Notes from design event Designboost at Arkitekturmuseet

It was a great day at Design Boost with a lineup of prominent speakers in the fields of design and architecture. Quite inspirational, with the intention to proliferate design knowledge. The focus was Design for Life, with an exhibition titled the same way at Arkitekturmuseet (no link).

Jens Fager – The (probably) least experienced talker got to go first – not very fair. Good stuff.

Richard Hutton – We need to design products that are fun and which we take care of. Too simple designs are treated as trash from the beginning, recyclable or not.

Satyendra Pakhale – Consumption is a treatable decease. We can’t afford to buy cheap things. Design for disassembly (repair + recycling).

Ilse Crawford – We need to design with a warm heart. Design needs to put the human in the centre. Design should add meaning and depth.

Ross Lovegrove – The Captain Nemo of Design? They wanted me to design a chandelier, I said I’ll design a car, they agreed. Some of them don’t work, but hey, even Leonardo’s didn’t!

Stephen Burks – What an energizer! Quote: Designers say »I just can’t seem to find a  way to make a business out of it«.

Bjarke Ingels – Danish architect did the most memorable speech today with an array of project evolutions. Here he is at TED. Check out the awesome navigation at

Karim Rashid – Highly self-conscious prodigy-style superdesigner and a driven speaker (in a pink suit). Some quotes: Too much design today is just a question of styling. / The physical world hasn’t evolved as much as the digital world. / Fear of the future hinders us from living in a truly sustainable way. / Design should be about pushing boundaries, making shifts, shaping a better life. Shape the future by doing good things today.

Ilkka Sappanen – Design for life? The buildings that are still standing after thousands of years are for the dead (eg the pyramids of Giza).

And a comment from the audience: Not enough of design is about big problems.

Note: Too much focus on the artistic aspects and aesthetic values of design, too much focus on design as artifacts. Too little focus on design strategy and the connection between design and business (and viability-sustainable business).

Looking forward to next time, I’ll be there!