Massive Change

Title: MASSIVE CHANGE Author: Bruce Mau and the Institute Without Boundaries Publisher: Phaidon Press Limited Place of Publication: London Year of Publication: 2004 Pages: 240 ISBN: 978-0714844015

by DR. CHUA RHAN SEE maw9982@yahoo.com This is a book that challenges conventional views and understanding on the concept of design. The book aims to educate on the difference between the ‘world of design’ and the ‘design of the world’, which is thought to be more important and critical, such as the design of system, movement, organization or organism. The book sets to find answers to a question posted at the beginning of the page that asked ‘Now that we can do anything, what will we do?’

The authors suggest that focus should be given to exploring design economies, tapping into the global commons, distributing capacity, embracing paradox and reshaping the future.

The book contents are arranged into 11 chapters with the following topics: · · · · · · · · · · ·

Urban economy Movement economy Information economy Energy economy Image economy Market economy Materials economy Military economy Manufacturing economy Living economy Wealth and politics

Amongst the highlights are Chapter One on urban economies which discusses manufactured housing, density, sustainable architecture, the entrepreneurial Third World, redesigning property law and the notion that ‘everywhere is city’; Chapter Two on movement economies that touches on personal freedom and global movement; and Chapter Three on energy economies that deals with clean green power, solar power, the worldwide grid and our energy challenge.

The book also contains interview excerpts of over 30 experts, who share their views on economy, science, transportation, energy, agriculture, health, technology, image and politics.

These experts include Jaime Lerner, the three-time mayor of Curitiba, Brazil, whose urban revolution put the city on the world map; Hernando de Soto, the President of the Institute of Liberty and Democracy, regarded by the Economist as the second most important think-tank in the world; Richard E. Smalley, the recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry; Stewart Brand, the founder of the original Whole Earth Catalog and also Hazel Henderson, a futurist and international consultant on sustainable development, whose editorials appear in 27 languages in more than 400 newspapers.

This book is written in an easy-to-understand manner and illustrated by a wide range of vivid graphics and photos. Such arrangement makes the book easy to read and digest even though it covers a wide range of complex topics.

Bruce Mau is the principal of Bruce Mau Design, a world renowned design company based in Toronto, Canada. Together with him is the Institute without Boundaries, which is a privately initiated institute, aimed at producing designers who are a ‘synthesis of artist, inventor, mechanic, objective economist and evolutionary strategist’.