Ross Lovegrove: Organic Essentialism

Ross Lovegrove is a very successful designer. Being known for his work on sony walkman in former times, today he is one of the leading industrial designers, especially interested in "organic" and eco friendly transformation of culture through design. His ideas are surely novel and inspiring, but I rather invite You to browse his work through the following links and think about it yourself.

His official website doesn't show or tell you that much, but the its very basicality is fun in itself.

He has received many prestigious awards, among others, by CNN. See more about him on his CNN Biography website.

To see some discussion of his best known ideas today (some - like his eco-trees in Vienna - are already put to practice), also some critical remarks, see the pages on "Lovegrove solar trees" and "Lovegrove's car on a stick".

And lastly, see his 20 minute lecture where he explains his philosophy and approach to what he does.

What do you think of his ideas? It is a joy to watch them and ponder the possibilities, but I agree with some of the criticisms, especially on his "car on the stick" project. It is much too impersonal. Our western individualistic culture is, I believe, quite irreversible in many respects, benefits and joys of "having it your own way" are too great to sacrifice them for this otherwise neat and sci-fi-coming-to-reality idea. An element of control when driving a car, and personalizing it, is too important, the project can not succeed as it is presented now.