31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD Celebrating 5 years of What Design Can Do!
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31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD
What Design Can Do!
A PLATFORM FOR PROBLEM SOLVING THROUGH DESIGN What is it that design can do? Five years ago a group of designers in the Netherlands recognized a lack of recognition for what design could contribute to society. To most people, design meant little more than styling, or beauty at best – a fancy lamp, a smart cabinet or a stylish sofa. Few people appreciated the potential of design to address and help resolve the pressing problems that face society. The group decided to create a platform to highlight the problem-solving capacity of design, and gave it the appealing name What Design Can Do! This platform, centred around a two-day conference in Amsterdam, is meant both as a source of information for professionals and the general public, and as an appeal to designers to deploy their skills in making our world a little better. In five years What Design Can Do! has presented hundreds of designs that in one way or another tackle the major issues that need to be resolved today. To celebrate the fifth edition, this booklet recalls thirty-one of these examples of best practice. Thirty-one brilliant projects that demonstrate how the creative mind can make unexpected combinations, find new solutions, sketch future opportunities. Because that is what design can do!
01 DESIGN IS A MEANS, NOT AN END
09 THE BRAZILIAN PATH
02 UNCOVERING THE CLOSE TIES OF POWER
10 OLD ROTOR BLADES MAKE A PERFECT PLAYGROUND
03 GROW YOUR OWN GARMENTS
11 A CHILD CAN DO IT
04 TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES, MODERN DESIGN
12 FIGHTING CRIME THROUGH DESIGN
05 BRAZILIAN PRIDE ON A PLATE
13 A TASTE OF CULTURE
06 THE PUSH THAT WILL FORWARD CITY CYCLING
14 THE OPERA OF URBAN LIFE
07 THE TRUE FAIRY TALE OF A FAIR PHONE
15 MATCHING COFFEE WITH STRAWBERRIES AND ASPARAGUS
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08 EMERGENCY BUILDING 16 SAVING VENICE ON FOR PEOPLE IN NEED A SEMI-LIVING REEF 28 – 29
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17 IN VITRO OYSTERS AND KNITTED MEAT
25 BUILDING BLOCK FOR HABITAT
18 SMART HOSPITAL DESIGN COUNTERS INFECTIONS
26 ART THAT TALKS
19 COLLECTION FOR ALL SEASONS
27 IT’S THE PEOPLE THAT MAKE A CITY
20 LET A THOUSAND FLOWERS GROW
28 FASHION INTERWOVEN WITH CULTURAL HERITAGE
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21 URGENT IMAGINATION SHAPES THE CITY
29 SAVING NATURE BY DESIGNING IT
22 CAN YOU WEAR YOUR HERITAGE?
30 SOCIAL SOLUTIONS FOR SLUM SITUATIONS
23 NAÏVE ROLE-PLAY TO SOLVE THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS
31 LEARNING CHINESE THE EASY WAY
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24 POWER TO THE PEOPLE 66 – 67
EXTRA
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104 BRILLIANT MINDS ON STAGE 84 – 97
DESIGN IS A MEANS, NOT AN END
Project: A Gente Transforma By: Marcelo Rosenbaum Country: Brazil Discipline: Interior design WDCD: 2012
KAPE, A LAMP INSPIRED BY THE YAWANAWÁ PEOPLE PHOTO: LUCAS MOURA
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‘Design is more than a product, a cup, a chair,’ asserts designer Marcelo Rosenbaum. Famed for his interiors (shops, restaurants, nightclubs) and products (wallpaper, rugs, furniture), Rosenbaum is also the driving force behind ‘A Gente Transforma’, an initiative that propagates a broader concept of design. ‘I am trying to bring more people in. To make more connections.’ A Gente Transforma literally means ‘We Transform’, in reference to the collaboration between Rosenbaum’s studio and the clients, the marginalized residents of favelas on the fringes of Sao Paulo and elsewhere. The initiative aims to transform the social problems affecting families living in precarious situations into opportunities for integral development. The project uses entrepreneurship to awaken creativity and to make changes inside a community, raising residents’ self-esteem and putting the power to change in their hands. Propagating the use of craftwork in Brazilian decoration is the engine for this. In the hope of stemming the flood of migrants arriving into the Pauli favelas, Rosenbaum has also taken his initiative to far-flung regions of Brazil, where he works to convince locals to turn their craft traditions into economic opportunities. The items produced are a means, not an end, a way of building a brighter future for people in their native states rather than in the city slums. Marcelo Rosenbaum Marcelo Rosenbaum is a Brazilian designer renowned for his interiors for shops, nightclubs and restaurants. He also hosts Lar Doce Lar, a home makeover programme on television. With his office Studio Rosenbaum, he designs wallpaper, rugs and textiles, all inspired by his country’s rich vernacular traditions.
