DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD REDUX

 

 

 

Design, if it is to be ecologically responsible and socially responsive, must be revolutionary and radical in the truest sense. It must dedicate itself to...maximum diversity with minimum inventory...or doing the most with the least. These prescient words were written 40 years ago by Viennese-born designer and  thinker Victor J. Papanek and published in his influential book Design for the Real World. While many have been inspired by Papanek's plea for responsible and humane design, many more have ignored it. Yet as we face unparalleled social, economic, and environmental challenges, Papanek's words are more timely and urgent than ever.

The Museum of Arts and Design in New York City in partnership with the Victor J. Papanek Foundation at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Austrian Cultural Forum New York are pleased to announce

DESIGN FOR THE REAL WORLD REDUX

An international design competition 
and the launch of the
Victor J. Papanek Social Design Award

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Social responsibility is at the core of any discussion regarding Victor J. Papanek (1923-1998) and his approach to contemporary design. His ideas on, and critique of, design practice and culture resonate as soundly today as they did when he published them in his seminal and polemical book, Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change (1971). Papanek argued for research over impulse in the production of creative, sustainable, safe, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural design. In a Papanek-designed society, objects and structures are responsive to the needs of both man and earth.

Born in Vienna, Austria in 1923, Papanek moved to the United States in 1939 and later to Sweden with his family in the early 1970s. Educated at The Cooper Union in New York and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Papanek shared philosophies with some of the most influential people of our time, including Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, and Ralph Nader. In addition to his career as a product designer, he traveled extensively as a designer, teacher, and author with a dedicated interest in architecture and anthropology. Through thoughtful consideration he applied his research and experiences to design tools meant to improve the quality of life in developing countries around the world.