Wednesday, Feb 18, 2009
A 21st century primer
Four great pieces highlight what the 21st century will look like and how you can design it so.
Four pieces of required reading (and watching) have popped up over the past couple of weeks. They explore how society and cities will change after the crash and how design must also change.
Umair Haque delivers a fantastic presentation on Constructive Capitalism where he accomplishes two things. First, he synthesizes a pretty stunning critique of 20th century capitalism , why it doesn’t work, and why it inevitably leads to the types of crashes we’re seeing in societies today. It’s material you’ve heard or read many times, but he provides a synthesis that ties everything together into a nice, tidy, frame that shows how 20th century capitalism actually destroys value. There’s an amazing conclusion:
Umair Haque from “Constructive Capitalism”, 2009.Strategy is a commodity. We have to reinvent these economics before we can reinvent this strategy.
He goes on to reinvent those economics and describe a 21st century capitalism that pursues five different values:
- Tomorrow is today
- Connections, not transactions
- People, not product
- Creativity, not productivity
- Outcomes, not incomes
Again, you’ve heard this before, but Haque ties it together into one nice frame.
Umair Haque @ Daytona Sessions vol. 2 – Constructive Capitalism on Vimeo.
In a similar vein, Richard Florida writes a great article for The Atlantic: “How the Crash Will Reshape America”. Florida describes how the crash and a new, rising economy brings along a new geography for the U.S. He explains of how and why our key regions and cities will change.
Florida’s article and Haque’s presentation are intriguing enough on their own, but a couple of other interesting bits have popped up recently.
Adam Greenfield delivered the table of contents for his new book as a Valentine. Far from limiting itself to a grocery list of material covered in the book, Greenfield’s table of contents reads more like an overview for how cities will emerge.
Barely a week prior, Mike Kuniavsky offered the table of contents for his own book. Though more of an outline, it reads like a checklist of how objects and services can and should be created.
Haque reveals the high-level economic and social change, Florida shows how these changes will drive the shape of cities, Greenfield talks about how the cities function, and Kuniavsky outlines how one builds devices for this new geography. They cover both the new urban centers where design will flourish, as well as the new ghettos where design must flourish. Taken together, they’re like a primer for design in the 21st century.
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