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31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD
GROW YOUR OWN GARMENTS
Project: BioCouture By: Suzanne Lee Country: United Kingdom Discipline: Fashion WDCD: 2012
BIORUFF JACKET MADE FROM BACTERIAL CELLULOSE
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BioCouture is a research project by London-based fashion designer Suzanne Lee that examines ecological and sustainability aspects surrounding fashion. In particular, she explores how organisms like bacteria, yeast, fungi and algae might be deployed to produce fabrics for the garment industry. ‘There’s a whole spectrum of organisms that can grow material,’ says Lee, who teams up with scientists to engineer organisms capable of growing future consumer products. A textile designer by training, Lee was one of the first in her profession to realize that by working alongside biologists, engineers and materials scientists, she could take fashion in an entirely new direction. She has already produced a range of jackets and shoes made from bacterial cellulose, a material produced by bacteria but with similar properties to leather, or ‘vegetable leather’ as Lee calls it. ‘Through an engagement with biology I’m really excited about how we can think about organisms like microbes as the factories of the future,’ Lee told Dezeen. In these factories, the materials used and the garments themselves are created by microbes rather than plants. Her BioCouture Research Project focuses on harnessing bacteria to produce cellulose. Her original inspiration to ‘grow clothing’ has broadened to explore various applications for these compostable materials. Suzanne Lee Fashion designer Suzanne Lee was a research fellow at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London and director of the BioCouture, a biocreative design consultancy that helps brands to imagine their biodesigned future. Lee is the author of Fashioning the Future: Tomorrow’s Wardrobe, in which she examines how scientists and fashion designers are bringing together the worlds of technology and clothing and turning science fiction into reality. 8 – 17
31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD
TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES, MODERN DESIGN
GANDO SCHOOL EXTENSION PHOTOS: ERIK-JAN OUWERKERK
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Project: Gando Primary School By: Diébédo Francis Kéré Country: Burkina Faso Discipline: Architecture WDCD: 2013 When he was a child, Diébédo Francis Kéré travelled nearly 40 kilometres to the next village in order to attend a school with poor lighting and ventilation. The experience affected him so much that after becoming an architect he decided to reinvest his knowledge in building a new school in his home village. The design for the primary school evolved from a lengthy list of parameters including cost, climate, resource availability, and construction feasibility. Traditional clay-building techniques were modified and modernized in order to create a more structurally robust construction in the form of bricks. Another innovation was the lifted metal roof over a perforated clay ceiling for the learning space, providing ample ventilation and preventing the rooms from becoming intolerably hot. The low-tech and sustainable techniques that were developed and improved allowed the Gando villagers to participate in the process in accordance with traditional culture. The school became a landmark of community pride and received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004 and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2009. As the collective knowledge of construction began to spread and inspire Gando, new cultural and educational projects have since been introduced to further support sustainable development in the village. Diébédo Francis Kéré As the first son of the head of his village, Gando in Burkina Faso, Diébédo Francis Kéré was the only child allowed to attend school. After excelling at his studies, he won a scholarship to the Technische Universität in Berlin, where he graduated in architecture and engineering. From his office in Berlin, Kéré combines humanitarian projects with architectural projects in Europe and China. 10 – 19
31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD
BRAZILIAN PRIDE ON A PLATE
PINEAPPLE WITH AMAZONIC ANT PHOTO: RUBENS KATO
05 Project: D.O.M. By: Alex Atala Country: Brazil Discipline: Gastronomy WDCD: 2015
WATERMELON, CUCUMBER AND CODIUM PHOTO: SERGIO COIMBRA
With the opening of D.O.M. in 1999, Alex Atala made a decision that was to change the history of modern Brazilian gastronomy. Atala chose to celebrate the uniqueness of his nation’s produce, using ingredients like açaí, pupunha or cupuaçu. Not only to create an exceptional gastronomic experience, but also to capture the very essence of Brazil. ‘We needed pride in our cuisine,’ Atala said in 1999. ‘The way the Brazilian composer Villa-Lobos was proud of our music.’ That is why at D.O.M. he refuses to import typically high-end ingredients such as fois gras and caviar, preferring instead to scour his native Brazil, and especially the Amazon region, for indigenous produce. Atala’s aim is ‘to step out of the comfort zone and propose a new gastronomic experience, rescuing the most authentic flavours of Brazilian cuisine according to a contemporary gaze’. With D.O.M. – the name stems from the Latin expression Deo Optimo Maximo – Atala not only reached star status, but also set an example for other restaurants in the country. And for Brazilians in general. After being voted number four in the San Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, the pride was shared by the whole country. ‘This recognition, this opening up – seeing people becoming emotionally engaged – is wonderful,’ the chef said at the time. Alex Atala Top chef Alex Atala is known for his pursuit of sustainable solutions in the world of fine dining. At D.O.M., the top-10 restaurant he opened in São Paulo in 1999, he refuses to import typically highend ingredients, preferring instead to scour the Amazon region for indigenous produce. His trademark is to combine such produce with the techniques he picked up as a student in Belgium and at culinary hotspots in Namur, Montpellier and Milan.
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31 Brilliant Ideas FOR A BETTER WORLD
Oliviero Toscani Photographer and speaker at WDCD 2011
IT HAS NEVER BEEN IN MARKETING’S INTEREST THAT WE ARTISTS AND CONSUMERS SHOULD BE ABLE TO THINK, BECAUSE ANYONE WHO THINKS CAN BE CREATIVE, AND CREATIVITY IS ALWAYS SUBVERSIVE. IT’S ABOUT TIME TO REVOLUTIONIZE THIS SITUATION. WE NEED CREATIVITY IN COMMUNICATION.