Capsule: Stephen Bayley on the Boilerhouse

A foreshortened talk at the Design Museum last night, with Stephen Bayley wandering down memory lane and re-telling how the Boilerhouse project started, and how that in turn begat the D Museum, was notable for three things he said:

1) There is an inevitable paradox in design, in that to design you must believe that there is a problem that needs to be solved, but that the solution that you provide is such that it cannot be improved upon - a position that no other designer is likely to agree with you on.

2) "An exhibition should be journalism in 3D."

3) Design, for all intents and purposes is dead. For him, design is ultimatley about the aesthetics, form and function of mechanical and industrial products, so organic/sustainable/social design are currents that don't really count, over and above "the pretty".