Utility Reassessed : The Role of Ethics in the Practice of Design

by Edited by Julie Attfield

• ISBN13: 9780719058448
• ISBN10: 0719058449
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-02-09
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

Reassessing the concept of utility, this thought-provoking collection explores the philosophy behind utility, and offer a discussion of rational, or ethical, design theory. Rather than repeating arguments about the inadequacies of modern functional design, the book approaches the subject as a continuing history which has attempted to improve the human condition through a process of rational thought in the construction of the material world. Detailed historical studies of cars, textiles, clothing, ceramics, and furniture are presented alongside a generic definition of utility which puts forth a new ethical design theory.

Author Biography

Judy Attfield is Lecturer in Design History and Material Culture at Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton.

Table of Contents

List of figures	vii
Notes on contributors	xi
Preface	xv
Introduction: Utility reassessed	1	(11)
Judy Attfield
I DEFINING UTILITY DESIGN
Utility prefigured: Ruskin and St George's Mill	12	(19)
Linda Coleing
`Pro arte utili': the utility principle in Finish textile design education	31	(8)
Marjo Wiberg
An episode in post-Utility design management: the Council of Industrial Design and the Co-operative Wholesale Society	39	(19)
Jonathan M. Woodham
`Beauty, everyday and for all': the social vision of design in Stalinist Poland	58	(15)
David Crowley
`The beauty of stark utility': rational consumption in America - Consumer Reports 1936-54	73	(19)
Susie Mckellar
II REASSESSING THE HISTORY OF UTILITY DESIGN
The design of Utility vehicles in wartime Britain	92	(18)
Jonathan Bell
Utility furniture and the myth of Utility 1943-48	110	(15)
Matthew Denney
The Utility garment: its design and effect on the mass market 1942-45	125	(18)
Helen Reynolds
Fashion, femininity and `frivolous' consumption in World-War-Two Britain	143	(14)
Pat Kirkham
Utility forgot: shaping the future of the British pottery industry 1941-45	157	(14)
Graham Mclaren
Enid Marx: designing textiles for the Utility Furniture Design Advisory Panel	171	(19)
Cynthia R. Weaver
III THEORISING THE ETHICS OF UTILITY DESIGN
Utility, design principles and the ethical tradition	190	(13)
Nigel Whiteley
Freedom of Design	203	(18)
Judy Attfield
Utility and the politics of consumption	221	(12)
Patrick J. Maguire
Fascinating Fitness: the dangers of Good Design	233	(12)
Judy Attfield
Design and the state: post-war horizons and pre-millennial aspirations	245	(16)
Jonathan M. Woodham
Index	261