Design for the Other 90% [Large Print]

Necessity is indeed the mother of invention. While I did not see the original exhibit that inspired the publication of this book by the Copper-Hewitt, the book stands well by itself. The fact that we take so many things for granted makes this book a revelation. I bought 5 copies to give away to architect and engineer friends. I think it will prove revelatory and may inspire them to return their thinking to the most elementary basics of design; elegant and highly practical solutions that work for all of us, not just the needy 90%.

Cynthia Smith put together an excellent exhibition by the same name at the Cooper-Hewitt. This book is an excellent companion and great text book for design students and especially for those in other fields to learn how design is an integral part of development. Inspiration and pragmatism make change.

"Design for the Other 90%" was published for the exhibition of the same name at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum at the Smithsonian. More like a review of an exhibition than a definitive text, the book is a nice brief review of some very interesting designs that are useful all over our planet. The book does not seem to be intended to teach you how to build, but rather to inspire you to think about building differently. The book contains a collection of inventions - most of them quite simple. Examples are a "pot-in-pot" cooler which uses evaporative cooling to keep food from spoiling, a portable water filter for drinking water, a communal solar-powered kitchen, a gravity-powered drip irrigation system, and small-scale photovoltaic lighting. There are many more interesting ideas within these pages. You won't learn the details of construction from this book, but you will be stimulated to think more broadly about designs that are useful for the majority of humans on our planet.

Excellent book. Besides many, many good ideas, the concept of Designing for the other 90% of the population is inspiring. If you've ever seen how people in developing nations live, you know how important and needed innovative ideas like these are. In the lines of "Poverty is our greatest common enemy", if people started designing products like these to help improve the lot of the rest of the world, the larger part of the world's problems would be solved. The only thing I'd like to see in this book is more good ideas..