DESIGN | 15 JULY 2020
Re-connect: Our Wallpaper* Re-Made reading list
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These 25 texts, carefully selected by our editors, form the pillars upon which our flagship project, Wallpaper* Re-Made, stands. Helping us to re-connect with the core principles of ‘Design for a Better World’, we hope these texts will inspire, excite and educate. From era-defining classics such as Victor Papanek’s Design for the Real World and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, to newer publications like Paola Antonelli and Ala Tannir’s Broken Nature; these thoughts, theories and manifestos are a starting point to take a momentary step back from creation, and instead focus on inspiration and intent.
Join us in absorbing the lessons from decades of activism, environmentalism and innovation, and re-discovering the power of design as a force for change.
Design as an Attitude by Alice Rawsthorn
Calling upon the vision of design as an agent of change, design critic Alice Rawsthorn explores how designers are ensuring their practice responds to our changed world in which many of our current systems and institutions no longer work, highlighting our design culture’s often troubled and failed relationship with other realms of society.
Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth by R Buckminster Fuller
Known as an eccentric polymath and an individual who strove for principles of sustainability well before his time, Richard Buckminster Fuller’s book has influenced and continues to influence innumerable architects and designers today. Asserting that we must treat our designed world as we would a precious object, Fuller takes the perspective of Earth being humanity’s spaceship that is a unified and interconnected entity.
Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design by Charles Montgomery
Revolutionising our perspective on urban life, Charles Montgomery explores the psychological effects of urban planning by critiquing suburban living and advocating various small changes made in a number of cities that have had a big impact in improving communities' health and happiness.
We Should All be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Adichie places feminism in today’s world and draws upon her personal experiences as to what it means to be a woman now. Emphasising that gender is largely a social construct, and that feminism itself is an idea that has been misconstructed, Adichie ends her call to arms with one clear message: ‘All of us, women and men, must do better.’
Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes by Dana Thomas
Fashion journalist Dana Thomas takes a deep dive into the truth behind the increasingly problematic clothing industry. While not only dwelling on the problems with the industry and society’s relationship with clothes, Thomas provides a comprehensive guide to how we can fix this problem. These solutions start with individuals and companies who are striving to remodel the industry and establish circular systems that knock the ever-frequent greenwashing from some corporations out of the water, and instead aim to make a genuine, long lasting impact.
Constructed Narratives by David Adjaye
Architect and Wallpaper* Design Awards 2016 judge David Adjaye’s Constructed Narratives is a collection of essays that acts as an informal manifesto reflecting on 25 years of his architectural practice. The book discusses a number of the architect’s projects spanning multiple continents, covering urban design, materiality and various architectural typologies.
The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture by Emanuele Coccia
Philosopher Emanuele Coccia’s book stands for the consideration of plants as living species that are fundamental for life in our world. Representing 99% of the earth’s total biomass, plants are not getting the cosmological respect and consideration that they deserve, and Coccia discusses their connecting environments, what they contribute to human life and how they shape the places we inhabit.
Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects by Glenn Adamson
The ever-growing presence of digital technologies in our lives has led to the loss of physicality and enjoyment of material things and experiences. Glenn Adamson seeks to reverse this, and reminds us of the rewarding and fundamental relationship we have with the physical, non digital objects around us.
Beyond the New. On the Agency of Things by Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg
In this design manifesto, co-authors Hella Jongerius and Louise Schouwenberg question production and consumption of the industry. They argue that newness, so often created purely for newness’ sake, is not a characteristic of design and does not enhance our daily lives. Striving for a change in the mentality behind our relationship with objects, Beyond the New grounds us in the consideration of craftsmanship, contextualisation and innovation in order to differentiate what surrounds us as either objects or things.
How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi
Ibram X Kendi’s book poses the argument that to be antiracist one must go beyond merely having an awareness of racism and instead, assertively act upon it and work towards a more just society. The book looks at Kendi’s own personal experiences of racism in America and helps readers see the many forms in which racism pervades our society.
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
Jane Jacobs’s monumental book traces the failures of urban planning in America, placing the crux of the problems on 1950s urban planning policies. It sets out new principles for bottom-up city planning to rejuvenate neighbourhoods and revitalise formerly abandoned areas.
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
This book sets out the philosophy that we must detach ourselves from the digital world and the pressures of productivity that come with modern life, and instead re-connect with the natural world around us. Jenny Odell champions the art of doing nothing, as something that can in fact instill more meaningful experiences in us as human beings.
