The lone genius is dead. Long live collaborative design. I was interviewed by Chee Pearlman for Wired. Chee wisely published less than the stuff that appears here, but, shucks, this is my column…. Interview for Wired. Questions by Chee Pearlman, who also interviewed Paola Antonelli, Tim Parsey, Bruce Sterling, Lee Green, Lorraine Wild, Don Norman, […]
Design for family communication
This is a story about the European funded project – Maypole – in which we (Doors folk) were part of the team. Informal communication – sharing jokes, teasing each other, asking what kind of day you’ve had – is an important part of everyday life. Most families also do a lot of communicating to organise […]
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From science fiction to social fiction: a new vision for innovation and design
(A chapter about i-cubed for If/Then). In thermodynamics it is called entropy when a system becomes disengaged from its context, and runs out of energy. Entropy afflicts a lot of design ‘research’ today. Even though the world is changing in profound and exciting ways, a generation of young designers is missing out on meaningful interaction […]
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Is technology cooking us?
Article for The Guardian (UK) in 2000 based on my CHI lecture. What happens to society when there are hundreds of microchips for every man, woman and child on the planet? What cultural consequences follow when every object around us is ‘smart’, and connected? And what happens psychologically when you step into the garden to […]
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Designing the space of flows
(This is a chapter for a book published in 2000 (by 010) on Benthem|Crouwel – the wonderful architects of the -now gone – Netherlands Design Institute and, in their spare time, of Schiphol Airport) Are buildings a liability? The eminent Spanish economist Manuel Castells, whose first speech in Amsterdam was by invitation of the Design […]
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Interview with W magazine
(1999) Q] Do you believe a new century will spur different thinking in terms of architecture and design? Why or why not? A] A new century, with 100 or 1,000 years stretching ahead, will prompt us to focus with dramatic new intensity on the consequences of design for the environment. Expect to hear much more […]
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On design awards
Domus Magazine asked me about design competitions and awards. Question 1 – the idea of “good design” Your question reminds me that years ago, the British Design Council used to proclaim that “good design is good business” . But it was always hard to define good design, let alone to demonstrate a link between good […]
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Nine surprising new job titles for facilities managers
Summary of a lecture to an international meeting of Facility Managers in 1999. How are we to design modern space? saturated with information and systems; complex but incomprehensible; an exhilarating human achievement, and a terrifying prospect, at the same time. Management of work environments, in particular, is moving centre-stage in discussions about innovation, learning, and […]
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What are artists for?
(A comment for Cumulus, the European association of design schools). In order to do things differently, we first need to see things differently; the imaginary can be extraordinarily powerful in shaping expectations. In order to do things differently, we first need to see things differently; the imaginary can be extraordinarily powerful in shaping expectations. New […]