Designing Everyday Life

Organized by Slovenia’s Museum of Architecture and Design, the Biennial of Design (BIO) brings together over a period of six months more than one hundred designers and artists from around the world who, together, engage in large-scale collaborative design projects. One of the oldest design events in the world, the Biennial also stands apart for its focus on the capacity of design to solve problems affecting everyday life, as well as its eschewal of the traditional award system, opting instead to reward successful collaboration.

In September 2014, eleven teams met at the BIO 50, the biennial’s twenty-fourth edition, to present projects that respond to topics ranging from affordable living to nanotourism. One project, for instance, suggests ways in which we might reclaim public space to encourage walking within urban areas. Another considers how a country’s rich craft tradition might be better brought to bear on contemporary design. Still another laments the disposability of modern appliances. A companion to the most recent Biennial, Designing Everyday Life compiles more than two hundred photographs, diagrams, and sketches, as well as essays on the history and legacy of the event and interviews with New York Times design critic Alice Rawsthorn and industrial designers Konstantin Grcic and Saša Maechtig.

Jan Boelen is chief curator of BIO 50 and artistic director at Z33 House for contemporary Art in Hasselt, Belgium.