Why design now? As issues of ecology and sustainable living continue to gain in urgency and topicality, design has come to the forefront of the arts as the discipline best equipped to meet today's challenges. Designers around the world are rising to this clarion call by creating products, buildings, landscapes, messages and more that address important social and ecological problems. Why Design Now? National Design Triennial accompanies the fourth installation in Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum's acclaimed National Design Triennial exhibition series. Designed by Michael Bierut, a partner in the award-winning design firm Pentagram, Why Design Now? is the first Triennial book to be truly international in reach, with 134 designers and projects in more than 44 countries. With eight essays by four Cooper-Hewitt curators, project profiles and more than 350 color illustrations, many of which have never been published before, Why Design Now? offers a glimpse into contemporary innovation, and an up-to-the-minute survey of what progressive designers, engineers, entrepreneurs and citizens are doing in diverse fields and at different scales. Many of the featured works have influenced other designers by proposing new methodologies or by pioneering new techniques; also included are practical solutions already being implemented as well as experimental ideas designed to inspire further research. Each of the selected works--from a soil-powered table lamp to a post-petroleum urban utopia--celebrates the transformative power of design.

An exploration of the ways in which designers are striving to transform our relationship with the natural world. Designers today are striving to transform our relationship with the natural world. While the modern industrial age gave way to designs that vastly improved human enterprise through technology, there were unintended and destructive consequences for the environment. Humans are intrinsically linked to nature yet our actions have frayed this relationship, forcing designers to think more intentionally and to consider the impact of every design decision, from an artifact’s manufacture and use to its obsolescence. Designers are aligning with biologists, engineers, agriculturists, environmentalists and many other disciplines to design a more harmonious and regenerative future. Based on these new partnerships, designers are asking different questions and anticipating future challenges, which not only change the design process, but also what design means. Nature: Collaborations in Design includes over sixty-five international projects from the fields of architecture, product design, landscape design, fashion, interactive and communication design, and material research. More than 300 compelling and exquisite photographs, illustrations and content from data visualizations illustrate seven essays, which explain and explore designers’ strategies around understanding, simulating, salvaging, facilitating, augmenting, remediating and nurturing nature. Four conversations between scientists and designers delve into topics related to synthetic biology, scientific versus design lexicon, and recent shifts in the meaning of nature with a glossary illuminating scientific, technological and theoretical concepts and processes invoked by the designers.

"Tools" celebrates the richness of the human imagination through a surprising range of juxtaposed and seemingly disparate objects. Accompanying an exhibition of the same name that celebrates the fall 2014 reopening of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, "Tools" is unprecedented in its composition of collaborators-the exhibition is Cooper Hewitt's first pan-institutional show, spanning ten Smithsonian museums. From the earliest times to the present, tools have been at the frontier of design, demonstrating how technology and culture are inextricably linked. Consider, for example, that hand axes remained the dominant tool for 1.5 million years before any significant change was made to the human toolkit, and that the range of tools began to expand only 10,000 years ago. It is notable that the design of our basic tools-hammers, saws, screwdrivers, drills-has remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years, indicating not only their continuity of need and function, but also the effectiveness of their design solutions. Their various incarnations and histories link us to the past. Other tools highlight new technologies and scientific breakthroughs that have opened new worlds to us. Through lush images, authoritative essays and superb design, the book shows the interconnectedness of scientists, designers, historians, anthropologists, engineers and artists through design-thinking and problem-solving, while also looking at various design perspectives and methodologies. "Tools" explores the world of design ideas while celebrating human ingenuity across cultures and over time.