Often, what we have conjured assumes the sheen of inevitability, as if its results were inalienable facts in the world rather than the product of someone’s ideas and actions. In other words, design solidifies, and naturalizes, things that start off as opinions, stories and traditions, supplying form to the fictions by which we live…Unlike words, the meaning of which can be debated, the objective materiality of designed objects exudes a unique power. Once established, it’s difficult to think outside the systems and structures these objects represent.
Michael Rock discusses how all systems and structures were at once point designed despite them seemingly becoming codified within a culture. Using the gendered division of public bathrooms as an example, he explores how design choices are indoctrinated and increasingly difficult to disrupt.
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