Design durch Gebrauch

Everyday life as a source of inspiration

This publication explores and analyzes a very special kind of design – the phenomenon, as normal as it is wonderful, in which people with no formal training in design take things that have already been designed and reuse them, convert them to new uses, in short, "misuse" them in the very best sense of the word. Non-intentional design (NID) goes on every day, in every area of life, in every region of the world. Redesign through reuse makes things multifunctional and cleverly combines them to generate new functions. It is often reversible, resource-friendly, improvisational, innovative, and economical. It can become a source of inspiration for design, provided professional designers look up and take notice of what actually happens to all the things they design when they are used.

• The first scholarly account of non-intentional design
• Contains a wealth of new insights for professional designers
• Another volume in the series BIRD: Board of International Research in Design

Uta Brandes is a professor of design research and gender and design at the Cologne International School of Design (KISD).