‘To create, one must first question everything,’ architect working in the humanitarian field and eternal optimist Cameron Sinclair told the WDCD audience. The right question to ask when working on humanitarian issues, he continued, is: Where is everybody in 30 or 40 years? Fact is that by then 80 percent of world population might live in conflict regions or fragile states. The amount of people driven from their homes might be doubled by then.
Being an optimist, Sinclair has an idea of the ways on how to respond to this development. ‘We need to think beyond participatory design and turn over to transient or adaptive design.’ As an example Sinclair showed his Re:build system of locally buildable, redeployable structures, that also are easily hacked by the people who have to use them. Sinclair and his team of the Department of Small Works just finished a school in Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan, using this system. The idea is that the whole thing or parts of it can be moved to the refugee’s country of origin or elsewhere when needed.
Sinclair’s performance on Day 2 was one of the highlights of the 5th edition of What Design Can Do that as a matter of fact was filled with highs. On Thursday professor Paul Hekkert (TU Delft) argued that many of today’s politicians are the designers of the past, whereas the next generation of designers might actually be the politicians of the future. Michael Johnson showed subsequently the impact really thoughtful design can have for causes that matter. ‘Design can really make a difference,’ he said as long as designers ‘stop designing and start thinking’.
Brazilian chef Alex Atala enchanted the audience with his passion for the Amazon and the food ingredients found there, showing that food can express the heart of a county and in doing so is in fact the most powerful social media on earth. Olfactory expert Sissel Tolaas filled the theatre hall with the smell of Amsterdam while she talked of her work. This was mirrored on Friday by Sam Bompas of Bompas & Parr, who concluded his fun and energetic presentation with a bang that immersed the audience in a cloud of gherkin scent.
Lo-Fab instead of Pre-Fab
Three architects, Michael Murphy, Diébédo Francis Kéré, and Cameron Sinclair, all in their own ways showed the benefits of working in remote areas together with local communities to build both permanent and temporary buildings. Murphy advocated Lo-Fab (locally fabricated) building instead of Pre-fab, which is often more expensive and less functional. ‘What design can do is inspire people and push them to push you,’ Kéré said later in his inspiring talk that closed Day one.
The senses had a big part in this edition of WDCD with, apart from Tolaas, Atala, and Bompas, contributions by professor Charles Spence on what he calls synaesthetic marketing, based on multisensorial design in which the impact on all the senses is taken into account.
The Campana Brothers captivated the audience with their talk in which they explained their way of working, which is quite sensorial too. ‘The material tells us what it wants to be,’ they told. In a way Césare Peeren had a similar message, showing what beautiful things can be made out waste like discarded wind turbine blades. ‘Don’t waste the waste,’ he said.
Day 2 closed off with presentations by architect Ole Scheeren, and graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, who, if they weren’t already after these two incredible days, made the entire theatre happy by having them singing about annoying clients on the melody of Ode an die Freude (All my clients drive me crazy / Never show no guts at all / For the peanuts that they pay me / They get logos ten feet tall). After two days of What Design Can Do the audience left thrilled, mesmerized, inspired and without doubt happier than ever.
Top image: Cameron Sinclair at What Design Can Do 2015 (photo Leo Veger)