January 21, 2008 · 11:30 AM

Design: from thought to action

What kind of influence do computers and new technologies have on the architecture of information, on design and on architecture today and tomorrow? How do new design technologies change functionality and aesthetics in the 21st century?

Discussing on stage are Greg Lynn, architect, whose designs have received numerous awards and who teachs at UCLA, Yale and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna,and John Maeda, a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab. With them onstage are Yves Behar, the founder of the San Francisco design studio fuseproject, and Konstantin Grcic, a German industrial designer.
Paola Antonelli will be moderating the panel. She is senior curator in the Department of Architecture & Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Her upcoming "Design and the Elastic Mind", an exhibition on design, science and innovation, will open on Feburary 24th.

Greg Lynn is a member of United Architects, with which he has participated in the site design competition for Ground Zero.
John Maeda on the other hand was named among the 21 most important people of the 21st century, and he has written various books on his philosophy of "humanizing technology".
Yves Behar's firm designed the world's first 100 Dollar Laptop for "One laptop per child" to spread education and technology among the poor. His work has been shown in museums worldwide.

Antonelli welcomes the audience and emphasizes how quickly one can get from thought to action nowadays. She shows a flyer of her new exhibition "Design and the elastic mind", which shows that revolutions become usable for the people.
She shows pictures of designer's achievements that are usable in everyday life.

The four artists on stage are involved in the exhibition. Lynn shows some of his designs, for example a cup without handle, but a changed surface.

Some of his designs are now spread among households, for example hanging chandeliers. large scale manufacturing

Lynn: Most important: the technology of our small laser cutter.

The internet has made economic manufacturing easier. The computer makes designing easier.

Lynn shows the model of his own house, which has completely been designed by computer. -a robot has cut all the bricks. Steelframe and brick construction have become easier through the the computer.

Lynn: The software that connects me with design manufactory for example is very important. I love working with plastics; there is so much you can do with plastics: Walls, lamps etc.

Yves Behar shows some of his metal forms. Technology should be used to show human quality in the work.

Pictures of Behars art are shown, he talks about designing a lamp. "On the one hand design, on the other hand it is technology and on the third it is an approach to ecology."

Behar wants a new design for plastic bottles, so that children can use it to play.

Behar: My true belief is: Design is at the inner section of environment. We create intellectual property. Technology is a lot about how we do the work and how we create content.

Antonelli adds that there is no difference between designing material or immaterial things.

Grcic: The computer helps us to do the work, but it does not do the work, it mostly helps organize data. In my office I take care that people don't work on computer too much. It is very isolating. But our work is cultural and physical, not digital. We design our chairs with scissors and cloth, making models.

Grcic shows pictures of the manufacturing of one of his chairs. It took three years to realize it. His new project is an aluminium chair together with BASF.

Grcic is rushed to finish his keynote!

Antonelli: You have seen a wonderful old-fashioned way of using the computer in designing.

John Maeda: Life is about time. The computer stresses me out. I sometimes have the crazy idea of sitting at a table and talking. I started thinking about the computer in '93.

Maeda shows funny pictures related to technology, for example a camera and a car, very different in size, obviously. Still the manual of the camera is a lot bigger than the car's.

Maeda: I have realized that Yahoo! has become more complicated over the years, while Google has stayed simple. Simplicity is a good strategy in business.

Over to the question part:
Antonelli: How do you hope technology will help make your designing perfect?
Grcic: I seem to work in a little niche of industry, where technology is still building up. It is a challenge to do a lot with little and simple technologies, I think there is something beautiful in that. You can do certain things on the computer, but you still get your hands dirty.

Lynn: The velocity of design is growing, especially in the car industry. Every car could be designed individually online, but the crash-tests, etc. cannot keep up with the pace.

Behar: Designers are the glue between technology and business solutions. We bring integration.

Lynn: There is a difference between architecture and design. Design is much more intimate to me, making something that goes into someone's mouth is more intimate to me than making a church.

Question from the audience: Is technology becoming more important than culture in design?
Grcic: I think culture is still the leading force, but technology is important.

Behar: I think it is people and ideas that drive culture. That's why we're here.

More than one member of the audience expressed their admiration for the panel: "Great, terrific panel. Excellent!"

 

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