Contemporary and sustainable design

Digital tools, global factories and a growing awareness that every object costs raw materials and energy: design's questions now concern how as much as what.

Since the 1990s design has been transformed by the computer, used to draw, simulate and manufacture, and by global production in which objects are designed in one country, made in another and sold everywhere. A few large companies, such as IKEA and Apple, have made their design known all over the world.

At the same time a reaction against excess has marked much contemporary design. Jasper Morrison and Naoto Fukasawa have spoken of the super normal – objects so self-evident that they are hardly noticed – and Muji has sold unbranded goods since 1980. Others, such as the Dutch group Droog, have made furniture from reused material and joked about the meaning of objects.

The great question is sustainability. Designers work with recycled and renewable materials, with objects that can be repaired and taken apart, and with services instead of things. Concepts such as the circular economy and cradle to cradle have become part of design education. Inclusive design, which takes people with different abilities into account, has also become a natural part of the work.

• Contemporary design
• Contemporary art
• Contemporary architecture