The New York Times notes that the crisis is turning design from decoration and frivolity to function.
The pain of layoffs notwithstanding, the design world could stand to come down a notch or two — and might actually find a new sense of relevance in the process. That was the case during the Great Depression, when an early wave of modernism flourished in the United States, partly because it efficiently addressed the middle-class need for a pared-down life without servants and other Victorian trappings.
Patrik Jonsson in The Christian Science Monitor notes that the crisis may be ending the McMansionization of the suburbs and some cities (via Planetizen).
With housing prices off by 18 percent in 20 US cities in the last year and new home starts at a 26-year low, bulldozers have slowed their march across American cities and towns. In Westport, Conn., teardown permits are down in the last year by 33 percent – a figure that experts say can be extrapolated nationwide, though teardown trends do have significant regional variations. Analysts expect the lull to last at least five years, perhaps 10.
My own hunch is that we are witnessing a sharp turn toward quality and functionality. The Great Reset will mean smaller, better, more efficient spaces, and an emphasis on higher quality design from the artifact to the city and regional scales. Call it wishful thinking, but the logic of the economy is at least pushing in the right direction.
