Description of Babajob, a mobile and web based program aimed at connecting employers with job seekers in India.

2011. Editors: Esteban Bisio and Domingo Pablo Risso Patron. Courtesy of Proyecto Rehabitar. In response to the deterioration of public housing in Argentina, Proyecto Rehabitar ("Rehabilitation Project"), led by architect Eduardo Bekinschtein, is implementing rehabilitation work in partnership with the housing secretary, municipal agencies, and community groups.

One of the exciting aspects of Design with the Other 90%: Cities is the ability to connect the international themes of the exhibition to a New York setting. In our second DesignPrep workshop held at the United Nations, teens examined key issues highlighted in the exhibition. The workshop was an opportunity for teens to raise...

Over the next months while the Design with the Other 90%: CITIES exhibition is on display at the United Nations Headquarters in New York several individuals whose own research explores the exhibition’s subject matter have been invited to write blog entries sharing their insights, related research and projects. – Cynthia E. Smith, Curator of Socially...

This is the third interview in Chapter 3 in my new book, Designing Media Alexandra Juhasz, October 2008 Alexandra Juhasz is a professor of media studies at Pitzer College in California, where she teaches video production, film and video theory. She has given a lot of thought to the social impact of YouTube. She teaches...

The Devastating Effect of the Tsunami in Sendai, Japan, on March 11th, 2011 The horrifying images on television of the earthquake and tsunami that afflicted the Japanese coastline last Friday remind us of the fragility of the civilization that we have developed on our planet, and show the enormous power of nature. Professor Shinichi Takemura...

This is the first interview in Chapter 3 in my new book, Designing Media Jorge Just, December 2008 While studying history and political science, Jorge fell in love with the public radio program This American Life, so he taught himself to edit audio, moved to Chicago, and applied for an internship with the program. Ira...

2011. Editor: Bas Hoefman. Courtesy of Text to Change. Text to Change partners with national governments, United Nations agencies, mobile-communication providers, for-profit companies, and NGOs to design free, accessible health, education, economic-development, and transparency programs that aim to effect change through customized information and services.

Over the next two weeks on the Cooper-Hewitt Design Blog, students from an interdisciplinary graduate-level course on the Triennial taught by the Triennial curatorial team blog their impressions and inspirations of the current exhibition,‘Why Design Now?’. There is no shortage of practical objects in the 2010 Triennial. You will see everything from noble solutions for...

This is the second of the grand challenges posed by Secretary Wayne Clough for the new strategic plan of the Smithsonian, with the explanatory sentence: “We will use our resources across scientific museums and centers to significantly advance our knowledge and understanding of life on earth, respond to the growing threat of environmental change, and...

2010. Editors: Juan Osorio Salas, Telemedellín, Universidad EAFIT–Medellín, Colombia, Urbam Medellín, Center for Urban and Environmental Studies, EAFIT. Courtesy of editors. New public transportation and elevated cable cars, coupled with the design of social and physical interventions through the Integral Urban Project, have successfully transformed Medellín into an inclusive city for all of its residents.

I had the pleasure of meeting recently with Ton Vriens, a Dutch documentary filmmaker and journalist who, through his foundation Turtle Tree, is working with women in Haiti to develop a felt-making co-operative, with the goal of achieving economic and social independence for the members of the self-governed group. Haiti is one of the poorest...

Cooper-Hewitt invites you to submit ideas for our fourth Triennial exhibition, opening in 2010. We are looking for designers, firms, and projects from around the world that answer the question “Why design now?” Why is design an essential tool for solving some of today’s most urgent problems? What draws creative thinkers, makers, and problem solvers...

Nutrition in Bolivia Positive Deviance Study In this growing area of design innovations are evident in numerous forms. Not limited to current technologies these designers sample from current, emerging and out-moded technologies to provide low cost effective solutions to benefit the poor and marginalized. Working across disciplines and sectors they partner in innovative ways. They...

On April 19, Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey spoke here at Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum about their work as owners of the legendary California pottery maker Heath, founded by Edith Heath in the mid-1940s. Their presentation had everyone thinking about the role of craft in manufacturing. They explain, “We believe that the craft of manufacturing...