The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells
A prescient warning of the ever encroaching future we face that is threatened by climate change, this book reveals the inadequacy in the action mankind has taken up until this point. David Wallace Wells provides a thought-provoking account of the wide-ranging impacts that global warming will have on our environments, health, economy, agriculture and much more.
How to Thrive in the Next Economy: Designing Tomorrow’s World Today by John Thackara
This book provides a fresh perspective of how to approach our social and ecological systems in order for future generations to flourish. With numerous examples of simple yet effective practices around the world, John Thackara insists upon practical solutions that can better our lives without jeopardising the state of our natural environment.
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist by Kate Raworth
A re-think of the fundamental principles of economics, Kate Raworth has devised a framework based on seven lessons that are rooted in social behaviour and advocate for the redistribution and regeneration of our economy over our flawed and constant pursuit of growth.
Broken Nature: Design Takes on Human Survival by Paola Antonelli and Ala Tannir
Winner of Best Future Vision of the 2019 Wallpaper* Design awards, Broken Nature, exhibited at the XXII Triennale di Milano, explores how restorative design practices have the potential to salvage humans’ collapsing social orders and bonds with nature. Paola Antonelli, the Senior curator of the department of Architecture and Design at New York’s MoMa, and architect and design curator Ala Tannir address the inevitable extinction of humans through the work of designers, architects and artists from 40 different countries, exploring topics such as farming, electronic and consumer waste, mortality, re-growth, urbanisation and climate change.
Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her by Susan Griffin
Firmly establishing itself as a foundation of feminist literature, Griffin’s prose-poem looks at the historical, religious and scientific literature and language that put women closest to nature, thereby arguing for the dominion of men. Going as far back as Antiquity, Griffin analyses the patriarchal systems in Western philosophy, religion and culture and the effect these have had on women’s experience for hundreds of years.
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
Uncovering the devastation and destruction to wildlife caused by pesticides in agriculture and farming, is environmental biologist and author Rachel Carson. This groundbreaking book granted rightful attention to the laws that affect land, air and nature, fuelling the environmental movement that is ever present today.
The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior by Stefano Mancuso
In this richly illustrated book, Mancuso uncovers the complex and often overlooked power of plants to possess human-like qualities through their nervous systems, such as perception of their surroundings, exploration, adaptation, memory and cooperation with other plant species.
You are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto by Jaron Lanier
Exposing the negative social impact of the internet and digital technologies, author Jaron Lanier, a pioneer of virtual reality, outlines the woes of what he calls ‘cybernetic totalism’.
The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build the Next Technology Revolution by Susan Hockfield
Providing a glimpse into the innovations of the future, Susan Hockfield highlights the cross-disciplinary efforts necessary for what she describes as the second convergence revolution, ‘Convergence 2.0’. This convergence between biology, engineering and physical sciences (preceded by the first convergence of physics and engineering, which brought the advent of radar, television and radio), will open up new possibilities and scope for innovation.
The Beauty of Everyday Things by Soetsu Yanagi
Addressing the very simple, yet so often forgotten foundations of design: simplicity and functionality are what drive the key message behind this book. Tokyo-born philosopher and art historian Soetsu Yanagi emphasises the importance of objects that are made to last, allowing for the beauty of these honest, wholehearted and everyday objects that surround us to be appreciated and celebrated.
Design, Nature, and Revolution: Toward a Critical Ecology by Tomás Maldonado
Forming an important part of design literature, the Argentine designer and thinker Tomás Maldonado, who taught at the legendary Ulm School of Design in Germany, formulates a design discourse around science, utopianism and the human environment.
Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Bringing powerful data to life, Perez unravels the deep-rooted gender imbalance in societies, histories and design that shapes our daily lives. Through her rigorously fact-based points that are supported by endless case studies, Perez challenges the very data that has formed our cultures in which women have been systematically left in the dark, leading to a world that is worse off for all of society. From gender bias in the workplace to design, urban planning, medicine and public life, there are very few spheres in which Perez does not uncover true gender imbalance that has been dismissed for too long.
Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change by Victor Papanek
No doubt a book that takes many back to their design or architecture student days, and a noteable a favourite of Wallpaper* Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Douglas, Papanek’s 1971 classic continues to inspire us today. Considering design as a system and process, as a transdisciplinary integral act that is present in everything that surrounds us, Papanek lays the foundations for responsible design in the modern world.