The Origins of Things: Sketches, Models, Prototypes

In an effort to find the origin of all designed things, this exhibition and publication conduct an international survey of the history of design from William Morris's wallpaper to Rem Koolhaas's Prada store. Through examples of 30 completed research projects, The Origin of Things illuminates the process by which designers transform their often groundbreaking ideas into functional, manufacturable products. Drawings, cardboard models stuck together with tape and ultramodern computer animations are more significant here than the finished products, for they illuminate the designer's process in a way that the finished product--unless it is a deconstructive design object!--does not. In addition to the evolution of the paperclip and Gerrit Rietveld's Zigzag Chair, The Origin of Things also reveals the steps that led up to the best kettle ever, to a strikingly snotty vase and to visionary cars, vacuum cleaners and a fold-up scooter. Texts include an introduction that considers different visions of the prototype and interviews with Koolhaas, Jasper Morrison, Marc Newson, James Dyson, Wim Gilles, Wim Crouwel and others. Sketches, models and prototypes come via the drawing boards and studios of such luminaries as R. Buckminster Fuller, Aart Roelandt, Michele De Lucchi, Marcel Wanders, Dick van Hoff, Konstantin Grcic, Gerard Kiljan, Poul Henningsen, Tapio Wirkkala and Ettore Sottsass, with historical examples taken from the oeuvres of P.J.H. Cuypers, H.P. Berlage and Frank Lloyd Wright.