Design for Good: A New Era of Architecture for Everyone

A design can be anything we use: a toothbrush, a motorcycle, or a beverage container. In his book Design for Good, John Cary selected seventeen building projects and their pleasing, functional, or exceptional architectural designs from several African and Asian countries, Haiti, and a few American states. The designs are very different depending on their location and their budgets. The book is about half photography and half text, and its book design is very good. The text is well written, informative, and the photographs are all labelled (though the captions are not very imaginative) and mostly professionally taken, but some are simple snap shots, ranging in size from tiny to double-page spreads. They illustrate exteriors and interiors and people, giving the reader a good impression of the specific project. The central premise of this book is “everyone deserves good design.” The text gives details of the projects and is peppered with nice stories and quotes. The first example is Butaro Hospital in Rwanda, a simple hospital complex built mostly with local material and local labor. At the end of each project description, the reader will find a short table of summary giving location, year of completion, architectural firm responsible, and cost.