How well do our designed environments - the places and spaces where we live, work and play - meet our aesthetic and functional needs? Increasingly, the distinction between the spaces considered public and private or work and home are becoming more blurred. As a result, innovative designs are needed to meet the challenges of our ever-changing environment. Our streets, parks, dwellings and tools are designed to a one-size-fits-all standard, and the responses of the design community to meet diverse needs have been mixed at best. This work offers feminist critiques of these inadequate design...

Since the introduction of the personal computer in the early 1980s, many objects have been designed to have capabilities well beyond their immediate use or appearance. Whether openly and actively or in subtle, subliminal ways, these objects talk to us, and we have come to expect interaction with them. Contemporary designers, besides giving objects form and function, write their initial scripts--the foundation for useful and satisfying conversations. Talk to Me focuses on projects that involve such direct interaction--including interfaces, websites, video games, devices and tools, and...

Konstantin Grcic (born 1965) is one of the leading designers of our time. Many of his creations, such as Chair_One (2004) or the Mayday lamp (1999), are already recognized as design classics. Konstantin Grcic: Panorama is being published in conjunction with the largest solo exhibition on Grcic to date. It constitutes the first catalogue raisonne of the designer's work and documents more than 350 pieces of furniture, products and exhibitions with informative details, images and comprehensive descriptions. This overview is accompanied by numerous illustrated essays from renowned authors,...

Design has a history of violence. It can be an act of creative destruction and a double-edged sword, and yet professional discourse around design has been dominated by voices that only trumpet its commercial and aesthetic successes. Violence, defined here as the power to alter circumstances against the will of others and to their detriment, is ubiquitous in history and in contemporary society. In recent years, moreover, technology has introduced new threats and added dramatically to the many manifestations of violence. Design and Violence is an exploration of the relationship between...