We Asked...

May The 35th Anniversary Issue

What design of the past three and a half decades resonates most with you? EVAN PAVKA Azure’s Associate Editor

Having grown up in Afghanistan, where unactivated mines continue to endanger civilians, designer Massoud Hassani (along with his brother Mahmud) transformed a childhood toy into 2011’s Mine Kafon Ball. The wind-powered art piece — featuring bamboo legs, plastic feet and an iron core — approximates the weight of a human body to detonate latent explosives. It’s a reminder that even the most daunting of political challenges can be met with the simplicity embodied in a child’s game.

What are the next big questions for design?

ALICE RAWSTHORN

Interviewer, “Paola Antonelli’s elastic mind” (page 74)

As the world’s challenges are design’s challenges, there are many important issues to address, from tackling the climate emergency and refugee crisis to curbing inequality, injustice and intolerance to ensuring that new technologies will make our lives better, not worse.

What technological innovation will most define the future?

WILLIAM MYERS

Co-interviewer, “Shifting perspectives, poetically” (page 94)

The combination of video surveillance and machine learning will define the future of design more than anything. Our actions are being captured as never before: body language, speech, facial expression, even temperature — all data that convey how we think and feel. They will be used to optimize the design of spaces and services, hopefully for the better.