12 examples

Projects, places and practices that show the framework at work, drawn from the book and its sources.

A tiered arrangement of black planter boxes mounted on a wall, each holding leafy green plants.

African Design Review

Africa

Mpho Matsipa, a South African architectural scholar and curator at the University of the Witwatersrand, has built platforms for critical African design discourse, including Studio-X Johannesburg and the African Mobilities exhibition. A publication under the exact name African Design Review could not be confirmed.

A grid of dozens of small black symbols on a pale blue background, each in its own numbered square.

Afrikan Alphabets (Saki Mafundikwa)

Zimbabwe

In Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika, Zimbabwean designer Saki Mafundikwa used archival and field research to document historically marginalized African writing systems, their origins, cultural meaning and aesthetics.

Two men standing amid smoke and burning wire near piles of tangled cables.

Agbogbloshie, Ghana

Ghana

Agbogbloshie in Ghana is one of the toxic dumpsites created when electronic waste is exported to the Global South, causing severe environmental damage and health harm, including elevated cancer and neurological disease, among nearby residents.

An aerial view of a dense city spreading across a valley toward a hazy horizon, with green hillside in the foreground.

Aguablanca District Urban Planning, Cali

Colombia

In Cali's Aguablanca District, a historically marginalized, largely Afro-Colombian area, city planners have collaborated with community leaders, sometimes adapting traditional practices like mingas, to co-design public spaces, housing and cultural infrastructure.

A mid-century modern glass-walled house with a flat roof, seen through steel support beams beside a reflecting pool.

Arts & Architecture Magazine

USA

Arts & Architecture magazine commissioned leading architects, including Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, and Pierre Koenig, to design affordable, modern, easily reproducible houses for the post-war housing boom.

A white modernist building with large glass window walls and cantilevered balconies, under a clear blue sky.

Bauhaus

Germany

The Bauhaus, along with the Ulm School of Design, is named as an influential institution behind high modernism's functionalism, which advanced standardization and a democratic design aesthetic but also carried real costs.

A colorized, magnified cell pressed against red blood cells, with an enlarged inset of the point of contact.

Borneo Malaria Eradication Program (WHO DDT Spraying, 1950s)

Borneo

In 1950s Borneo, the WHO treated malaria as a simple engineering problem and sprayed DDT, triggering a cascade of ecological and social harms, including a rat-driven plague outbreak and weakened roofs. The case is used to show what happens when a wicked ecological problem is treated as a tame one.

A mid-century modern house with glass walls and a flat roof overlooking a swimming pool and a hazy city skyline.

Case Study Houses

USA

Between 1945 and 1966, Arts & Architecture magazine commissioned leading architects, including Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra and Pierre Koenig, to design affordable, modern, reproducible homes. Built at full scale, the houses served as real-world prototypes whose lessons shaped residential architecture for decades.

A black-and-white portrait of a man in a formal military uniform with a sash and medals.

Chicago Boys

Chile

After the coup against Salvador Allende, the Chicago Boys carried out a radical neoliberal program in Chile that aggressively exploited natural resources, collapsed local industries under import competition, and privatized water, a model Pinochet applied before Thatcher followed.

A heraldic shield with a red lion holding an open book, framed by stars on a blue border.

Escuela de Artes y Oficios, Chile

Chile

Chile's Escuela de Artes y Oficios, founded in 1849, is cited as a local design-education tradition predating the Bauhaus that Eurocentric design history tends to overlook.

A modern office building with a large banner and starred blue emblem on its facade, under a clear sky.

European Union's Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC)

The EU's Professional Qualifications Directive (2005/36/EC) is an example of legally regulated design practice, setting binding standards, such as five years of education plus traineeship, for who may use the title "architect."

A large hotel building with an outdoor concert stage set up in front of it.

Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts (ZIVA)

Zimbabwe

Saki Mafundikwa founded ZIVA, a Zimbabwean design school grounded in African aesthetics and indigenous knowledge. His work shows how heritage can sit at the center of design practice.