In the face of poverty and homelessness
caused by our Government's economic and trade policies, (1), an
important new market has opened up and designers are scrambling to be
a part of it. This is the market created by the new class of
homeless: the well-educated and professional members of society who
have been disenfranchised by the "new economy". These new
homeless may not have a $100 to call their own, but they have a
tremendous desire for good design in their otherwise pointless,
impoverished and worthless lives.
Although it is not clear who exactly
would pay for these, that is a detail that everyone agrees can be
worked out later. In the meantime, it is necessary and appropriate
to create the designs and show the world that it can be done. That
people can be poor and without hope, and still have a measure of
elegance in their lives.
Presented here are some concepts in
the critical areas of shelter, transportation, shopping, personal
hygiene, the work environment, and self-defense in a credit economy.
1. The Portable Hotel Room
The prospective customer of this
concept is someone who is taking advantage of available space,
whether an abandoned or unused warehouse, factory or other covered
area but wishes to feel as though he were living in a hotel. It is a
reminiscence of his or her days as a successful executive when he or
she flew around the country and stayed at expensive hotel rooms.
Thus a tiny amount of personal dignity is preserved.
Portable Hotel Room
2. The Personal Travel and Shoppng Cart
Many have noticed that the homeless
seem quite fond of shopping carts for hauling their pathetic
valuables, usually rags and trash and rotting food, around. What you
may not realize without having tried it, as I have, that the shopping
cart is actually quite well suited for this. It is a well-balanced,
sturdy, highly mobile device with many separate compartments to hold
items big and small, that is easily transportable, and yet can be
reduced in size and readily available in the urban and suburban
environment. The design of the classic shopping cart is superb with
minimalist lines and a retro feel.
But different aesthetics are certainly possible to achieve this mission of transport and storage, and here is a more modern consumer
gadget-oriented approach which combines the shopping cart with
portable electric transit for short distance travel. Of course the
homeless person would need to find an electric outlet to plug it
into, but one can invisage public charging stations for the homeless
in community areas. Besides, the homeless are going to have other
items they will need to charge besides this.
Travel Shopping Cart
3. Feminine Personal Hygiene
I don't feel qualified to say much
about this innovation except to say that it makes good use of
previously used soda bottle to provide a clean and european solution
to one part of the homeless personal hygiene problem. Male users of
this system may be able to use the soda bottle directly without the
appliance.
Portable Bidet
4. The Portable Work Environment
As many people have pointed out, the
homeless deserve their misery because they do not pick themselves up
by their bootstraps and become successful just like Jerry Ford, or
George Bush, or Bill Gates. (2). One way to encourage the
homeless to be productive and do work is to give them a portable work
area, which is one of the things that this creative design is
intended for. Now the poor will have even less excuse for their circumstances.
Portable Desk
5. Personal Defense in a Credit Economy
The cashless society is a reality for everyone, both rich and poor, and it is important for everyone to carry
their credit cards safely. Since the homeless is going to be out on
the street and mingling with people of all sorts, not all the same good people as you and me, one could imagine needing a personal defense solution for awkward situations. Here we have one proposed solution in a nice knife which
you can keep with your credit card. And best of all, this design is
available today.
Credit Card with Knife
In conclusion, I hope we have
demonstrated that being homeless does not mean that one must give up
all aesthetics, but that one can have a degree of good design around
you no matter what your station in life. We at Global Wahrman wish
to encourage this design movement and hope that it is just the
beginning, a new dawn, of good design for the disenfranchised.
__________________________________________
Notes
1. Consider: legislation to encourage Globalization, destruction of the
trade unions, a legal system designed for the rich, taxes on the
middle class but tax breaks for the wealthy, all of these are positive actions taken by our elected representatives which have the result of impoverishing most Americans while enriching the wealthy few.
2. The fact that these three icons of
the American Dream all came from fabulously wealthy families is
irrelevant.
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