Designing for Mediocrity

Why isn’t all design universal?

Felix — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:57:14 +0000

Isn’t the goal of design to meet the needs of the most people possible? Today we distinguish between universal design and non-universal design which means most of the design excludes a major part of the people (silver agers, handicapped people…). It is self-understandig that design is perceived as something exclusive (it excludes).

How can design look like that is including in all senses? Design for the masses?

could this be it?

Felix — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 11:15:28 +0000

Looking for a product that re-interpretes and reflects mediocrity:

- taking up something traditional/average

- taking up a tendency of the masses (for doing-yourself)

- taking up the demand for something cheap

and combining it with a sense of self-irony

Could this be it?

(Martí Guixé – Do-Frame Tape)

Here we are cooking only with love

Felix — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:17:12 +0000

As part of an art project, students at the university of applied arts in Vienna, researched the life and the eating habits of 20 families, inhabitants of the settlement building “Am Schöpfwork” in Vienna. – “Hier wird nur mit Liebe gekocht!”

“Our first visits in the housing development -Am Schöpfwerk- . Winter. A view on grey housing facades and satellite dishes. Cold weather and apparent lifelessness. Still not knowing what richness of cultures and stories lies behind the front…”

Grading up the average

Felix — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:23:30 +0000

“The crowned jam jar” by DanklHampel Design. In this project the designer duo is taking familiar objects from the average household as an addition/crown for jam jars or pickled vegetable jars. Both objects in combination make something unique and valuable. Again you can find the beauty in the ordinary.

Pre Fab’s new facade

Felix — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 21:05:28 +0000

The ordinary becomes luxurious. Even known designers such as Matteo Thun are designing Pre Fab homes. But is this going to change the average picture of the suburbian home with garden? Or is it just making PreFab homes attractive to wealthy clients?

House by Click

Felix — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 14:34:35 +0000

Building a dream home on the web? Today’s PreFab homes are handled as any other product too. Manufacturers offer guidelines and a list of features to choose from, the collections of modelhomes contain promising names like “Fortuna”, “Magic” or “WhiteStar”.

Prefab’s Promise

Felix — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:53:15 +0000

The possibility of Prefabrication has not only reached the need for instant (decreased building time) and affordable housing, nowadays “there is a new zeitgeist in architectural circles and the spirit of the age favors the small carbon footprint of “prefab”.

Repetition

Felix — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 12:06:33 +0000

“Doppelhaushaelften” – a series of photographs by Andreas Machanek.

Pre-Fab & Identity formation

Felix — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:59:16 +0000

“From the perspective of the amateur homemaker, designing and making the home are discursive and creative practices that are integral to the process of identity formation…” (home culture / Roni Brown)

A series of Pre-Fab houses – in this case the major part of the identity formation has been handed over to the manufacturer, where only the “customization” is left the house owner.

The self-build home

Felix — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 11:39:54 +0000

During the postwar reconstruction era in Europe, home and domesticity attained an unprecendeted cultural importance. For many Europeans, securing a home of one’s own signaled the real end of the threats and dangers of the war.

(Betts and Crowley 2005:215)

The self-build home is quite unlike the majority of material culture possessions: it is conzeptualized by the “end-user” (being both producer and consumer); made by them over a period of time using their own productive energies and resources; integrates fragments of autobiographical narrative content; is often a joint, if not family-made project; and reflects the social world as other homes do-

(from home culture/ Identity and narrativity in homes made by amateurs; Roni Brown)