? This complex endeavor requires an interdisciplinary approach.

Environmental design in the old-fashioned sense develops physical environments, both interior and exterior, to meet one or more aesthetic or day-to-day functional needs, or to create a specific sort of experience - the focus being the human-designed environment. Environmental design includes such specialties as architects, acoustical scientists, engineers, environmental scientists, landscape architects, urban planning, interior designers, lighting designers, and exhibition designers. In many situations, historic preservation can be added to this list. Another recent addition to this general area might be "disability rights movement disability access".