Design with the Other 90%: Cities is the latest installment by the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum and examines the complex issues arising from the unprecedented rate of urban growth.
It follows on from 2007 Design for the Other 90% exhibition, which looked at how design can be the dynamic force driving transformation for the 90% of the world’s population not typically considered by designers.
Running from 15 October 2011 to 9 January 2012 in the Main Gallery at the United Nations Visitors Lobby in New York, the exhibition looks primarily at informal settlements in the global south.
Taking a multidisciplinary approach, the exhibition considers the overlapping relationships between urban planning and design, education, social entrepreneurship, climate change, sanitation and water, migration, public health and affordable housing in these communities.
The exhibition was curated by Cynthia E Smith who also wrote about it in the "Metropolis" edition of Design Indaba magazine.
As part of Design with the Other 90%: Cities the museum will make the information they gathered for this exhibition accessible to interested parties through an open-network database. The accessibility of this information aims to encourage designers, communities and stakeholders to work together in developing design solutions for these problems while also opening up a robust dialogue.
