There are 6.5 billion people living on the earth and over a billion of them do not have access to drinking water. What’s more, 70 per cent of the world’s population do not have electricity, hospitals or schools and half live on less than two dollars per day.

This could offer a great deal for designers to address. Instead, “The majority of the world’s designers focus all their efforts on developing products and services for the richest 10 per cent of the world's customers,” maintains Paul Polack, founder of International Development Enterprises. The Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York has taken a step forward in this direction with the exhibition “Design for the other 90%” (until 23 September) that has brought together around 30 good examples, ranging from biodegradable emergency refuges used in Grenada after the hurricane, bamboo water pumps in Bangladesh, to the ingenious Q Drum, a plastic wheel that once filled allows heavy loads of water to be transported.

“It’s a call to action,” explains Cynthia Smith, the show’s curator. “There’s a big interest among design students and design professionals in finding socially responsible design solutions to the underpinnings of poverty.” E.S.

https://ndm.si.edu