David Stairs
Dear Julie—
I’ve been watching with a mixture of mild horror and benign amusement the recent fascination that Africa engenders in Western design circles. It’s inevitable, I suppose, that that portion of the human world known by the UN as the LDC (Least Developed Countries) would become some sort of 21st century refuge,… Continue Reading →
Victor Margolin
In some parts of the world, taking a taxi or catching a cab is a simple matter. You simply hail a cab on the street, get in, arrive at your destination, and pay the fare indicated on the meter…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
In February of this year my energetic friend Wes Janz mounted the exhibition small architecture/BIGLANDSCAPES at the Swope Museum in Terra Haute. The show was an elaborate combination of image, text, and installation,… Continue Reading →
Victor Margolin
No wonder that American airline passengers are in an uproar. To get on a plane they are obliged to choose between exposing their bodies as x-ray forms or getting patted down and groped by TSA employees. When confronted with the growing passenger rebellion,… Continue Reading →
We don’t do much link relaying here at D-A-P, that’s not our purpose. But I just received this worthy link from College Crunch and think it deserves a plug. Volunteerism on campuses is seemingly at an all time high…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Either we live in the most enlightened era of recorded human history, or the most cynical. I don’t think this statement is contradictory.
Last year when I wrote Arguing With Success I was subsequently taken to task for criticising the very motives among designers I’d been calling for for years…. Continue Reading →
Martin Scriblerus
As the sun comes up on a new day…
Chances are good you know them all by name: Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa, and Po. They live in one of the most completely artificial environments on earth,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Dear Bruce, Following your much-discussed July 7th “reasoned but misinformed volley” about design imperialism on the Fast Company blog, you were practically cut off at the knees for your viewpoint. The folks at Fast Company were probably happy about this,… Continue Reading →
Olon Dotson
This is the second of two special features on the racial history of America’s industrial heartland.
INTRODUCTION: IN MEMORY OF JOHN THADIS DOTSON
Leake County Courthouse, Carthage, MS.
Only one storefront shows signs of activity on the square surrounding the Leake County Courthouse in Carthage,… Continue Reading →
Olon Dotson
—With this posting we are pleased to publish a two-part investigation by African American architect Olon Dotson into the racialized nature of the cities of America’s decayed industrial heartland. We feel this is an important, generally overlooked research,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
I was recently in Austria where I delivered a lecture in Graz during Graz Design Month.
The thing most striking about traveling in Central Europe is the sense of the past preserved. The cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire survived WWII better than their German counterparts,… Continue Reading →
We’ve heard from Yetta Aguado who, like Carolina Vallejo, is concerned about South America. Yetta’s project is related to “temporary collective housing (less than 10 persons) for homeless people. The design of the interior spaces and the equipments, in 3 different categories.”… Continue Reading →
Victor Margolin
In recent years the once spontaneous exchange between buyers and sellers has become increasingly mechanized. This has occurred in a number of ways. As one example, the Internet became a prime source of goods and buyers learned to follow standardized protocols to select their merchandise and pay for it…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
Upon meeting Kabaka Mutesa I, King of the Baganda, in 1878, Henry Morton Stanley was favorably impressed. In Through the Dark Continent, among the many journal observations regarding his visit to the shores of Lake Victoria,… Continue Reading →
David Gunn
Twenty years after the end of the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia still bears the scars of this time. Some of its effects are obvious – related to the decimated infrastructure, the depopulation of cities and displacement of peoples…. Continue Reading →
Victor Margolin
One of the fastest growing industries in the United States is surveillance. Municipalities, retail emporia, banks, and condominium associations are spending millions of dollars on video cameras to record the actions of citizens. As if there were not enough to view on network TV,… Continue Reading →
David Stairs
You know the popular saying, “No pain, no gain”? It’s always kind of bugged me. I mean, it just doesn’t stand up to common sense. There’s no animal in the universe that likes pain. Most go out of their way to avoid it…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
I want to be upfront about this: I’m not giving any money to Haitian relief. That sounds mean-spirited, I know. But truth be told, on the heels of my Oxfam donation following the tsunami, I was already beginning to feel relief fatigue…. Continue Reading →
David Stairs
“The professional tends to specialize and to merge his being uncritically in the mass. The ground rules provided by the mass response of his colleagues serve as a pervasive environment of which he is uncritical and unaware.”… Continue Reading →
If you’re not entirely comfortable following the assurances of “the world’s leading design firm” or the blandishments of “the association for design” regarding sustainability, there may be hope for you yet.
David Stairs
The author, at his homemade miniature golf range, with his Father’s Plymouth Belvedere in the background.
I was driving across northern Indiana last year when a wide-tracking station wagon blew past me at 85mph. Once upon a time this event would not have warranted notice…. Continue Reading →
An irresistible object, a homeless man and the future economy of the world
Tasos Calantzis
On a chilly late autumn afternoon the curator of one of Europe’s most prestigious art and design museums clicked through images of a new wooden vase and immediately ordered 8 pieces via e-mail for sale in the museum store…. Continue Reading →
Raymond Prucher
When I initiated this piece, I had expectations of culling out what was at the core of my own altruistic mission, to help put a face on the people who are today’s enemies of choice, namely Arabs and Persians…. Continue Reading →
Joyce Epolito
For us, it’s been all about relationship and listening. This year, a group of friends and I had the opportunity to inject design into the context in which we lived. It all started when we met several Burmese (Karen) refugee families in our neighborhood in Chicago (Rogers Park),… Continue Reading →
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