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Design Blog Design Blog » Design for the Other 90%

Mobilizing Resources


The majority of India’s poor still live in rural villages, while the many living in the urban areas have increasing purchasing power. In response to this growing disparity an Indian organization, GOONJ, has developed a large-scale resource mobilization initiative to re-use surplus clothing from the urban consumers to the rural poor; rather than simply giving away the clothing the villagers are motivated to engage in community projects such as the repair of roads or de-silting existing water in exchange for the clothing. Strategically, GOONJ started with recycled clothes – clothes did not involve heavy investments and policy changes – with plans to expand to deliver critical resources like medicines and books using the same distribution model.

The distribution network engages over 100 grassroots organizations as dispersal partners in rural areas since local groups can best analyze the needs of its locality and have access to some of the remotest regions. Urban collection camps are staffed by volunteers working with corporations and schools to collect and transport the recycled material.

Systemic changes to the way urban households think about discarding consumer goods and engaging with those less fortunate can have lasting impact throughout India. Lessons learned from observing those impacts and the ones learned from a scalable distribution network responding to populations living in poverty or post-disaster can be applied throughout the world. Started as a national movement it could turn into an international one.

Straw and Earth


An energy-efficient straw bale house is being built on the Mall, across the street from the US Capitol. Natural builders from around the country converged on Washington DC to construct the straw shelter and a bamboo shade structure. Rose Morin, a green builder from New Mexico and one of the over dozen volunteers with Builders Without Borders who built the structures, notes “the strength of homes is in their essential simplicity.”

The eco-house is part of the US Botanic Gardens’ One Planet-Ours: Sustainability for the 22nd Century which features displays from over forty organizations and individuals, including the United Nations Environment Program and the US Department of Energy. It is on view from May 24 through Oct 13th, 2008.

Straw bale construction can be used for a variety of climates. Architects in a colder region like Finland use this building technique to keep the heat in, while in Mexico it protects from the intense heat. Designing with straw bale improves insulation, limits waste and reduces energy requirements while utilizing a renewable recyclable material. Builders Without Borders find because of these super-insulating qualities and their lower cost as an agricultural waste material this construction method can be highly suitable for solving the housing shortage in economically marginalized communities where culturally appropriate.

Summer in Minneapolis


Design for the Other 90% reopens at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 24 and will be there right through the summer until September 7, 2008. The design solutions will be displayed within several second generation larger Global Village Shelters in the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, one of the largest urban sculpture parks in the United States. It is part of the Garden’s 20th Anniversary Celebration and is free to the public.

Design for the Other 90% Wins

Webby Awards

For the second year in a row Cooper-Hewitt wins a Webby, the “oscars” of the internet! Congratulations to our very talented web creator, William Berry, for his amazing work.

This Web site, Design for the Other 90%, is the official Webby Award Winner for Cultural Institutions. Hailed as the “the Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Web sites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile web sites. This years Webby Awards received a record 9,500 entries from over 60 countries worldwide.

Out of Poverty

Out of Poverty

International Development Enterprises’ founder Paul Polak has just released his much anticipated book Out of Poverty, What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail. Based on his 25 years of experience he tells why traditional poverty eradication programs have fallen short and how his alternative approach works. Paul’s work and dedication to developing practical design solutions that attack poverty at its roots was the inspiration for the Design for the Other 90% exhibition. He works in co-creation with thousands of farmers in Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe to design and produce low-cost, income-generating products that have helped 17 million people emerge out of poverty. His pioneering alternative approach serves as a successful model of what is possible.

The book has met with favourable reviews from the Economist, Business Week and the International Herald Tribune. In the coming months Paul will be discussing both his new book and the start of a design revolution in a series of public lectures.