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Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone
"I can't recommend John Cary's book, Design for Good , highly enough. His argument...is clear and revolutionary." —Melinda Gates
“That’s what we do we do miracles,” said Anne-Marie Nyiranshimiyimana, who learned masonry in helping to build the Butaro Hospital, a project designed for and with the people of Rwanda using local materials. This, and other projects designed with dignity, show the power of good design. Almost nothing influences the quality of our lives more than the design of our homes, our schools, our workplaces, and our public spaces. Yet, design is often taken for granted and people don’t realize that they deserve better, or that better is even possible.
In Design for Good , John Cary offers character-driven, real-world stories about projects around the globe that offer more—buildings that are designed and created with and for the people who will use them. The book reveals a new understanding of the ways that design shapes our lives and gives professionals and interested citizens the tools to seek out and demand designs that dignify.
For too long, design has been seen as a luxury, the province of the rich, not the poor. That can no longer be acceptable to those of us in the design fields, nor to those affected by design that doesn’t consider human aspects.
From the Mulan Primary School in Guangdong, China to Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the examples in the book show what is possible when design is a collaborative, dignified, empathic process. Building on a powerful foreword by philanthropist Melinda Gates, Cary draws from his own experience as well as dozens of interviews to show not only that everyone deserves good design, but how it can be achieved. This isn’t just another book for and about designers. It’s a book about the lives we lead, inextricably shaped by the spaces and places we inhabit.
“That’s what we do we do miracles,” said Anne-Marie Nyiranshimiyimana, who learned masonry in helping to build the Butaro Hospital, a project designed for and with the people of Rwanda using local materials. This, and other projects designed with dignity, show the power of good design. Almost nothing influences the quality of our lives more than the design of our homes, our schools, our workplaces, and our public spaces. Yet, design is often taken for granted and people don’t realize that they deserve better, or that better is even possible.
In Design for Good , John Cary offers character-driven, real-world stories about projects around the globe that offer more—buildings that are designed and created with and for the people who will use them. The book reveals a new understanding of the ways that design shapes our lives and gives professionals and interested citizens the tools to seek out and demand designs that dignify.
For too long, design has been seen as a luxury, the province of the rich, not the poor. That can no longer be acceptable to those of us in the design fields, nor to those affected by design that doesn’t consider human aspects.
From the Mulan Primary School in Guangdong, China to Kalamazoo College’s Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, the examples in the book show what is possible when design is a collaborative, dignified, empathic process. Building on a powerful foreword by philanthropist Melinda Gates, Cary draws from his own experience as well as dozens of interviews to show not only that everyone deserves good design, but how it can be achieved. This isn’t just another book for and about designers. It’s a book about the lives we lead, inextricably shaped by the spaces and places we inhabit.
- GenresArchitectureDesign
280 pages, Paperback
Published October 3, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 25, 2024
IT IS SO SPECIAL TO BE HUMAN & CREATE ART!!!!!!!!!
June 3, 2018
The dignifying power of design described in this remarkable book applies to architecture, artifacts, print, communications, online media and the fine arts. This book makes you want to be a designer.
February 4, 2021
A deeply encouraging book of hope and promise. Really quite wonderful.
This set of projects takes us into the realm of the possible, the necessary, the practical and the ideal.
Design is shown to be a demonstrable force of good in this world, at least in these few instances. There is a popular line of fiction exploring the dystopian 'future' world in its various reductive guises. This book deals with the utopian ideal of here and now - what can be done here, with the resources we have available, that could solve this particular problem. What would that look like? How could it be built? Let us do it now! Let us proceed now, with this money and these people and these materials. There is so much that we cannot do, what CAN be done? Simple. Elegant. Resourceful.
This book champions the improbably beautiful solution of building structures into design solutions, after and while exploring a social problem to distill an essential need. Which often shows up as dignity and security and agency, or some combination of those essential human rights.
This set of projects takes us into the realm of the possible, the necessary, the practical and the ideal.
Design is shown to be a demonstrable force of good in this world, at least in these few instances. There is a popular line of fiction exploring the dystopian 'future' world in its various reductive guises. This book deals with the utopian ideal of here and now - what can be done here, with the resources we have available, that could solve this particular problem. What would that look like? How could it be built? Let us do it now! Let us proceed now, with this money and these people and these materials. There is so much that we cannot do, what CAN be done? Simple. Elegant. Resourceful.
This book champions the improbably beautiful solution of building structures into design solutions, after and while exploring a social problem to distill an essential need. Which often shows up as dignity and security and agency, or some combination of those essential human rights.
September 15, 2020
Cary’s book focuses on how to combat inaccessibility and inequity in the everyday places we all navigate in through the concept of inclusive architecture. The designs around us manifest ideas about ourselves and what we deserve. A good design is a public interest. Well designed places affect our health, our safety, our self-worth, our communities and more. Through 20 real-life examples from Guangdong to Los Angeles, this book shows the power of human centered design that dignifies.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews