edited by Isabel Prochner
and Tim Antoniuk
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA PRESS
2021/$39.99/240 pp.
One of the most difficult things to measure is how design connects people to place. Design—a broad field including architecture, interior design, industrial design and visual communications—can create community, elevate the marginalized and, at times, contribute to social justice. Yet the success of the design industry is usually measured solely through an economic lens: in the export of goods and services and the resulting capital inflow.
Situating Design in Alberta, edited by Isabel Prochner and Tim Antoniuk, primarily looks at design in the province through the lens of economic growth. Essays from academics and practitioners focus on the design of products, start-ups and the built environment, analyze attempts at industry diversification, and dive deeply into design education and the entrepreneurial experience. The essays reveal the challenges of practising design in Alberta, where design-trained students often migrate out of the province. “I am trying to stop that trend,” says Edmonton designer Tyler Vreeling, a self-described design outlier from the rural north. Educator Carlos Fiorentino amplifies that sentiment, emphasizing that opportunities come with creating a design culture in which practitioners can thrive. “If you really want to make a difference as a designer,” he writes, “you should not go where everything is well designed.”
Simply creating more goods, however, even with better materials and smarter production, doesn’t necessarily lead to a better future. To situate design reveals a context of values. It’s in discussing the Alberta context that the book opens other ways of measuring design, ones in which underrepresented voices are elevated and the designer has a role as an advocate and a listener. In a foreword to the book, for example, Calgary-born Indigenous architect Douglas Cardinal identifies Alberta’s diversity as the province’s “greatest natural resource.” Cardinal’s focus on diversity is notable in his own working process, in which he goes through numerous iterations with public input until a design reflects that community. Similarly, in a different essay, Edmonton architect Ron Wickman ascribes his advocacy for barrier-free design to the tedious chore of pre-identifying destination entries for a parent in a wheelchair.
In a historical survey of Alberta’s civic and built form, architect Barry Johns reveals a “prairie zeitgeist” in the forms and patterns of metropolitan growth, and “an undeniable paradigm shift in the way that prairie cities are contemplating their futures.” Perhaps the next stage of situating design involves looking inward. What histories remain uncovered? What role can design play in connecting us? How should we actually measure success?
amery Calvelli is co-founder of the Design Talks Institute.
