Strange Design

A history of critical, speculative and reflexive design , in four moments, from the radical Italian design of the 1960s and 1970s to the contemporary scene, via Dutch conceptual design and English critical design (with contributions from Bless, Didier Faustino, Alessandro Mendini, Gianni Pettena…).

In recent years, strange objects have appeared in the world of design – dysfunctional, enigmatic, complicated objects that challenge the categories of project, object and function in favour of process, exploration and deviation. These objects are part of a posture that the British designers Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby have defined as Critical Design: a speculative, reflexive design that does not want to propose solutions, but rather ask questions, that wants to challenge the quick assertions, prejudices and commonplaces about the role of products in everyday life. Design that is not affirmative, in other words subject to the imperatives of systems of power, but on the contrary critical.
Based on four key moments – Italian radical design in the late 1960s and 1970s, Dutch conceptual design in the 1990s, British critical design in the 2000s and the contemporary scene, particularly in France – this book shows how strange design is not so much a style as a critical stance that continues to permeate the field of design.