Design 21: Social Design Network

Patrick Blanc's vertical gardens, (http://www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.com), act as an isolation system, purify air and can be implemented in any climate.

Greenscreen, (www.greenscreen.com), supplies hardware, elements and spec sheets for self installation of wall mounted greenwalls or freestanding structures.

Sanitation and the construction of toilets for users is an important public interest issue in India. Eco-san (Ecological sanitation) systems try to design toilets which are source separating, composting and use the nutrient value of human waste in a hygienic manner. Indian users of eco-san typically are squatters/washers especially in rural India (as opposed to sitters/wipers the trend in urban India). The design of the Ecosan pan therefore has to be such that it can be flipped around and 2 vaults used alternately with just one pan. Women who wear Sarees, the traditional Indian dress, also find it easier to shift back for the washing ablutions than to move sideways. Chitra Vishwanath, an Architect who designs ecological buildings, has this alternate design for the pan and the toilet. Ecosan needs more women in the movement as designers, as policy makers, as users. The pan is now being made by N-Fibro a Bangalore based Fibre reinforced plastic manufacturer produces these pans.

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Design Strategist Hillary Cottam launches her new design venture, Participle, this coming April.

In 2005, Hilary Cottam won the title of Designer of the Year. Since which, the London Design Museum continue to pitch her 'radical design rethinking of the UK's schools, prison system and health service and her work as director of the Design Council’s experimental RED team, to be championing a more inspiring and efficient approach to design in the public sector. Hilary is currently setting up her latest initiative, Participle - a new social venture to design the next generation of public services.

"Participle is a unique hybrid: bringing together systemic policy thinking and new ideas with project methodology which enables us to harness the broader creativity and latent solutions visible on the ground to service users, front line workers and communities: we call this methodology Transformation Design.

Participle creates future services with and for the public. Most attempts at innovation and service improvement start within existing institutions and ask how they can be reformed. We start from the individual, unlocking a unique set of insights and motivations, which we then apply to the broad systemic problems we are seeking to answer."

Participle is being set up by four prestigious directors; Hilary Cottam (award winning social entrepreneur), Colin Burns (former MD of IDEO London), Charles Leadbeater (internationally renowned thinker and innovator) and Hugo Manass...

What if the White House, the ultimate architectural symbol of political power, were to be designed today?

To celebrate the election of the 44th President of the United States of America, Storefront for Art and Architecture, in association with Control Group, challenge you to Redesign the White House. The best ideas will be featured in a month-long exhibition at Storefront for Art and Architecture in July 2008. All three winners will be flown to New York to collect their prizes at the opening party.

• Via Design Observer.
• Also see Ali Kriscenski's review on Inhabitat.com.

If you haven't already, read this article. It's a sobering, thoughtful critique of designdom's optimism. I was taught in school that designers could design anything. Once we learned "design thinking" we could approach and solve any problem. Research, user ethnography, brainstorming, mapping, prototyping, testing, validation, second prototypes, etc...it's a pretty powerful paradigm, to be sure. It sounds a lot like the scientific method in many ways...and makes us think we can solve the world's problems.

"In particular, design metaphors obscure the ideological—and political—decisions involved in tackling societal issues. Depending on your perspective, “drunk driving” can be a symptom of some broader systemic failure (from un-walkable suburbs to deficient public education), a lapse of individual responsibility, or a right to be defended. The solution to the problem is inseparable from its conception. Conceiving of global ills as design challenges may sometimes be in order, but only when a consensus exists on goals, budgets and relevant values. Such is rarely the case."

While I share the optimism of my time...that design can change the world, I think taking a moment to realize that great designs often fail to catch on is worthwhile. We can think great thoughts, design wonderful social systems and processes, but we can't make the horse drink. Maybe it wasn't really good design, then, if it didn't catch on...or the market got in the way, the time was...

Next month, the eagerly awaited exhibition China Design Now will open at London's Victoria and Albert Museum. The microsite for the showcase is live, and offers an initial insight into what the expect.

China Design Now explores China’s dreams and hopes over the last two decades, from individual designers to the nation as a whole. (V&A, 2008)

The exhibition will be split into three unique sections:

• BEIJING - Future city: architecture & urban planning
• SHANGHAI - Dream city: fashion & lifestyle
• SHENZHEN - Frontier city: graphic design

The V&A curators explain: This exhibition will take you on a journey along China’s coastal cities to experience the country’s creative landscape. The journey starts in the far south, where graphic designers in Shenzhen began to explore new directions in the early 1990s. Next we move up to Shanghai. Here consumerism and urban culture have combined to produce astonishing fashion and lifestyles. Finally, we travel to Beijing, where monumental architecture for the Olympic Games is transforming this ancient capital’s skyline.

China Design Now will be open from 15 March - 13 July 2008.

i am russian, if you know my land. write to me!

You were born in New Jersey. You’ve been there. You’ve never been there. You know it from movies. TV. Songs. Newspapers. You’ve Googled it. YouTubed it. Wikipediaed it. Flickred it. You’ve never even heard of it. So ask yourself: is it possible to make a photograph of New Jersey regardless of where you are in the world?.

The Pierro Gallery and iheartphotograph.com invite photographers, designers, and artists of all kinds to participate in this global open call for work.

A creative initiative, that certainly made me think twice about collaborative creativity this afternoon.

Corn-based PLA shirt - Silk moire skirt with PLA pleats - Two piece suite of hemp/lyocell with hemp/silk overcoat - Soy/bamboo/silk parachute dress - Bamboo "waterfall" dress with silk cocoon and pina trim - Organically pigmented bio-grain depoudre tuxedo jacket - Organically pigmented bio-silk gilet - Tea stained evening gown of sasawashi and peace silk...

An organic fete for enlightened folk?

It's the "ingredients list" for this past week's Earth Pledge FutureFashion show here in NYC. All sustainable fibers and textiles utilized by some of the world's top fashion designers.

The show's designs are on view in the windows of Barneys New York on Madison Avenue until February 21st.

Organic food used to be somewhat elite, too, but who knows - corn-based PLA or sasawashi might soon be coming to a grocer near you.