We love the South. After a great day at UL Lafayette, we drove to Starkville, Mississippi, home of the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Because the school does not have an industrial design department, we were hosted by the Environmental Collaborative Office in partnership with Green Starkville, a local organization, and the Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and Engineering departments. The school is also heavy into agriculture, which made for some interesting conversations about where Landscape Architecture, Agriculture, and Design might intersect (moving from commodities to local food economies and experiences, etc).
We pulled up on the road facing the Student Union, in front of the ROTC building. At noon, I gave a quick presentation about the Design Revolution in the Dawg House, a casual “eat lunch” or “take a nap” student common area. The ambiance was great as it wasn’t a formal lecture hall, and it made for a much more open discussion rather than me feeling like I was on the spot. After, I spoke to a few individuals who were inspired by the work, and one in particular who left an impression: Beau, an anthropology major born into a family of architects, brought up the topic of fixing things. He said he was raised to tinker, repair, and modify, and that it was that sort of ingenuity that he found most inspiring. His sentiments reminded me of a phrase Allan Chochinov used in the foreword he wrote in my book: a “hacker’s ethos.” I love the idea that the fourth “R” in “reduce, reuse, recycle” might actually be “repair.”
Throughout the rest of the day we had visitors from multiple departments, including our hosts Nisreen Cain and Jeremiah Dumas from the Environmental Collaborative Office (note: the campus’ “going green” efforts are the real deal- they’re expanding their bus system and have free bikesharing on campus grounds). Similar to our time in Lafayette, Louisiana, we were delighted to be having different types of conversations than at other schools. There was a sort of “underdog spirit” that said “we’re in the middle of nowhere, but we do awesome things and we’re the real deal.” A big thank you to the university for making the day possible.