Contemporary Vernacular: Embracing Local Wisdom and Artificial Intelligence for a Holistic Future in Design

Contemporary vernacular can be considered a way of thinking or an approach that has been on the rise for some time. I don't want to label it as a trend because I believe the intellect, memory, and approach of the local should always be the starting point in design culture and perspective. In fact, anyone who claims to tackle any design problem with a global and singular mindset inevitably resorts to local wisdom; they just don't openly acknowledge it, or worse, they might not even realize they're benefiting from it.

This underlying reliance on local wisdom emphasizes the cultural significance of contemporary vernacular. While the economic expansion of popular ideas is often highlighted, it's actually their cultural impact that is most important. However, because of the way our system operates, the capitalization of widespread ideas is unavoidable. I believe the most crucial feature of contemporary vernacular is its potential to shape consumption. Capitalism's most significant claim is that the product it offers you right now is the best option for you. And even if deceit is employed, or if the product or idea is watered down, in the end, there's something good in its content concerning the world and humanity's future. I don't see much harm in what's beneficial to us and the world becoming fashionable.

However, just as concepts like "sustainability," "green," and "reducing carbon footprint" are being hollowed out or are on the verge of being hollowed out, the term "contemporary vernacular" is also susceptible to losing its meaning. It's not very difficult for marketers to claim that a product possesses these features. But I think what's important isn't the product itself but being honest with ourselves. As a designer, for example, I feel that being honest with myself on this matter is the most crucial point; if you adopt this approach, I don't think labels are very necessary.

Reusing materials—but paying attention to the amount of energy consumed and pollution created in the reuse process. Focusing on renewable energy—but taking it beyond a superficial policy and paying attention to the carbon footprint of infrastructural and technological investments and the production processes of advancements like renewable energy and electricity. Observing energy consumption and ensuring it doesn't create pollution. Not reducing the concept of "green" to just planting strategies, escaping the impact of manicured green landscapes, and working towards soil, ecosystems, and initiatives directed at the earth.

I have a suggestion related to all these efforts because I'm so interested in artificial intelligence. While making all these decisions, we're circling issues like interests, regulations, and standards. So, who is looking out for the interests of the world, a forest, a neighborhood (in terms of the built environment, resources, air, water, etc., before considering the people living in it), or an ocean in these matters? Of course, you might say there are laws and regulations for these, but here we're acting on behalf of entities whose rights are protected by third parties and cannot decide for themselves. How can we claim that nature doesn't know what's good for itself? So, what if there were artificial intelligence modules that could provide representation for these entities, and the data sets in these modules focused entirely on the rights, welfare, and sustainability of these non-human or non-organic living or non-living entities? What if static regulations, laws, and standards—which we can always circumvent through clever lawyers to do things that suit us—had their intelligence?

For example, think about this: Is it possible for a regulation that is altered back and forth by shortsighted politicians to fundamentally object to certain changes by reasoning based on previous amendments and directly on the rights of the concerned living or non-living entity? Could these artificial intelligences have their own lawyers, for instance? When claiming rights over a piece of land, don't you wonder what the land and its associated ecosystem think about this? Maybe you don't, but I believe it's one of the necessary steps for a holistic life. And I think that today's contemporary vernacular in design is building the roads leading here, even if only with baby steps.

Perhaps it's a very extreme and possibly hard-to-imagine perspective as we move further ahead; maybe a more direct way will emerge in the future for the non-human to participate in our decisions about the world. But from my current point of view, I think we should at least guide ourselves with this mindset in anticipation of this. I believe that in this way, we will be honest with ourselves and the world we live in.