Monthly Archives: February 2012

28 Ways In Which Food Systems Are a Design Opportunity

By John Thackara | Published: February 16, 2012

127 calories of energy are used to grow and export one calorie of lettuce from the US to the UK. Plus 27 other opportunities to grow a new food system.

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Next Generation Biennials: A Guide

By John Thackara | Published: February 16, 2012

Top-down, outside-in ‘design visions’ are part of the problem. A talk in Oslo about design for connections and conversations.

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Doomer To-Do List: 100 Items Likely To Disappear First

By John Thackara | Published: February 15, 2012

Many practical things we take for granted would begin disappear if our globally connected economy were to unravel.

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Design Grammars for Health and Care

By John Thackara | Published: February 15, 2012

Health and wellbeing are not something you ‘deliver’, like a pizza. These are the main points of a talk at the Mayo Clinic.

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Design In The Light of Dark Energy

By John Thackara | Published: February 11, 2012

[ This text is a shortened version of my talk at last month's conference in Philadelphia on Architecture & Energy; proceedings of that event will be published as a book later this year. Whilst preparing the talk, and this text, I also prepared this Reading List for Mr Monti. ] When the new Italian Prime [...]

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A Reading List for Mr Monti

By John Thackara | Published: February 10, 2012

As an exercise, I thought I’d share with you (and Mr Monti) the best writers on my reading list – in the order I’ve read them, not in chronological order. 1. TOM MURPHY – DO THE MATH If you suspect, but cannot prove, that modern life simply does not add up, you’ll love Tom Murphy’s [...]

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Beer and solidarity

By John Thackara | Published: February 8, 2012

The photograph shows John Gorzynski and his vegetables before a hurricane devastated his family’s farm last Autumn. Nestled in a valley of the Catskills, Gorzynski Ornery Farm is where Tweet

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How To Be Good: Rules of Engagement for Design and Development

By John Thackara | Published: February 5, 2012

A recurring problem is the term “design for social impact” – when the desired impact is on someone else’s turf, not on the designer’s own.

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