Show Notes
They're big, ugly and noisy, and no one wants to live near them. But what if we've got the design of data centres all wrong? What if we started from the premise that data centres need to live within our environmental and social boundaries? Instead of accepting what is, what if we imagine what could be?
More from Anthony Burke's By Design
The most powerful technology on your face isn’t a smartphone. From the earliest magnifying lenses to pince-nez and today’s designer frames, spectacles have transformed the lives of billions. Once reserved for monks, scholars and the wealthy, glasses gradually became one of the world’s most accessible and empowering technologies. We trace the fascinating design evolution of eyewear and discover how a tool for correcting vision became a global fashion statement.
Can we build homes on toxic land? There are an estimated 200,000 contaminated sites across Australia, most of them within city limits. As the housing crisis deepens, could cleaning up former industrial land unlock space for new homes? And how do you even do it?
There is evidence that chopsticks existed in the Neolithic period. That's around 10,000 years of evolution in design. From a cooking tool to a symbol of status, identity and social customs, the chopstick has remained a tried-and-tested utensil, but what do its various evolutions say about the people who used it and the times they lived in?
Robots are moving beyond the factory and into the home. From vacuum cleaners to companion robots, how might domestic robots reshape housing design, and are our homes ready for what's next?
Protecting our skin from the sun is a design challenge that spans centuries. From glacier cream to Slip! Slop! Slap!, how has sunscreen evolved to meet changing lifestyles, technologies and health concerns?