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I think designers can
save the world.
We need designers’
help desperately.
They think differently
from the rest of us.
Unlike linear learners
like me, they are more
intuitive, they watch
people, interact with
place, space, and object.
They come up with solutions based on
emotion, fact, and necessity. They test their
ideas by building models, tweak them,
make them better or, in frustration, throw
them into the dustbin and then, coura-
geously, start the process over again. They
are the people among us whose mission is
to change the world, literally. They became
designers because they want to make our
environment more beautiful, more effi-
cient, more life affirming—at every scale.
The funny thing is that designers,
themselves, underestimate their abilities
to solve large, complex problems. This
innate inferiority complex comes from a
world that largely ignores their contribu-
tions.  Ask yourself this: when you hear
the words “designer” or “architect,” what
name comes to your mind? Ralph Lauren?
Frank Lloyd Wright? A merchandiser of
lifestyle clothing and furnishings and a
dead architect who started to practice in
the 19th century, do not begin to describe
what designers are capable of doing, today,
for humanity and the environment.
Imagine, for instance, asking designers
to come up with ways to manage and utilize
the world’s dwindling water supply, and
propose an object, a building, a system
to save, reuse, purify, and deliver water
where it’s needed. One architect puts forth
a beautiful, pleated tarpaulin that drapes
around the body like a chic wrap, and
contains water gathered form a far-away
well in a sub-Saharan country. This design
takes the place of a leaky bucket that local
women transport on their heads. The tarp
helps its user deliver more water, with less
effort, to her home and family. At home,
she drapes the full tarp over her hut, where
solar radiation hits its surface and makes
the water potable through a proven UV pro-
cess. Another architect proposes to build
houses in monsoon-prone areas that col-
lect rain water to produce electricity. And
an industrial designer suggests installing
LED read-outs on bathroom and kitchen
faucets that remind you how much water
you’re wasting.
Or is it our energy addiction you want to
cure? One collaborative group of architects
and engineers proposes a newfangled
windmill design that can be installed on
existing electrical pylons in wind-prone
regions. Thus they address clean energy
harvesting as well as tricky right-of-way
issues: the pylons are already in place,
whereas new wind turbines may be blocked
by screaming NIMBYs. Or, you may want
your building’s façade to open and close in
response to the sun’s heat hitting it, thus
regulating the heat and glare that comes
inside and makes heating and air condi-
tioning—both hooked up to an oil-burning
power station—an expensive proposi-
tion.  Then again, you may be sick of the
old, inefficient, fossil fuel-guzzling radiator
system in your urban loft. A team of an
architect and an industrial designer pro-
pose a patent-pending carpet-tile system
that radiates heat from the floor, where you
happen to be sitting.
As the 21st century dawned, we
saw a new, uniquely different
generation of designers appear.
What makes them so important
to us?
These ideas are not some fanciful dreams
I conjured up in my spare time. They have
been worked out in great detail; their
aesthetic appeal and functional qualities
can be examined in models or prototypes
built by each design team.  These designs
are among the hundreds of brilliant and
 I T H I N K D E S I G N E R S C A N S AV E T H E W O R L D.
thought-provoking ideas that have come to
Metropolis magazine since we introduced
our Next Generation Design Competition
worldwide in 2004.
As the 21st century dawned, we saw a new,
uniquely different generation of designers
appear. What makes them so important
to us? They have a genuine commitment
to save the environment. They come out
of schools with the kind of technical skills
that older practitioners could only dream
of. They have a social consciousness that
has not been seen since the Bauhaus
school released its pioneering graduates
in pre-World War II Germany. And they
are masters of social networking.
There was no way, in our estimation, that
this generation would respond to the kind
of superficial, beauty contest design com-
petitions that their elders still revere. And
so we changed the game and asked them
to solve real problems as only designers
can—showing us what a better world would
look and feel like. And how beautiful it can
be, too! It is clear to us that this new genera-
tion is ready, willing, and able to give
its all to change the world. Can we afford
ignore them?
Going forward —
Get to know a designer now!
Once you see how they think, what they
do and how they do it, you will never leave
design talent out of discussions that need
real world, elegant solutions.
 
Watch the TED videos.
These short films, taped at the prestigious
annual conference that brings together
the sharpest minds in design, business,
academia, manufacturing, etc., highlights
design thinkers like IDEO’s Tim Brown
and Architecture for Humanity’s Cameron
Sinclair. These people are changing the
world now. They’re only a click away.
Befriend an architect, industrial designer,
or landscape architect.
These curious professionals, always
needing to complete their continuing
education to keep their professional
standing,  are at symposia, conferences,
online—you can find them easily. Google
the Metropolis Next Generation Design
Competition. This site alone, among too
many to list, is a goldmine of potential
contacts in a field whose stock in trade is
innovation.
Hire a designer.
When you have reached a point where
your ideas about a new venture begin to
gel, but you know it could be much better,
bring in a designer to head up your think-
tank. Remember, it’s not just products,
buildings, and billboard ads that need
designing, it’s systems and processes that
could also benefit from design thinking.
Business schools know this already. ◊
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Susan S. Szenasy is Editor in Chief of
Metropolis, the award-winning New York
City-based magazine of architecture and
design. Since 1986 she has lead the maga-
zine through decades of landmark design
journalism, achieving domestic and inter-
national recognition. She is internationally
recognized as an authority on sustainability
and design.
Susan sits on the boards of the Council
for Interior Design Accreditation, Fashion
Institute of Technology’s Interior Design
department, the Center for Architecture
Advisory Board, and the Landscape Archi-
tecture Foundation. She has been honored
with two IIDA Presidential Commendations,
is an honorary member of the ASLA, and
the 2008 recipient of the ASID Patron’s
Prize and Presidential Commendation as
well as the SARA/NY medallion of honor.
She has received a citation and an honor-
ary membership from NYC AIA. Along with
METROPOLIS Publisher Horace Havemeyer
III, Susan was a 2007 recipient of the Civitas
August Heckscher Award for Community
Service and Excellence. Susan holds an MA
in Modern European History from Rutgers
University, and honorary doctorates from
Kendall College of Art and Design, the Art
Center College of Design, and the Pacific
Northwest College of Art. She lives in New
York’s East Village in a small loft designed
by Harry Allen, where she moved after 9/11
to reduce her ecological footprint.