Montreal Design Declaration (2017)
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Adopted by: Eighteen international design, architecture, planning and landscape organisations, signing at the first Design Summit Meeting of the World Design Summit, Montreal; preparation led by the International Council of Design (ico-D) · Kind: Professional declaration · Scope: Universal · Adopted: 2017
Signed on 24 October 2017 by eighteen international organisations of designers, architects, urban planners and landscape architects at the first World Design Summit in Montreal, this declaration is the broadest cross-disciplinary statement the design professions have produced. It defines design as the application of intent, sets out nine calls to action including responsive, responsible and vigilant design, and commits its signatories to collaborate with the Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Climate Accord and the UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. It closes on a single line: all people deserve to live in a well-designed world.
The first Design Summit Meeting, held in Montreal in October 2017, was the first time the design community convened internationally across a broad spectrum of disciplines together with a serious array of international organisations. Eighteen bodies signed the declaration that came out of it, among them the International Union of Architects, the International Federation of Landscape Architects, Cumulus, the Design Research Society, the DESIS Network, the Bureau of European Design Associations, Architecture Sans Frontieres International, the Commonwealth Association of Planners and the International Federation for Housing and Planning. Officials from UNESCO, UN-Habitat, UN Environment and ICOMOS were present at the signing, which the document records carefully as presence rather than as endorsement.
The declaration opens with a preamble that is unusually attentive to what design is not being asked to do. It is cognisant of the diverse range of contexts, both formal and informal, where design has an impact, and mindful of the immeasurable value of local and traditional knowledge for appropriate and innovative design solutions. It recognises the need for strategic leadership on design at every level of government, and therefore the need for governance models, political agendas and policy to take design into account.
Its definition of design is the sharpest line in the document. Design is the application of intent: the process through which we create the material, spatial, visual and experiential environments in a world made ever more malleable by advances in technology and materials, and increasingly vulnerable to the effects of unleashed global development. From that definition nine calls to action follow: design advocacy, design metrics, design policies, design standards, design education, responsive design, responsible design, vigilant design, and the recognition of design's value across society. Three of those nine are the ethical core. Responsive design is design that answers the degradation of the physical, social and cultural environment and the risks of unfettered consumption. Responsible design asks designers to recognise their enormous capacity to be destructive as well as constructive, and to share the work of refocusing from human consumption to the enhancement of human life. Vigilant design, written in 2017, asks designers to ensure that the impact of algorithms and technology is ethical and inclusive of social, cultural and ethnic diversity.
The declaration then states an intent to collaborate with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Climate Accord and the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, to develop a world design agenda, and to inspire designers, described in the document's own words as too long the servants of producers, to better serve humanity as the ambassadors of end users. An annex proposes twenty collaborative projects grouped under metrics, common language, policy, education, demonstration, standards and common cause. The annex is honest about its own status, stating that undertaking any of these would require resources, negotiation, coordination and management, and that a process would have to be created to decide which were launched.
None of this is binding. Eighteen professional organisations signed a text about their own conduct and their own advocacy; no state ratified it and no mechanism enforces it. Its significance is that it is the point at which architects, industrial designers, graphic designers, planners, landscape architects and design researchers found a single set of words they would all put their names to, and that those words include an explicit acknowledgement that design can be destructive.
Key provisions · 15 provisions
Preamble
The Design Summit Meeting marks the first international convening of the design community across a broad spectrum of disciplines together with international organisations holding cultural, economic, environmental and social perspectives.
convening · cross-disciplinary
Preamble
The signatories are mindful of the immeasurable value of local and traditional knowledge for appropriate and innovative design solutions, and cognisant that design has impact in both formal and informal contexts.
traditional-knowledge · informal · context
Preamble
The signatories recognise the need for strategic leadership on design at local, regional, national and international levels, and therefore the need for governance models, political agendas and policy to take design into account.
policy · governance · leadership
Value of design
Design is defined as the application of intent: the process through which the material, spatial, visual and experiential environments are created in a world made ever more malleable by technology and increasingly vulnerable to unleashed global development.
definition · intent · vulnerability
Value of design
Design expresses culture, and designers have a particularly potent role in making, protecting, nourishing, enhancing and celebrating cultural heritage and diversity in the face of globalisation.
culture · heritage · diversity
Value of design
Design addresses resiliency and manages risk through comprehensive research, robust methodology, prototyping and consideration of life-cycle consequences.
resilience · life-cycle · methodology
Call to action, Responsive Design
The declaration calls for design that responds to the degradation of the physical, social and cultural environment and natural ecosystems, and to the threats caused by global change, industrialisation, rapid urbanisation and unfettered consumption.
degradation · urbanisation · consumption
Call to action, Responsible Design
Designers must recognise the impact of their practice and be conscious of their enormous capacity to be destructive as well as constructive, and they share the responsibility of refocusing from human consumption to the enhancement of human life.
responsibility · harm · consumption
Call to action, Vigilant Design
In a world increasingly impacted by machine learning and artificial intelligence, designers must help ensure that the impact of algorithms and technology is ethical and inclusive of social, cultural and ethnic diversity.
ai · algorithms · ethics · inclusion
Call to action, Development of Design Metrics
The declaration calls for the collection of data and the establishment of effective measures to evaluate the impact of design, in order to demonstrate its strategic value within organisations and in serving the public good.
metrics · evaluation · public-good
Call to action, Enhancement of Design Education
The declaration calls for support of educational institutions, methods and processes specific to design education, design research, lifelong learning and capacity building for designers.
education · research · capacity-building
Statement of intent
Signatories intend to collaborate with efforts sharing their objectives, naming the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the New Urban Agenda, the Paris Climate Accord and the UNESCO Convention on the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
sdgs · paris-agreement · unesco · alignment
Statement of intent
Signatories intend to inspire designers, described as too long the servants of producers, to better serve humanity as the ambassadors of end users, the citizens of the world.
professional-role · advocacy · users
Closing line
The declaration closes on the proposition that all people deserve to live in a well-designed world.
equity · access · core-claim
Annex
An annex proposes twenty collaborative projects grouped under metrics, common language, policy and governments, education and research, demonstration projects, community standards and common cause, while stating plainly that each would require resources, negotiation, coordination and management before it could be launched.
implementation · projects · conditionality