Humanity in design
Along a similar line are the "humane architecture" ideas of Taiwan's own Hsieh Ying-chun. After the 921 Earthquake, Hsieh got involved in the recovery effort, helping the people of the affected area rebuild with low-cost, environmentally friendly materials that would both meet the residents' needs and fit in with the local environment. The new homes were designed in such a way as to make it easy for the locals to take part in the rebuilding work. Later, Hsieh left his mark helping out similarly in the wakes of the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake in China and Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan. In 2011, the Taipei World Design Expo is displaying the light steel structure Hsieh is a strong proponent of, adorned with photos of rebuilding efforts and results.
Many more of these "happiness in design" concepts are developed from similar life experiences.
In Brazil, for example, two designer brothers have used hand-made glue to piece together chairs made from cast-off pieces of wood from shantytowns. These chairs, known as "favela chairs" for the shantytowns that provide the wood, now fetch over NT$100,000 in the marketplace for their unique style and the way they preserve the wear and tear on the wood.
American brand Ecoist, meanwhile, is promoting a line of purses and bags called "Baguette," hand-woven in Mexico from trashed newspapers. Despite this humble origin, the bags are well made, practical, and every bit the match fashionability-wise for "higher-class" bags. These bags, transformed from trash to flash with a bit of handicraft, sell for as much as NT$6,500 a piece, bringing in valued extra income for the people who make them.
"Red is the new green," says curator Sean Hu. With environmentalism already largely internalized in much of the first world, there is now a move toward humaneness and fair trade in design, with less overt emphasis on the green aspects. One example is a rolling water barrel light enough and small enough for a child to easily push, helping ease the burden of Africans who traditionally need to carry heavy water barrels on their heads to bring water home. Another example is the "LifeStraw," a point-of-use water filter that passes water through seven different filters, including activated carbon, providing a lifeline for people in the third world that lack potable water.