John Thackara writings on Design Observer

John Thackara: Parnaoid But Pretty: The Art and Business of Public Safety

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:18:28 GMT

A review of Matthias Megyeri's new show at the German Architecture Center, and a review of the question the exhibition inspires: "Are we safer?"

John Thackara: A Roof, A Skill, A Market: Solving Housing Issues in West Africa

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:05:34 GMT

The Nubian Vault Association has evolved a unique approach to housing in West Africa that creates three kinds of value within local economies: a roof, a skill and a market.

John Thackara: Big, Hairy, and Agile: Winner of the Digital Design of the Year Award

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:41:31 GMT

The UK government’s digital services platform, gov.uk, has won the Design of the Year award.

John Thackara: The Ecozoic City

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 18:04:30 GMT

How humans are reintegrating their endeavours into a larger ecological consciousness.

John Thackara: Artefact as Campfire: Where People and Living Systems Meet

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 14:30:36 GMT

Overview of the August Doors of Perception workshop at the FuturePerfect Festival in Sweden.

John Thackara: Cycle Commerce: The Red Blood Cells of a Smart City

Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:17:40 GMT

Dehli's many millions of bicycle and rickshaw vendors embody the entrepreneurship, sustainable mobility, social innovation and thriving local economies, that a sustainable city needs. How can that be traslated to European cities?

John Thackara: An Open Design School for India

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:50:41 GMT

Plans in India for for a nationwide network of 20 Design Innovation Centres, an Open Design School, and a National Design Innovation Network.

John Thackara: Healing The Metabolic Rift

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 22:41:20 GMT

John Thackara on the possibilities and issues global business leaders will face at the 2013 World Economic Forum.

John Thackara: Good news from Germany: A 'global transformation of values has already begun'.

Fri, 07 Dec 2012 14:26:28 GMT

Overview of the 400-page report World in Transition: A Social Contract for Sustainability from the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (WGBU), the heavyweight scientific body that advises the German Federal Government on ‘Earth System Megatrends’.

John Thackara: Venice: from Gated Lagoon to Bioregion

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 13:48:06 GMT

A review of the options that Venice faces in trying to shore up the city.

John Thackara: From Autobahn to Bioregion

Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:17:04 GMT

A review of the projects submitted to the Audi Urban Future Award.

John Thackara: Transition Dogville

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:10:47 GMT

A review of this year’s Transition Conference in London.

John Thackara: How To Manage a Constellation

Tue, 02 Oct 2012 17:03:19 GMT

To solve complex and interconnected human-environment challenges, like the death of the Baltic Sea, we need to build ‘social-ecological coalitions’ or ‘constellations’.

John Thackara: Old Growth

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:30:51 GMT

The tale of a furniture giant and the possible ecological happy ending.

John Thackara: Top Down Nature

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 16:22:26 GMT

An overview of Bordeaux 55,000: a project to explore ‘how best to transform 55,000 hectares (136,000 acres) into natural areas’.

John Thackara: What Is, Or Is Not, a ‘Green Job’?

Tue, 07 Aug 2012 15:21:25 GMT

Discordant information amplifies confusion about what is, or is not, a ‘green job’.

John Thackara: The Other Green Economy

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 16:14:47 GMT

People the world over are divided between radically different conceptions of their future: resource-intensive production on the one side, versus regenerative land-based enterprises, and mosaics of micro-enterprises, on the other.

John Thackara: Why Bill Gates Needs To Listen To More Gamelan Music: Ritual as Feedback in Bali

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:20:30 GMT

In developing countries, as in our own, we cannot speed up development faster then the ecological systems that are required to support it.

John Thackara: Love vs Power In Iceland

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 14:29:55 GMT

The imposition of heavy industry onto a fragile ecological-social situation is an easier sell when the alternatives on offer can be portrayed as feeble.

John Thackara: The Hidden Costs of Tiger Water

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:21:33 GMT

We need new ways of thinking about water.

John Thackara: Why White Is Wicked

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:36:56 GMT

While we associate white clothes with cleanliness, the damage done to the environment by the whitening process is very, very dirty.

John Thackara: What can we do about urban food waste?

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:48:52 GMT

Urban farming is a cool design topic these days – but if we’re to make a serious impact on the global food system, we need to show meaningful solidarity with its victims in distant places, too.

John Thackara: Istanbul: City of Seeds

Tue, 01 May 2012 12:44:14 GMT

Rather than dream up exotic visions of “what could be”, an xskool looks for social and natural assets that already exist – and grows from there.

John Thackara: 'Beyond Good Intentions' – The Movie

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 13:55:08 GMT

A new documentary hopes to answer the question "What happens in a disaster area after the initial wave of support?"

John Thackara: Oil-Powered Thinking

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:11:14 GMT

Why is it that countervailing facts don’t change things in our evidence-based world? And what might we do about it?