Are We Human? Notes on an Archeology of Design

About the book

Are We Human? rethinks the philosophy of design in a multi-dimensional exploration from the very first tools and ornaments to the constant buzz of social media. The average day involves the experience of thousands of layers of design that reach to outside space but also reach deep into our bodies and brains. Even the planet itself has been completely encrusted by design as a geological layer. There is no longer an outside to the world of design. Design has become the world. Design is what makes the human. It is the very basis of social life. But design also engineers inequalities and new forms of neglect, such as lawlessness, poverty, and the climate at the same time as the human genome and the weather are being actively redesigned. We can no longer reassure ourselves with the idea of "good design." Design itself needs to be redesigned.

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Beatriz Colomina Biography

Beatriz Colomina (born 1952) is an architecture historian, theorist and curator. She is the founding director of the Program in Media and Modernity at Princeton University, the Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture and Director of Graduate studies (PhD program) in the School of Architecture.

Early life and education

Colomina is from Valencia and she began her initial studies of Architecture in Technical university of Valencia. But she later moved to Escola Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona, Universidad Politécnica de Barcelona, to complete her education. Here, her interests in History, Theory & Urbanism were nurtured under the guidance of a group of teachers that included Josep Quetglas and Ignasi de Solà-Morales. Even as a student, she began working for the Department of History, Theory and Urbanism by translating two of Tafuri's writings, with an Italian friend. Shortly after her graduation, she was hired by the Department of Urbanism. Her acquaintance with Richard Sennett lead to a fellowship in New York Institute for the Humanities and she moved to the USA in 1981. The people she met at this interdisciplinary institute, like Carl Schorske, Susan Sontag and Wolfgang Schivelbusch had a major influence in her later work.

Career

Colomina has built a multifaceted career by working extensively under the forums of academia, publishing and exhibitions.

Academia

She began her teaching at the age of 23, in Barcelona immediately after her graduation. After a short break, during which she served the fellowship at the New York Institute for the Humanities, her teaching career continued when she moved to Columbia University in 1982. She later moved to Princeton University in 1988 and continues teaching there. Besides her role as a tenured professor, she has lectured extensively. She has lectured at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the Architectural Institute of Japan, Guggenheim in NY, the Center for Contemporary Art and Architecture in Stockholm, the DIA Art Foundation in NY, Tate Britain in London, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, ETH in Zurich, Delft University, Bauhaus University in Weimar, Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Lebanese American University, University of Beirut, and Seoul University. She serves on the advisory board of several institutions.She was awarded the 2020 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize.

Awards/ Fellowships

2020 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize 2007 Canadian Centre for Architecture Mellon Fellowship 2005 Princeton University President's Award for Distinguished Teaching 1995-1996 Samuel H. Kress Senior Fellowship at the CASVA 1987 Graham Foundation Grant SOM Foundation Le Corbusier Foundation The American Academy in Berlin and the Getty Center in Los Angeles

Publishing

Colomina has written about architecture and the modern institutions of representation, particularly the printed media, photography, advertising, film and ... Read full biography