Victor Papanek: design for the real world

This is an opinion article published in La Vanguardia.

In this monthly space we often insist on the importance of fostering and demanding good design: human and responsible design that is aware of and coherent with its social and material impact. The legacy of Victor Papanek (1923 – 1998), the protagonist of «The Politics of Design» exhibition at Barcelona’s Design Museum, is key for understanding the meaning of what we consider to be good design and for identifying some of the old contradictions that persist within this discipline of disciplines.

A designer, educator, activist, thinker and writer, Papanek emigrated to the United States from Austria after the latter country’s annexation by Nazi Germany. After graduating in architectural design, he soon turned professional and quickly came into contact with figures as influential in their time as Frank Lloyd Wright, Marshall McLuhan or Richard Buckminster Fuller. It was in fact Fuller who wrote the prologue to his controversial book «Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change», published in 1971. Here Papanek gave a severe diagnosis of the practice of design and tossed out a series of harsh critiques against his colleagues, accusing them of prioritizing aesthetics over ethical issues and of forgetting that their creations had consequences for society and the planet. “Designers”, he wrote, “have become a dangerous race”.

Under the influence of the counterculture and political turmoil of the late nineteen-sixties, Papanek launched an allegation on the need to change the imperatives that guided the practice of design. An allegation that remains fully current. If there is one thing that Papanek certified it is that designing is always a political act; that a good designer has to attend to and be guided by a social, ethical and ecological imperative. Who designs and for whom does he or she design? Who obtains the greatest benefit from a design? Which are the material costs of a design? And its material impact? Who pays the price of this design and what kind of price?

The social, economic and technological transformations of recent decades have not altered these questions, which any design professional should ask him or herself before embarking on a project, whatever its type or scope. Papanek was also ahead of his time when he called for a design based on the confluence and synthesis of knowledge and practices: a trans-disciplinary design before this concept was coined. “I almost never design alone”, he stated. “I think most of the time design is much too difficult to be done by one person alone. A team is needed”.

The montage devoted to Papanek being hosted by the Design Museum until 2 February champions his ideas by combining an overview of his work with that of twenty contemporary creators. Through these proposals, the issues that preoccupied Papanek are linked to the various problems of the present. The same problems that the FAD seeks to engage with through its commitment to cross-sectionality, the promotion of social design and proactive work, guided by the UN sustainable development goals. Because half a century after the publication of Papanek’s celebrated and controversial book, “designing for the real world” is today more urgent than ever.

Author: La Junta del FAD