Design For The Other 90%

Of the world's total population of 6.5 billion, nearly 5.8 billion people, or 90%, have little or no access to most of the products and services many of us take for granted; in fact, nearly half do not have regular access to food, clean water, or shelter. Design for the Other 90% explores more than 30 projects which reflect the growing movement among designers, engineers, students and professors, architects, and social entrepreneurs to design low-cost solutions for this other 90%. Through partnerships both local and global, individuals and organizations around the United States and throughout the world are inventing unique ways to provide better access to food, water, shelter, health, education and energy to those who most need them. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Design for the Other 90% contains more than a dozen essays by leading experts in the field, accompanied by 200 full-color illustrations, to highlight a wide variety of design innovations that address the basic challenges of survival and progress faced by the world's poor and marginalized.