Minimalist, instrumental and spiritual approaches to design reflect different views of the relationship between people and the environment. Minimalist ideas reflect the perception of the environment as a minor influence on human beings. In contrast, the instrumental and spiritual approaches emphasize the significant impact of the environment on human beings. However, these approaches have considerable differences in defining the importance of the environment to design. I find the spiritual approach to design to be the most appropriate since it involves the most significant variability and considers a range of essential factors that the other approaches ignore.
The spiritual view considers the impact of different environments and their characteristics on human beings. At the same time, the instrumental perspective focuses on using the environment to achieve specific behavioural or economic goals (Stokols, 1990). The pressure between these approaches is primarily determined by philosophical views of the environment’s role and its use in design. For instance, the instrumental approach involves the development of standard design solutions to achieve particular goals or metrics. The spiritual approach, on the contrary, implies a maximum diversity in design solutions and focuses on individualism. Therefore, the spiritual view allows for more variability and is fundamentally different from the instrumental perspective in the context of the design solutions implementation.
Furthermore, an essential factor in the pressure between these perspectives is the influence of the growth of technology. People pursue personalization, maintain traditions, and establish connections to specific environments (Stokols, 1990). The development of technology generates a need for standardization and rapid change, which harms human beings since it does not consider several aspirations and needs of people. In this regard, the spiritual approach to design is appropriate as it enables the consideration of many factors and does not ignore people’s needs for individuality and consistency.
Fundamental differences establish the pressure between instrumental and spiritual approaches to design. The instrumental perspective meets people’s practical needs and provides the conditions for living and working. At the same time, the spiritual perspective considers a broader range of factors. It, therefore, creates more variability and the possibility of avoiding the shortcomings of the instrumental approach. Thus, the spiritual perspective has several significant advantages that are relevant nowadays since this approach addresses various aspects of people’s needs concerning the environment.
Reference
Stokols, D. (1990). Instrumental and spiritual views of people-environment relations. American Psychologist, 45(5), 641–646. Web.