In the first chapter on "Intelligent Design," Barbara Bloemink discusses how modern designers are using natural laws, materials, processes, and appearances as their main subjects. Designers like Hitoshi Ujiie, Jason Miller and David Wiseman bring natural forms into the interior environment. In the recent past, we turned our backs on the natural world, preferring technology. But now, we're turning back to the natural world for solutions to specific problems. She examines the interplay between technology and engineering and nature in several venues - the life-like animations created at Pixar, the self-organizing and adaptive iPod, the robotic vacuum cleaners that closely resemble animals foraging for food, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab's Mars rovers - Spirit and Opportunity, and the many ways robots mimic human behavior.
The second chapter on "Craft and Community in Design" has Brooke Hodge examining how the design process encourages community - thinkers and doers coming together to create - whether physically or virtually.
In the third chapter on "Design and Social Life," Ellen Lupton writes about design as a social activity - designers collaboration with client, fabricators, suppliers, retailers, editors, art directors, schools, etc. and designers forming their own social networks. She examines blogs from the design community and the many aspects of collaboration.
The final chapter by Matilda McQuaid is called "Transforming Design" and summarizes the work of the 87 designers in the National Design Triennial exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in 2006, and the ways that these 87 different design approaches transform and revolutionize our lives.
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