Rem Koolhaas, Founder and Director, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, and John Thackara, Director, Doors of Perception, will be the keynote speakers at the 2005 Global Design Critical Debate on design and globalisation at London’s V&A Museum on Friday 14 October 2005.
In the 21st century, design appears to have become a truly global art form. This Critical Debate takes a closer look at design, the nature of globalisation and how the two spheres interrelate, and raises a number of pertinent questions. Is design contributing to the more positive effects of globalisation, or does the design industry simply chase commercial opportunities and devise better products to serve an international elite? What happens to local identity in global design culture? Have today’s global design hotspots migrated East to Bangalore and Shanghai or are London, Milan, Rotterdam and New York still home to the questions and the answers that push contemporary design forever onward?