The following is extracted from a series of lectures about relational design practices. A related article can be found at Design Observer.
A seemingly random selection of projects from various design fields with an underlying thread:
Rem Koolhaas/OMA, Hermitage Museum expansion plan, St. Petersburg, Russia, c. 2003.
An expansion strategy for the Hermitage Museum in Russia simply annexes the surrounding government-owned buildings in St. Petersburg, increasing the available space for objects from 629 to 1928 rooms.
Nucleo, Terra: The Grass Arm-Chair, 2000
A chair made of grass must be grown and then trimmed and watered by its owner in order to remain functional.
Worldbike.org, Big Boda cargo bicycle, Kenya, 2002-2005.
A worldwide group of bicycle enthusiasts borrow the open source model for redesigning and modifying inexpensive passenger bikes for transporting cargo in developing countries.
LettError, Twin, typeface for the Twin Cities commissioned by the Design Institute at the University of Minnesota, 2003.
A typeface designed for a city alters its weight and appearance based on changes in the reported air temperature.
Shared Space concept in England, c. 2005, most likely by Ben Hamilton Baillie after Hans Monderman’s schemes.
A Dutch city removes all of its traffic markings and signage in order to reduce collisions between motorists, bicyclists, and pedestrians by increasing awareness among those sharing the roadway.
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, Blur Building, Swiss Expo 2002
A pavilion on a lake containing thousands of jet nozzles adjusts to atmospheric conditions and dispenses a continuous mist around itself, the resulting fog both conceals and reveals the structure: a scaffolding with no “real” building.
Modernista! website, 2008
An advertising company launches its new “website,” which exists as a small navigation bar overlaid on any referencing page, directing users outward to preexisting forums such as Flickr and MySpace for much of its content.
OPEN-ENDED PROCESSES AND GENERATIVE SYSTEMS
Experimental Jetset, John&Paul&Ringo&George T-shirt, 2001, and variations from others: the archetype as meme.
Luna Maurer and Jonathan Puckey, workshop with kits for poster-making using game-like, rules-based instructions for participants. Graphic Design in the White Cube exhibition, 22nd International Biennale of Graphic Design Brno, 2006.
Project Projects, Re-Shuffle/Notions of an Itinerant Museum, Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 2006. Visitors assembled their own portable exhibition using the provided screen-printed boxes, cards, and mailing labels.
Catalogtree (in collaboration with Lutz Issler, programming), poster for logotype series for Monadnock, Rotterdam-based architects, 2007/2008. With each save, export or print command, the logo is automatically generated from a postscript file.
Lust, Poster Wall, Graphic Design Museum, Breda, the Netherlands, 2008. 600 unique posters are automatically generated daily using content gathered from various Internet sources.
Daniel Eatock, Utilitarian Poster, 1998, foresakes the specificity of content and context, at least until the user completes it.
Identity for Bunch, a design firm, outsourced for re-interpretation to other designers, c. 2008
by Andrew Blauvelt at 12:27 pm 2008-11-10
Filed under: Memos
Beyond Design 