Ali Raza

STUDENTIt is not just the world that is subject to constant change—its design is, too. Today, design is no longer only about objects, but about the entire world as an ecological and social structure. In this essay, Friedrich von Borries develops a proposal for a contemporary understanding
of design.
We all think we know what design is. We encounter it everywhere in everyday objects like cars, furniture, and clothes, as well as in tools and machines. But is that all? The spaces around us, the city, the landscape—didn’t they also emerge from a design process? And what about us? Are our bodies, our desires, our thoughts not products of a conscious design? Whose?

What is now called “design” once went by other names: “Formgebung,” “Gestaltung,” “applied art,” or “art that makes itself useful” “Kunst, die sich nützlich macht”. The exact meaning of these terms was, of course, always contested. Historically, design has had very different, sometimes even contradictory meanings. Sometimes, it