What is design?

Design is about progress. It is the conceptualization

and creation of new things: ideas, interactions,
information, objects, typefaces, books, posters,
products, places, signs, systems, services, furniture,
websites, and more.
a plan or drawing produced to show the look and function or workings of a building, garment, or
other object before it is made.

a decorative pattern

Sometime around 30 B.C., Vitruvius, the author of a Roman treatise

on architecture, wrote a famous statement that is still quoted by
architects today. He said that a structure must exhibit the three
qualities of: firmness, commodity and delight.

Firmness refers to the quality of construction. In todays conditions this would address the
construction as well as the environmental impact of the building.

Commodity relates to how the building is used or how it functions.

Delight is often translated into beauty. It is the poetic attributes of the building that separate architecture
from utility (http://hmhai.com/what-makes-great-architecture/)

A new vocabulary
Architecture has always been an agent to narrate the ideologies and social
environment of the place. It has also been used as a tool to introduce new
ideologies at a given frame of time.

Working in present scenario with future in hand and past in mind takes great efforts
and skill. Designing and building a built form ahead of its time always excites the
human.
Working like contemporaries can be an easy task but challenging them and creating
a new paradigm is strenuous.