Design city of the future
February 4, 2009
By Kevin Sexton
You may be forgiven for not knowing which city on the world arena has been chosen as the ‘Design City’ of the future, but it may interest you to know that this debate, held at the Design Museum in London in December, followed hard on the heels of the Design Museum’s current Design Cities 1851-2008 exhibition, which argues that seven cities have each enjoyed a ‘moment’ when they have affected the history of design.
In a partnership between the Design Museum and the British Council, four international experts were commissioned to champion a city of their choice as the worlds next design hub. Professor MP Ranjan of Ahmedabad’s National institute of Design put forward the winning argument for Bangalore, which left Moscow, Beijing and Sao Paulo as worthy runners up. Professor Ranjan discussed India’s rapidly expanding economy, represented admirably by Bangalore’s ‘socially conscious community’ that, he argued could teach the world about what he calls the ‘intangible’ aspects of design. No longer, it seems, is such recognition the result of industrial revolution, but rather in design solutions being implemented on a local or household level. ‘Design at that level is not about aesthetics,’ he says. ‘It’s more about how you understand feelings’.
The Professor cited many examples of design in action, such as The Industry Craft Foundation, an enterprise in Bangalore that harnesses the skills of local and rural artisans to produce a range of woven bags, lamps and furniture. Another example is a company, called the Daily Dump that has designed an innovative range of home composting products that help to reduce household waste. Professor Ranjan believes that these projects, and others like them, are evidence that if design attends to small-scale details it can produce globally inspiring solutions. He says that the purpose of a Design City is to provide a proliferation of alternatives, rather than a paragon of practice. What then, are the benefits of a Design City? It is true to say that such an example gives everyone the opportunity to benefit from the application of the ‘design mind’.
The runners up to Bangalore’s worthy place as the Design City of the future are no less admirable in their intentions to innovate design on a local and global scale.
The Russian capital of Moscow has seen a sudden boom in design in the past decade after a stagnant period in the 1990s, and is now ‘ready to inspire’, according to Denis Cherdantsev of design website www.designet.ru. and Beijing is out there with daring architecture and an ability to combine the latest in design with traditional Chinese ideas, according to editor and graphic designer Ou Ning. Sao Paulo is providing exciting challenges and opportunities for the designer by means of its Favelas (shanty towns) and colourful traditions, says architect Ruy Ohtake.
We now live in a global community, and as a result we increasingly see the products from these places available to us, either on the web, or in our local shops. As such Design Cities grow in influence we also see ‘local’ designers around the world integrating new ideas into their ‘design mind’. Certainly the impact that these Design Cities of the future will have, not just on their own communities, but also on a global scale is not to be underestimated.
Which leaves us with the question, is the next Design City in fact not the place with the most design, but the place that needs design the most?
Links:
http://www.bangalorebest.com/Archives/Design_city.asp
http://www.industreecrafts.org/
Image courtesy of Flickr.com originally posted as The new BIAL Airport
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